UNIVERSITY  OF 
ULirOIS  LIBRARY 

, ,,A-CHAMPAIGN 

ILL  HIST.  SURVEY 


Past  and  Present 

of 


hall  ana  Putnam  Counties 
linois 


By 
JoKn  Spencer  Burt  and  \V\  E.  Hawthorne 


Together  with 

Biographical  Sketches 

or  ^lany  Prominent  ana  Leading'  Citizens  and  Illustrious  Dead 


Illustrated 


Chicago 

The  Pioneer  Publishing  Company 
1907 


Dedicated  to  tne  Pioneers  of  Marshall 
and  Putnam  Counties 


A. 


HISTORY  OF  MARSHALL  COUNTY 


JOHN  SPENCER  BURT 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

It  is  a  far  cry  to  begin  the  history  of  Marshall 
county  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century 
to  the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  and  yet  he 
who  writes  American  history,  all  or  any  part  of 
it,  must  inevitably  refer  to  that  period,  as  the 
year  1492  A.  D.  can  be  considered  the  birthday 
of  America  so  far  as  we  and  the  race  to  which 
we  belong  are  concerned. 

Two  events  occurred  in  that  year  which  gave  to 
the  Aryan  races  a  new  world.  They  were  the 
expulsion  of  the  Moors  from  Spain  and  conse- 
quently from  Europe.  Spain  had  been  almost 
constantly  in  war  with  the  Moors  for  over  three 
hundred  years  and  their  final  expulsion  gave  the 
sovereigns  and  grandees  opportunity  and  willing- 
ness to  think  of  other  things,  and  Queen  Isabella 
was  at  last  willing  to  listen  to  the  story  of  a 
mariner,  who  had  for  a  long  time  been  trying 
to  interest  some  one  of  the  rulers  of  Europe  in 
furthering  his  project,  as-  it  was  necessary  that 
some  sovereign  should  be  sponsor  for  him,  for 
anything  he  might  discover  must  be  taken  pos- 
session of  in  the  name  of  some  king  or  potentate. 

The  career  of  Christopher  Columbus,  who 
gave  to  mankind  a  new  world,  is  interesting  read- 
ing even  at  the  present  day ;  what  he  accomplished 
by  his  persistence,  under  adverse  circumstances, 
and  how  he  finally  saw  the  fruition  of  his  hopes 
and  his  theories  and  deductions  verified  should 
be  an  incentive  and  inspiration  to  any  boy  or 
young  man  to  never  give  up.  We  can  here  give 
only  the  slightest  sketch  of  Columbus'  life,  but  we 
think  a  short  history  may  not  be  out  of  place. 


Christopher  Columbus  was  born  in  Genoa, 
Italy,  about  1435  or  1436.  His  father  was  a  wool 
comber  and  had  means  enough  so  that  he  was  en- 
abled to  send  his  son  to  the  University  of  Pavia, 
where  Christopher  devoted  himself  to  the  study 
of  mathematics  and  natural  science,  of  which 
he  was  fond.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  became  a 
sailor  and  says  of  his  career:  "Wherever  ship 
has  sailed,  there  have  I  journeyed."  Columbus 
married  the  daughter  of  a  sea  captain  who  had 
made  many  voyages  and  his  charts  and  papers,  in 
which  he  kept  full  account  of  all  his  voyages,  fell 
into  Columbus'  hands. 

These  voyages  were  to  the  Indies,  then  thought 
to  be  at  the  end  of  the  world,  and  were  made  by 
following  the  contour  of  the  coast  nearly,  the 
mariners  seldom  going  out  of  sight  of  land  ex- 
cept when  sailing  across  from  headland  to  head- 
land. 

Columbus  also  got  hold  of  the  history  of  the 
voyages  of  Marco  Palo,  a  celebrated  navigator 
of  the  time.  Columbus  made  a  study  of  these 
things  as  he  was  making  a  business  of  drawing 
maps  and  charts  for  sale. 

The  rotundity  of  the  earth  had  not  long  before 
this  been  demonstrated  and  Columbus  reasoned 
that  if  the  earth  was  a  globe  that  instead  of  sail- 
ing the  long  easterly  route  to  the  Indies,  more 
than  one-third  of  the  distance  might  be  saved  by 
sailing  to  the  west  and  coming  upon  the  other 
side  of  them.  He  was  wrong  in  two  of  his  ideas. 
One  was  that  the  earth  was  much  smaller  than 
it  really  is,  and  the  other  that  India  was  much 
larger. 

Columbus  laid  his  project  and  plans,  enlarging 


PAST   AND  PBESENT   OP  MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


upon  the  results  that  might  flow  from  it,  first  be- 
fore his  native  country,  Italy,  and  later  Portugal, 
England,  Venice  and  other  places  were  tried.  At 
last  he  went  to  Spain  and  had  his  hopes  raised 
at  times  and  at  others  dashed  to  the  ground. 
After  seven  or  eight  years  Queen  Isabella,  though 
against  the  advice  of  her  husband,  King  Ferdi- 
nand, agreed  to  help  him,  but  impoverished  by 
the  long  wars  with  the  Moors,  who  had  just  been 
finally  driven  from  the  country,  after  having  been 
there  four  hundred  years,  she  was  obliged  to 
pledge  her  jewels  to  raise  the  necessary  means. 
She  did  so  and  sent  word  to  Palos  to  furnish 
Columbus  with  the  necessary  vessels.  The  town 
of  Palos  soon  placed  two  small  vessels  at  his  dis- 
posal but  it  was  necessary  to  find  men  to  man 
them,  and  this  was  no  easy  matter.  The  voyage  to 
be  undertaken  was  over  an  unknown  sea  and 
there  was  a  legend  that  there  existed  somewhere 
an  enormous  whirlpool  where  the  waters  poured 
into  the  center  of  the  earth  taking  everything 
with  it,  and  at  the  west  there  was  no  knowing 
the  dangers  to  be  encountered.  Columbus  had 
made  in  Palos  a  friend  of  Juan  Perez,  a  powerful 
priest,  and  he  interested  the  brothers  Martin  and 
Vincent  Pinzon  in  the  voyage,  and  they  succeeded 
in  getting  men  to  man  the  vessels.  At  last  all 
was  ready  and  on  the  third  day  of  August,  1493, 
the  little  fleet,  consisting  of  the  Santa  Maria,  a 
decked  ship,  manned  by  fifty  men  under  the 
command  of  Columbus,  the  Pinta,  with  thirty  men 
under  the  command  of  Martin  Pinzon,  and  the 
Nina,  with  twenty-four  men  under  Vincent  Pin- 
zon, set  their  sails  and  started  westward. 

The  hardihood  and  recklessness  of  this  expedi- 
tion can  hardly  be  realized  in  this  age.  To  set 
out  in  these  boats,  no  better  than  fishing  smacks, 
in  fact  a  replica  of  one  of  them  came  down 
through  the  canal  and  through  the  lock  down  the 
river  a  few  years  ago.  Just  think  what  it  meant 
to  start  out  over  an  unknown  ocean,  of  which 
nothing  was  known,  and  the  most  horrible  stories 
had  been  told  about  it,  in  a  little  boat  like  that ! 
Besides,  although  the  "mariners  compass,"  as  it 
was  called,  had  been  in  use  in  Europe  for  some 
time,  but  little  if  anything  was  known  of  its 
qualities  except  that  it  pointed  to  the  north, 
and  when,  as  he  went  westward,  Columbus  ob- 
served its  variations,  there  is  no  wonder  that  he 
and  his  men  were  alarmed,  for  it  was  their  only 
dependence  to  find  their  way  back  home.  But  in 
spite  of  his  own  fears  and  the  discontent  and 


almost  mutiny  of  his  men  the  persistency,  it  might 
be  called  obstinacy,  of  the  man,  which  had  carried 
him  through  the  trials  and  disappointments  in 
his  long  search  for -a  sponsor  for  his  enterprise, 
carried  him  through,  and  on  October  12,  1492, 
a  sailor  on  board  the  Nina  at  two  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  sighted  land,  which  proved  to  be  a 
part  of  what  has  since  been  called  the  "New 
World." 

It  is  true  they  were  islands  which  Columbus 
supposed  was  a  part  of  the  Indies,  and  so  called 
them  the  West  Indies,  the  name  they  bear  to 
this  day. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  Columbus  never  knew  the 
magnificent  proportions  of  the  grand  discovery 
he  had  given  to  the  world.  Only  once  did  he 
visit  the  mainland  of  the  continent  and  then  he 
had  no  idea  of  its  vastness. 

The  island  upon  which  they  had  landed,  after 
they  all  had  knelt  upon  the  beach  and  thanked 
God  for  his  mercy  in  bringing  them  safely  through 
the  dangers,  known  and  unknown,  Columbus  took 
possession  of  in  the  name  of  the  sovereigns  of 
Castile  and  Leon. 

After  considerable  cruising,  which  resulted  in 
the  discovery  of  a  number  of  the  islands  and  the 
almost  irreparable  loss  of  the  Santa  Maria,  their 
best  ship,  which  ran  aground  and  they  were 
obliged  to  abandon  her,  Columbus  built  a  fort 
and,  leaving  forty-three  men  in  charge  of  it,  on 
January  16,  1493,  set  sail  with  the  Nina  and 
Pinta  for  Spain,  but,  owing  to  head  winds  and 
other  detentions,  it  was  not  until  the  15th  of 
March  that  he  cast  anchor  off  Palos,  from  which 
place  he  had  started  a  little  over  seven  months 
before. 

Columbus  was  loaded  with  honors  and  titles 
and  made  a  grandee  of  Spain  for  his  discoveries. 
He  made  several  voyages  back  and  forth,  but  was 
met  with  envy  and  malice,  his  character  traduced 
and  he  was  at  one  time  taken  back  to  Spain  in 
irons,  but  was  later  reinstated  in  his  honors. 

The  story  of  the  discovery  of  the  New  World 
electrified  all  Europe  and  whetted  the  appetite 
for  adventure  of  all  classes.  Especially  were  the 
Spaniards  roused  to  action.  Spain  at  this  time 
was  filled  with  a  great  number  of  yoimg  cavaliers 
of  noble  families,  whose  means  had  been  exhausted 
by  the  long  wars  with  the  Moors  and  from  con- 
stant warring  between  themselves,  and  they  were 
ready  for  almost  anything. 

They  were  a  restless,  reckless  lot,  brave  to  a 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MAESHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


fault  and  were  capable  of  any  adventure,  no  mat- 
ter how  wild.  They  and  the  country  were  just  in 
the  mood  to  make  the  most  of  whatever  there  was 
and  they  started  out  as  exploring  parties  in  every 
direction. 

With  a  few  men,  but  those  trained  soldiers,  and 
with  superior  arms,  they,  with  ridiculously  small 
forces  attacked  and  eventually  conquered  great 
nations. 

Hernando  Cortez  set  out  with  400  men  and  four 
cannon  to  conquer  Mexico,  and  succeeded  in  do- 
ing it.  At  no  time  did  he  have  1,000  white  men, 
though  he  had  considerable  Indian  help  before  he 
was  through. 

Pizaro,  with  a  force  of  about  1,000  men,  a 
single  regiment,  conquered  Peru,  which  was  thick- 
ly settled  by  a  people  in  an  advanced  state  of 
civilization,  in  about  a  year. 

Diego  Columbus  conquered  the  island  of  Cuba 
with  three  hundred  men  without  the  loss  of  a 
single  man.  The  stories  told  of  their  doings  are 
almost  incredible.  Gold  and  silver  ornaments 
and  other  valuables  were  found  in  great  quantities 
by  the  Spaniards  in  their  raids  and  sent  over  in 
immense  quantities  to  the  mother  country,  and 
Spain  flourished  as  never  before  and  extended  her 
dominion  not  only  over  the  West  India  islands 
and  the  greater  part  of  South  America,  Central 
America  and  Mexico,  but  over  the  greater  part  of 
Europe  in  a  few  years,  and  the  king  of  Spain  be- 
came the  most  powerful  monarch  of  the  time  in 
Europe. 

The  conquest  of  Mexico,  Peru  and  other  South 
American  states,  is  a  wonderful  story.  How  these 
Spaniards  with  a  few  hundred  men  met  and  over- 
came vast  armies  of  the  natives  and  in  a  won- 
drously  short  time  conquered  entire  countries 
reads  like  a  medieval  romance,  but  the  history 
does  not  come  into  the  scope  of  a  work  like  this. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    DISCOVERT    OF    NORTH    AMERICA. 

The  discovery  of  North  America  is  credited  to 
John  Cabot  and  his  son  Sebastian,  who  made  their 
first  voyage  in  the  year  1497.  Five  years  after 
the  discovery  of  Columbus,  they  sailed  under  the 
auspices  of  Henry  VII  of  England.  The  Cabot* 
were  mariners  of  Venice,  though  John  Cabot 
appears  to  have  lived  in  England  at  one  time,  and 
Sebastian,  his  son,  was  born  in  Bristol,  England, 


but  John  Cabot  moved  to  Venice  with  his  family 
when  Sebastian  was  quite  young,  probably  about 
four  years  old. 

Even  at  this  time  no  one  had  any  idea  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  new  discoveries  and  the  Cabots 
in  their  application  to  King  Henry  said  they 
wanted  to  look  for  "a  more  direct  and  shorter 
passage  to  the  Indies."  This  was  the  inducement 
they  held  out.  Just  where  the  Cabots  made  their 
first  landing,  whether  upon  the  mainland  or 
upon  an  island  is  not  clear,  but  it  was  near  the 
island  of  Newfoundland,  and  was  probably  what 
is  now  the  province  of  Nova  Scotia,  Canada.  He 
named  the  land  "Terra  primini  Vista,"  first  land 
seen,  and  this  has  probably  given  the  name,  New- 
foundland to  the  large  island  off  the  coast,  as  it 
is  uncertain  whether  it  was  the  island  they  saw 
or  the  mainland. 

Sebastian  Cabot,  his  father  John  Cabot,  hav- 
ing died,  made  a  second  voyage  with  five  ships 
(none  of  more  than  two  hundred  tons),  in  May, 
1498.  During  this  voyage  there  is  no  question 
but  that  he  discovered  the  continent  of  America 
and  is  the  first  white  man,  of  which  there  is 
authentic  account,  that  stepped  upon  the  conti- 
nent. It  is  certain  that  he  saw  it  before  either 
Columbus  or  Americus,  for  whom  it  was  named 
America.  Cabot  not  only  discovered  it  but  ex- 
plored the  coast  for  1,800  miles  and  began  to 
have  some  idea  of  its  immensity,  but  it  was  not 
till  Vasco  Nunez  Balboa,  in  1513,  with  a  small 
force  of  men,  said  to  be  less  than  200,  crossed  the 
isthmus  of  Darien,  now  Panama,  and  from  the 
tops  of  the  mountains  saw  the  broad  Pacific 
ocean  stretch  out  before  him. 

While  the  Spaniards  were  founding  colonies  and 
conquering  the  several  states  in  South  America 
which  they  appear  to  have  largely  accomplished 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  during  the  one  hundred 
years  following  the  discovery  of  America  but 
little  in  the  way  of  settlement  was  accomplished 
in  North  America.  Ponce  de  Leon,  a  Spaniard, 
while  searching  for  the  fountain  of  perpetual 
youth  landed  on  the  coast  of  a  land  he  called 
Florida  on  account  of  the  many  flowers  that  were 
growing  there.  In  1512  a  fort  was  built  and  a 
colony  established  in  1565  on  what  is  now  the 
site  of  St.  Augustine,  Florida. 

In  1611  the  Dutch  founded  a  colony  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Hudson  river  and  in  1614  New  York 
city,  then  called  New  Amsterdam,  was  founded 
by  them.  A  few  years  before  that  in  1607  a 


PAST   AND  PRESENT    OF   MAESHALL    AND  PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


permanent  settlement  was  made  on  the  James 
river  in  (Virginia,  but  the  most  interesting  to  us 
and  the  one  which  had  the  most  to  do  with  the 
giving  our  government  its  peculiar  form  was  the 
landing  of  the  Pilgrim  fathers,  as  they  are  called, 
in  Plymouth  in  1620,  in  what  is  now  the  state 
"f  Massachusetts. 

These  people,  who  have  had  so  much  influence 
«t|>on  our  national  character,  were  largely  English 
people  who,  on  account  of  persecution  for  their 
religious  views,  had  left  the  home  country  and 
gone  first  to  Holland,  but  not  finding  the  neces- 
sary liberty  there  to  worship  as  they  saw  fit,  con- 
cluded to  cast  their  lot  in  the  new  world  where 
there  was  no  one  to  molest  or  make  afraid,  and 
they  could  worship  their  God  as  they  saw  fit. 

Men  and  women  who  could  thus  leave  every- 
thing they  held  dear,  the  comforts  and  luxuries 
to  which  they  had  been  accustomed,  trusting 
themselves  in  small  and  unserviceable  vessels  to 
go  thousands  of  miles  over  almost  unknown  waters 
to  make  their  homes  in  a  wilderness,  the  resources 
and  dangers  of  which  were  entirely  unknown,  be- 
cause they  wished  to  worship  according  to  their 
own  ideas,  proves  they  were  of  stern  and  uncom- 
promising natures,  who  were  willing  to  sacrifice 
everything  for  what  they  thought  was  right. 

It  was  the  descendants  of  these  men  and  women 
that,  one  hundred  years  later,  still  impatient  to 
what  they  thought  was  wrong,  who  protested 
against  what  they  thought  was  the  iniquity  of  the 
stamp  act,  who  refused  to  pay  the  tax  on  imports, 
who  disguised  as  Indians  threw  the  cargo  of  tea 
into  Boston  harbor,  in  fact,  refused  to  be  taxed, 
no  matter  how  little  when  they  had  no  voice  in 
the  matter :  it  was  these  things  that,  as  every  one 
knows,  in  part  led  up  to  the  Revolutionary  war. 

It  was  these  same  men  that  a  little  later  at 
Lexington  near  the  first  settlement,  fired  the  gun 
"whose  report  was  heard  around  the  world,"  and 
demonstrated  to  the  world  that  British  troops, 
hitherto  considered  invincible,  were  not  such  ob- 
jects of  terror,  and  by  their  conduct  at  Lexington, 
Concord  and  Bunker  Hill,  fairly  inaugurated  the 
Revolutionary  war  and  made  possible  its  success- 
ful conclusion.  Had  those  undisciplined  farm- 
ers, with  their  squirrel  rifles  been  successfully 
met  at  the  time  by  the  British  regulars  the  rebel- 
lion, in  all  probability,  would  have  been  crushed 
and  the  history  of  the  United  States  would  have 
been  vastly  different  from  what  it  is. 

We  do  not  wish  to  infer  that  the  men  of  New 


England  alone  fought  and  won  the  war  of  the  rev- 
olution. What  we  wish  to  say  is  that  the  seeds 
of  the  revolution  were  sown  in  New  England  and 
that  their  stubborn  and  partially  successful  re- 
sistance, to  the  much  superior  forces  of  the  Brit- 
ish regulars  in  the  early  battles  inspired  the  whole 
country  with  hopes  of  ultimate  victory  which 
finally  crowned  the  efforts  of  the  American  forces. 
The  history  of  the  various  attempts  to  colonize 
the  territory  now  known  as  the  United  States, 
the  trials  and  tribulations,  fights  with  the  Indians 
and  troubles  among  themselves  arising  from  the 
ambition  of  leading  men,  is  of  intense  interest  to 
him  who  would  be  familiar  with  the  history  of  his 
country,  but  such  a  history  does  not  come  in  the 
scope  of  a  work  like  this. 


CHAPTER    III. 

OCCUPATION   BY  THE  FRENCH. 

The  century  following  the  discovery  of  America 
by  Columbus  was  utilized  by  hardy  adventurers 
from  the  three  great  maritime  nations  of  Europe 
— -Spain,  England  and  France,  —  in  exploring 
and  colonizing  the  new  world,  though  it  was  a 
long  time  before  they  began  to  realize  the  im- 
mensity of  the  new  possessions.  The  three  nations 
appear  to  have  exhibited  a  sort  of  neutrality,  con- 
fining their  explorations  and  colonizations  to  spe- 
cial sections  of  the  coast.  Fortunately  it  was 
large  enough  to  give  all  a  chance  and  it  was  many 
years  before  there  was  a  clash. 

Of  the  explorers  and  exploiters  of  the  new  coun- 
tries the  Spaniards  were  by  far  the  most  active 
and  during  the  sixteenth  century  they  had  ex- 
plored and  conquered  the  greater  part  of  South 
America  and  Mexico,  the  West  Indies  Islands  and 
had  explored  the  southern  part  of  what  is  now  the 
United  States,  discovered  the  lower  part  of  the 
Mississippi  river  and  established  settlements  in 
Florida.  Next  to  the  Spaniard  in  activity  of 
exploration  were  the  French,  who  discovered  and 
made  their  first  settlements  near  the  mouth  of  the 
gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  later  spread  their  settle- 
ments up  the  coast. 

This  part  of  the  country  which  is  now  Canada 
was  wonderfully  rich  in  fur  bearing  animals  and 
other  game  and  a  race  of  hardy  hunters  and 
trappers,  who  were  termed  voyageurs,  were  devel- 
oped who  went  far  out  into  the  country  exploring 
the  rivers  and  navigating  the  great  lakes  in  frail 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


birch  bark  canoes,  extending  their  explorations 
hundreds  of  miles  into  the  heart  of  the  wilderness 
but,  unlike  the  Spaniards,  went  in  pairs  or  small 
bands  and  made  no  attempt  to  conquer  the  native 
inhabitants. 

From  time  to  time  trappers  and  hunters  who 
had  traversed  the  western  lakes  brought  back 
rumors  they  had  gathered  from  the  Indians  that 
there  was  a  mighty  river  in  the  west  farther  south 
than  they  had  yet  been. 

In  1672  the  Governor  General  of  Canada  called 
Louis  Joliet,  a  famous  voyageur,  well  acquainted 
with  wood  life  and  familiar  with  several  Indian 
languages  and  a  peculiar  tact  in  dealing  with  the 
Indians,  and  told  him  to  go  out  and  see  if  there 
was  such  a  river  and  to  bring  him  an  account  of  it 
if  there  was.  In  all  of  the  exploring  expeditions 
of  both  Spaniards  and  French  it  appears  to  have 
been  the  rule  for  priests  to  accompany  them, 
and  whatever  may  have  been  their  part  in  the 
business-  they  were  invariably  the  historians,  and 
all  we  know  of  these  early  explorations  are  taken 
from  the  diaries  of  the  priests. 

Father  Marquette  was  appointed  to  go  with 
Joliet  on  his  perilous  journey,  and  it  required  men 
of  boundless  courage  and  a  complete  reliability 
upon  themselves  and  a  total  disregard  of  danger 
from  whatever  source  to  make  the  journeys  in  an 
unknown  land  among  the  savage  natives. 

They  were  going  into  a  country  absolutely 
unknown,  to  navigate  a  river  in  the  frailest  of 
boats,  and  of  which  they  heard  horrible  stories  of 
rapids  and  falls  and  monsters  which  inhabited 
the  river  and  roamed  upon  its  banks.  They  had  no 
idea  what  the  inhabitants  were  like,  in  fact  they 
took  their  lives  in  their  hands ;  no  dangers  ap- 
peared to  daunt  them  and  no  hardships  too  great 
to  be  undertaken. 

On  the  17th  of  May,  1673,  Joliet  and  Mar- 
quette set  out  on  their  remarkable  voyage,  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  the  world 
and  in  which  they  were  the  first  white  men  that 
set  their  eyes  upon  the  fertile  prairies  of  Illinois 
and  also  were  the  first  to  view  the  bold  shores  and 
oozy  swamps  of  Marshall  county  along  the  river. 

These  two  men  started  from  the  lake  near  Green 
Bay  in  two  bark  canoes  with  five  men  as  helpers. 
They  ascended  the  Fox  river  to  its  headwaters  and 
getting  some  friendly  Indians  to  guide  them 
across  the  country  they  reached  the  source  of  the 
Wisconsin,  and  unheeding  the  protestations  of 
their  friendly  guides  and  the  many  warnings  about 


the  unknown  dangers  from  rapids  and  waterfalls, 
they  launched  their  canoes  on  the  unknown  waters 
and  rapidly  floated  down  the  Wisconsin.  Seven 
days  later  saw  them  afloat  on  the  broad  bosom  of 
the  father  of  waters,  the  first  white  men  to  navi- 
gate the  treacherous  waters  of  the  great  river 
which  they  named  the  River  St.  Louis  in  honor  of 
their  king. 

Down  the  river  they  went  past  the  mouths  of 
the  Illinois,  the  Missouri  and  the  Ohio,  the  Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee,  Cumberland,  on  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Arkansas,  where  finding  the  river  emptied 
into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  one  of  the  matters  they 
were  to  determine,  they  concluded  to  turn  back, 
coming  to  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  its  placid 
waters  lured  them  from  the  swelling,  rapid  cur- 
rent of  the  big  river  and  they  concluded  to  return 
by  the  Illinois,  which  they  did  without  mishap. 
This  voyage  of  Joliet  and  Marquette  was  a  most 
remarkable  one.  In  the  one  hundred  and  twenty 
days  they  were  gone  they  travelled  two  thousand 
five  hundred  miles,  an  average  of  twenty  miles  a 
day  paddling  up  stream  and  down,  afraid  to  go 
ashore  to  kill  any  of  the  numerous  game  they 
saw  or  even  to  fire  a  gun,  not  knowing  what  savage 
enemies  they  might  arouse,  anchoring  out  in  the 
stream  at  night  for  fear  enemies  might  come  upon 
them  unawares,  they  travelled  practically  the 
entire  length  of  three  large  rivers,  finding 
they  were  navigable  for  hundreds  of  miles  and 
getting  a  faint  idea  of  the  immense  Mississippi 
valley.  , 

The  discoveries  of  Joliet  do  not  appear  to  have, 
at  the  time,  been  utilized  in  any  way,  for  it  was 
not  till  six  years  later  that  LaSalle  started  out 
to  begin  the  real  history  of  Illinois. 

While  Joliet  undoubtedly  was  elated  by  what 
he  had  done,  he  appears  to  have  been  content  to 
rest  upon  his  laurels  and  did  not  try  to  reap  anj' 
benefit  from  his  voyage,  and  did  not  take  a 
thought  of  personal  aggrandizement  from  his-  dis- 
coveries. 

LaSalle  was  of  different  mold,  fully  as  cour- 
ageous and  energetic  as  Joliet  and  probably  a 
man  of  much  greater  resources ;  it  was  his  design 
to  sail  down  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi,  take  pos- 
session of  the  country  in  the  name  of  his  king, 
make  treaties  with  the  natives,  to  build  forts,  open 
up  settlements  and  trading  posts,  and  become, 
under  the  king,  governor  of  the  lands  he  explored 
and  received  a  permit  from  the  king  to  do  all  that 
and  further  to  enjoy  a  monopoly  of  the  trade  in 


VAST    AND    PUKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


all  the  country  he  brought  under  the  dominion  of 
Prance  for  a  period  of  five  years.  But  LaSalle 
was  an  unfortunate  man.  He  was  of  good  birth 
and  well  educated,  of  boundless  energy  and  un- 
daunted courage,  but  bad  luck  appears  to  have  fol- 
lowed him  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave.  No 
sooner  did  he  overcome  an  obstacle  than  something 
happened  to  put  him  back  where  he  was  or  leave 
him  worse  off.  With  the  exception  of  a  few 
faithful  friends  everybody  appeared  to  have  been 
against  him. 

To  carry  out  his  scheme  to  explore  the  large 
rivers  that  Joliet  had  found  he  had  from  his  own 
means  built  .a  boat  of  sixty  tons  burden,  which 
he  called  the  "Griffon."  This  was  loaded  with 
furs  on  Lake  Michigan  and  with  a  crew  of  five 
men  sent  to  Montreal  where  they  were  to  sell  the 
furs  and  to  buy  s-uch  supplies  as  he  needed  for  his 
expedition.  The  Griffon  was  never  heard  from 
again.  After  waiting  for  its  return  in  vain,  short 
of  means  as  he  was,  he  determined  to  carry  out  his 
designs  and  going  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph 
river  where  he  was  joined  by  his  lieutenant  Tonti 
with  twenty  men. 

When  a  few  years  before  Joliet  and  Marquette 
had  come  up  the  Illinois  river  they  had  near  the 
head  waters  found  a  large  village  of  friendly 
Indians  who  had  fed. them,  and  to  whom  Mar- 
quette had  promised  to  return  and  tell  of  the 
Savior,  a  promise  which  he  religiously  kept,  and 
after  his  death  another  priest  was  sent  there  to 
continue  the  work. 

Despairing  of  the  return  of  the  Griffon  and  un- 
daunted by  the  shortness  of  his  supplies,  LaSalle 
with  Tonti  and  Father  Louis  Hennepin,  to  whom 
we  are  indebted  for  most  of  our  early  history  of 
this  part  of  Illinois,  set  out  with  part  of  his 
men  from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Joseph  across  the 
country  for  the  Kankakee  river,  carrying  their 
canoes  and  rather  scanty  supplies. 

The  journey,  which  was  undertaken  in  Decem- 
ber, was  a  terrible  one.  It  was  over  a  rough, 
hilly  country,  in  extremely  cold  weather,  with 
short  supplies  and  nothing  to  shelter  them  from 
the  inclement  nights,  and  to  cap  the  climax,  when 
the  half  frozen  and  nearly  starved  voyagers 
reached  the  Indian  village  they  had  relied  upon  to 
replenish  their  supplies  they  found  it  deserted, 
the  Indians  being  away  on  their  annual  winter 
hunt.  They,  however,  found  a  small  quantity  of 
corn  under  a  cabin  which  they  appropriated  and 
passed  on  down  the  Illinois,  to  near  where  Peoria 


now  stands,  landing  there  on  New  Year's  Day, 
1680. 

Here  they  met  a  large  concourse  of  friendly 
Indians  returning  from  their  hunt  and  coming  tr> 
amicable  terms  with  them,  LaSalle  concluded  to 
remain  till  spring  and  built  a  fort  and  make  the 
place  a  kind  of  base.  He  named  it  Fort  "Creve 
Coeur"  (broken  heart),  a  sad  commentary  upon 
the  struggles,  trials  and  discouragements  he  had 
met  with.  He  also  began  the  building  of  a  boat 
of  larger  size  and  better  adapted  for  the  purpose 
for  which  he  wanted  it  than  the  canoes  they  had 
been  using  so  far. 

He  also  .dispatched  Father  Hennepin  with  one 
companion  to  explore  the  Mississippi  and  he  went 
down  the  Illinois  to  its  junction  and  then  up  the 
Mississippi  to  the  Wisconsin  and  going  up  the 
Wisconsin  to  its  sources,  then  going  across  to  Lake 
Michigan.  He  later  gave  us  the  first  detailed 
history  of  the  wonderful  country  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, taking  rather  more  credit  to  himself  than 
many  think  he  is  entitled  to. 

Leaving  some  of  the  men  at  Ft.  Creve  Coeur, 
LaSalle  with  Tonti  and  some  of  the  men  retraced 
their  way  up  the  Illinois  to  the  village  of  the 
Illinois  Indians,  a  short  distance  below  where 
Ottawa  now  stands,  and  across  the  river  but  a 
short  distance  above  the  now  well  known  Starved 
Rock,  and  leaving  Tonti  and  a  few  men  to  erect  a 
fort  on  Buffalo  Eock  to  be  called  Ft.  St.  Louis, 
near  the  Indian  village,  he  alone  on  foot  started 
for  Ft.  Frontenac,  now  Montreal,  a  journey  of 
over  one  thousand  miles  across  a  country  almost 
unknown  and  in  the  early  spring,  the  worst  season 
that  could  have  been  selected. 

In  the  meanwhile  his  usual  bad  luck  was  fol- 
lowing him  in  his  settlements  upon  the  Illinois. 
No  sooner  was  he  and  Tonti  well  away  from  Ft. 
Creve  Coeur  than  the  men  remaining  there  became 
discontented  and  soon  they  demolished  the  fort, 
carried  off  such  of  the  supplies  and  furnishing  as 
they  wanted  and  destroyed  the  rest.  Only  two  of 
the  men  remained  faithful  to  LaSalle,  but  they 
were  powerless  to  prevent  the  destruction;  nor 
did  his  projects  under  Tonti  escape  any  better, 
for  the  warlike  and  powerful  Iroquois,  a  tribe 
from  the  east,  attacked  the  friendly  Illinois  and 
entirely  routed  and  scattered  them,  seized  Tonti 
and  his  men  and  destroyed  the  buildings  in  the 
course  of  erection. 

This  occurred  in  the  neighborhood  of  Starved 
Eock  and  gave  rise  to  the  legend  of  Starved  Eock 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


11 


familiar  now  to  all,  which  may  or  may  not  be  true, 
but  one  thing  is  certain,  the  village  was  entirely 
destroyed  and  the  survivors,  if  there  were  any, 
found  a  refuge  and  a  home  with  other  tribes. 
LaSalle  returned  to  the  Illinois  river  in  August, 
1680,  looking  for  his  lost  friend  Tonti.  When  they 
arrived  at  Ft.  St.  Louis,  near  Starved  Rock,  a 
scene  of  desolation  greeted  their  eyes;  his  fort 
was  gone  and  the  Indian  village  utterly  destroyed, 
but  there  was  no  word  from  Tonti.  He  descended 
the  Illinois  to  its  mouth  and  though  his  com- 
panions urged  him  to  go  on  down  the  Mississippi 
he  retraced  his  way  up  the  river  and  back  to  the 
fort  on  the  St.  Joseph  river  without  learning  a 
word  of  the  fate  of  Tonti. 

The  summer  of  1681  was  spent  by  LaSalle  in 
making  treaties  with  several  of  the  smaller  tribes 
of  Indians  in  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance 
of  the  French  and  Indians  against  the  powerful 
Iroquois  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  summer 
going  into  Mackinac  he  found  Tonti,  who  had 
come  in  there  the  day  before.  They  had  been 
separated  for  fourteen  months.  He  now  prepared 
for  another  journey  down  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  he  and  Tonti  started  again  in  Decem- 
ber, 1681,  better  equipped  in  men  and  supplies 
than  in  their  former  voyages,  the  party  consisting 
of  twenty-three  white  men  and  thirty-one  Indians. 

Instead  of  crossing  from  St.  Joseph  they  started 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Chicago  river,  built  sleds 
upon  which  their  canoes  were  loaded,  which  they 
dragged  on  the  ice  till  they  reached  the  site  of 
Ft.  Creve  Coeur,  now  Peoria,  and  there  leaving 
their  sledges  and  repairing  their  canoes  they 
launched  them  upon  the  Illinois,  reaching  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  April  7th,  1682,  where 
LaSalle  took  possession  of  this  country,  which  he 
called  Louisiana,  "with  all  its  seas,  harbors,  ports, 
bays,  cities,  towns,  villages,  mines,  minerals,  fish- 
eries, streams  and  rivers,  in  the  name  of  the  most 
high,  mighty,  invincible  and  victorious  prince, 
Louis  the  Great,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  King  of 
France  and  Navarre,  14th  of  that  name  and  of  his 
heirs  and  successors  of  his  Crown." 

This  was  the  last  voyage . through  the  Illinois 
river  that  LaSalle  made.  His  subsequent  career, 
till  on  the  17th  day  of  March,  1687,  he  was  basely 
assassinated  by  two  of  his  men,  is  of  intense  inter- 
est but  has  no  further  connection  with  the  settle- 
ment of  Illinois. 

We  have  given  considerable  space  to  the  lives 
and  doings  of  these  great  explorers-  and  their  com- 


panions because  their  names  are  so  familiar  to 
our  ears  and  they  must  ever  be  connected  with  its 
history  because  they  were  the  first  white  men  who 
saw  our  fair  country,  and  it  is  very  possible  and 
in  fact  probable  that  LaSalle  and  his  comrades,  in 
their  various  journeyings  up  and  down  made  vari- 
ous landings  and  they  may  have  been  and  prob- 
ably were  the  first  white  men  to  set  foot  in  Mar- 
shall county. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

EARLY  SETTLEMENTS. 

Nearly  a  century  elapsed  after  the  abortive 
attempts  of  LaSalle  and  Tonti  to  establish  settle- 
ments along  the  upper  Illinois  river,  before  its 
waters  were  again  vexed  by  the  paddle  of  the  white 
man's  canoe,  even  the  Kaskaskia  Indians,  where 
the  good  Father  Marquette  established  a  mission 
at  their  village  near  Starved  Rock,  were  so  har- 
assed by  the  fierce  tribes  of  the  north  and  east 
that  they  in  a  few  years  abandoned  the  village  and 
going  down  the  Illinois  made  a  new  location  on 
the  Mississippi,  taking  the  mission  with  them  and 
the  mission  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  first  white 
settlement  in  Illinois  that  became  permanent,  and 
was  known  as  the  village  of  the  "Immaculate 
Conception  of  the  Holy  Virgin" — the  name  Mar- 
quette had  given  to  the  mission  he  founded,  and 
this  was  really  the  first  permanent  white  settle- 
ment in  Illinois.  It  later  was  known  as  Kas- 
kaskia. 

If  during  the  century  that  followed  white  men 
visited  this  section,  there  is  no  account  of  it,  and 
it  was  not  till  what  is  known  in  our  history  as 
the  "French  and  Indian  war,"  1755  to  1763,  was 
fought  and  won  by  the  English  that  the  settle- 
ment of  Illinois  can  really  be  said  to  have  begun. 

Up  to  1760  the  country  had  been  under  the 
French  government  in  accordance  with  LaSalle's 
discoveries,  and  what  few  settlements  there  was 
were  under  French  control  and  the  inhabitants 
were  mostly  French,  but  by  the  treaty  of  Paris 
signed  the  10th  of  February,  1760,  France  ceded 
to  England  "all  of  Lousiana  east  of  the  Missis- 
sippi" with  Nova  Scotia  and  Canada  and  the 
English  established  forts  at  Kaskaskia  and  other 
places  in  what  is  now  the  state  of  Illinois. 

In  1778,  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  Col. 
George  Rogers  Clarke  who  was  under  a  commis- 
sion from  Patrick  Henry,  then  governor  of  Vir- 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


ginia,  conceived  the  idea  of  breaking  the  British 
power  on  the  Mississippi  river,  whose  importance 
had  already  begun  to  attract  notice,  obtained  per- 
mission from  Governor  Henry  and  with  only  four 
companies  of  soldiers  set  out  from  Louisville,  Ken- 
tiicky,  where  he  was  stationed,  down  the  Ohio  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Wabash  and  marched  across  the 
entire  state  of  Illinois  to  Kaskaskia.  The  British 
garrison  surrendered  without  the  loss  of  a  man, 
the  fort  at  Cahokia,  not  a  great  distance  away,  sur- 
rendered without  firing  a  gun  and  Illinois  became 
a  part  of  the  state  of  Virginia. 

The  English,  who  had  settled  along  the  coast 
in  what  is  now  the  United  States,  had  not  been  so 
restless  in  exploring  and  making  settlements  to 
the  west  of  them  as  had  been  the  French  at  the 
north,  who  had  become  to  a  great  extent  familiar 
with  the  Canadian  country  to  the  north  and  east 
of  the  great  lakes,  and  the  Spaniards  in  the  south, 
who  had  overrun  and  conquered  the  most  of 
South  America,  Central  America  and  Mexico,  and 
it  was  over  one  hundred  years  after  the  discoveries 
of  the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers  and  the 
country  which  is  now  Illinois  before  the  English 
residents  of  the  colonies  knew  anything  about  it, 
and  it  is  extremely  doubtful  if  the  foot  of  Eng- 
lishmen trod  the  soil  of  Marshall  county,  for  more 
than  half  a  century  after  it  had  come  into  their 
possession,  for  the  settlers  along  the  coast  knew 
absolutely  nothing  of  the  rich  heritage  that  had 
fallen  to  them. 

Through  the  conquest  of  Clarke,  as  mentioned 
above,  all  the  country  from  the  Atlantic  ocean  to 
the  Mississippi  river  was  claimed  as  part  of  Vir- 
ginia. In  1783  the  state  of  Virginia  ceded  to 
the  United  States  all  the  land  that  had  come  to 
her  by  the  conquest  of  Clarke. 

This  grant  was  later  made  into  three  great 
states,  Ohio,  Indiana  and  Illinois.  After  the 
Revolutionary  war  white  settlers  began  to  come 
into  Illinois,  though  the  most  of  them  coming 
from  Virginia  settled  in  the  southern  part,  and 
by  the  year  1800  Illinois  had  a  population  of  be- 
tween three  thousand  and  three  thousand  five  hun- 
dred and  it  was  thought  best  by  the  general  gov- 
ernment to  pass  a  territorial  act,  and  on  the  7th 
of  May,  1800,  an  act  was  passed  creating  Indiana 
territory  which  comprised  all  the  land  between 
the  present  State  of  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi 
river.  February  9,  1809,  the  act  creating  Illi- 
nois territory  was  passed  and  Ninian  Edwards  was 
appointed  territorial  governor. 


The  census  of  1810  gave  the  territory  of  Illinois 
a  population  of  12,282.  In  1818  the  territorial 
legislature  petitioned  Congress  that  Illinois  be 
admitted  as  a  state,  the  population  at  that  time 
being  45,000  and  in  December  of  that  year,  1818, 
the  petition  was  granted  and  Illinois  was  admitted 
as-  a  state  with  all  the  privileges  and  rights  of  the 
older  states.  Up  to  this  time  the  capital  had 
been  at  Kaskaskia,  the  old  French  town  on  the 
Mississippi  river,  but  the  first  state  legislature 
transferred  the  capital  to  Vandalia  in  1819. 

Although  Illinois  was  now  a  full-fledged  state 
in  1820  with  a  population  of  50,000  probably,  it 
was  all  in  the  southern  part,  the  entire  state  north 
of  the  Sangamon  on  both  sides  of  the  Illinois 
river  was  still  an  unbroken  wilderness. 

Fort  Clark  on  the  present  site  of  Peoria  had 
been  built  and  a  few  Indian  traders  and  hunters 
had  settled  there,  a  few  miners  were  in  the  lead 
mines  around  Galena  in  the  extreme  northwest 
corner,  and  Chicago  was  a  small  village  of  some 
ten  or  twelve  houses  and  sixty  or  seventy  inhabi- 
tants. There  was  not  a  white  man  living  at  a 
ferry  above  Peoria  on  the  Illinois  river  and  in 
1821  all  the  land  north  of  where  the  Illinois  joins 
the  Mississippi  to  the  Kankakee  and  north  of  that 
to  the  Indiana  line  was  organized  into  Pike  coun- 
ty, an  immense  tract  of  land  equal  to  at  least  one- 
half  of  the  present  state  of  Illinois. 

In  1815  Congress,  wishing  to  do  something  for 
the  soldiers  of  1812-14,  sent  out  a  commission  to 
find,  if  possible,  a  large  and  compact  tract  of  land 
suitable  for  cutting  up  into  farms-  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  each. 

The  commission,  after  some  considerable  search 
in  the  new  states,  reported  they  had  found  a  suit- 
able tract  that  would  answer  the  description,  situ- 
ated between  the  Mississippi  and  Illinois  rivers, 
and  surveyors  were  accordingly  sent  out  to  lay 
out  the  land.  Beginning  at  the  place  where  the 
Illinois  empties  into  the  Mississippi,  they  ran  due 
north  one  hundred  and  sixty-nine  miles  to  a  line 
drawn  from  the  Great  Bend  in  the  Illinois  below 
Peru,  west  to  the  Mississippi,  a  distance  of  about 
ninety  miles.  In  the  tract  they  laid  off  two  hun- 
dred and  seven  full  townships  and  sixty-one  frac- 
tional ones  or  5,360,000  acres.  These  were  appor- 
tioned out  to  the  soldiers  by  warrants,  calling  for 
a  particular  quarter  section  of  one  hundred  and 
sixty  acres,  and  were  all  choice  farming  lands. 

The  country,  however,  was  wild  and  unbroken, 
most  of  the  old  soldiers  to  whom  the  warrants  were 


PAST    AND   PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL   AND   Pl'TXAM   COUNTIES. 


issued  had  homes  in  the  east  and  were  loth  to  pull 
up  and  move  into  the  unknown  country,  and  a 
traffic  in  the  land  warrants  after  a  few  years, 
sprung  up,  and  as  the  glowing  accounts  of  the 
beauty  of  the  land,  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the 
ease  with  which  it  could  be  worked  began  to  filter 
through  the  eastern  settlements,  men  came  out  to 
look,  they  found  the  half  had  not  been  told,  they 
went  back  for  their  families,  their  neighbors  heard 
their  stories  and  they  too  pulled  up  and  settle- 
ments sprang  up  everywhere,  but  invariably  near 
the  timber  patches  and  water  courses. 

Owing  to  the  cheapness  of  the  land  in  the  mili- 
tary tract,  warrants  could  be  purchased  for  much 
less  than  government  price,  a  one  hundred  and 
sixty-acre  warrant  selling  for  about  $90,  while  the 
government  price  was  $1.25  per  acre,  settlements 
sprang  up  faster  in  the  tract  than  in  most  other 
places,  though  often  transfers  were  made  so 
loosely  that  many  after  living  upon  their  farm  for 
years  found  their  titles  imperfect ;  also  thousand? 
of  farms,  as  the  country  became  more  settled,  were 
sold  for  taxes  with  the  titles  still  in  the  name  of 
the  original  soldier  owner.  Men  made  it  a  busi- 
ness t&  trace  up  the  heirs  of  the  original  owners 
and  purchase  the  claim  and  when  they  could  not 
settle  satisfactorily  to  themselves,  bring  suit 
against  the  settler  who  had  been  living  in  peace  on 
his  land,  maybe  for  years.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  gift  of  this  magnificent  grant,  probably  the 
finest  body  of  land  of  the  size  in  the  world,  did 
those  it  was  given  to  but  little,  if  any,  good,  and 
was  the  cause  of  a  world  of  litigation.  But  this 
is  somewhat  of  a  digression.  We  have  little  to  do 
with  the  military  tract  in  Marshall  county,  though 
the  western  part  of  the  county  is  a  part  of  it  but 
it  was  mostly  settled  under  tax  titles,  the  owners 
of  the  original  warrants  being  nearly  all  dead 
before  that  part  of  the  tract  in  our  county  was 
settled. 

The  first  settlements  in  this  section  were  made 
from  1828  to  1830.  A  man  by  the  name  of 
Thomas  Hartzell  had  established  a  general  trad- 
ing station  or  store,  trading  mostly  with  the 
Indians  as  early  as  1817  at  the  present  site  of 
Hennepin,  but  it  was  ten  years  later  before  the 
actual  settlers  began  to  come  in,  Capt.  William 
Haws  settling  near  Magnolia  in  1826;  and  by 
1835  the  country  east  and  southeast  of  Hennepin, 
what  is  now  Putnam  county  east  of  the  river,  was 
fairly  well  settled  and  small  towns  had  sprung  up 


at  Hennepin,    Florid,    Granville,    Magnolia    and 
Caledonia. 

These  settlements  were  all  in  what  is  now  Put- 
nam county  and  as  a  full  and  complete  history  of 
Putnam  county  is  to  be  found  under  its  appro- 
priate heading,  we  will  confine  ourselves  to  the 
limits  of  Marshall  county  in  the  future,  though 
the  history  of  the  early  settlements  when  it  was  all 
Putnam  county  are  so  interwoven  that  it  is  al- 
most, if  not  quite,  impossible  to  separate  them, 
for  up  to  1839  it  was  all  Putnam  county.  So  that 
what  may  be  said  up  to  that  time  must  ne 
be  Putnam  countv  historv. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE    BLACK    HAWK    WAR. 

A  history  of  any  country  that  may  be  written 
that  leaves  out  an  account  of  its  wars  is  a  good 
deal  like  the  play  of  Hamlet  with  Hamlet  left 
out.  In  fact  most  history  is  four-fifths  of  it  the 
account  of  its  wars.  And  even  our  little  county 
of  Marshall,  peaceful  as  it  now  appears,  was  at  one 
time  shaken  to  its  center  by  wars  and  rumors  of 
wars  which  were  to  the  then  scattered  inhabitants 
a  very  present  danger. 

The  Black  Hawk  war  does  not  cut  much  of  a 
figure  in  the  history  of  the  United  States,  but  as  it 
all  occurred  in  this  section,  and  many  of  the  actors 
were  citizens  of  the  county,  we  think  mention  of 
it  should  be  a  part  of  .the  history  of  our  county. 

Unfortunately  for  the  adventurous  spirit  that 
drives  the  white  races  to  seek  out  new  lands  and 
new  homes,  the  lands  they  have  found  have 
always  been  pre-occupied,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
drive  the  owners  from  them,  which  they  have 
generally  teen  able  to  do  by  a  higher  intelligence 
and  better  arms. 

At  the  end  of  what  may  be  called  Tecumseh's 
war,  after  his  defeat  at  Tippecanoe  at  the  hands  of 
General  William  Henry  Harrison,  the  lands  in  the 
northern  part  of  Illinois  were  <*eded  by  the  In- 
dians to  the  United  States,  and  the  Indians  mi- 
grated west  of  the  Mississippi.  In  the  neighbor- 
hood of  what  is  now  Rock  Island  the  government 
in  1815  or  1816  had  surveyed  a  part  of  the  coun- 
try there  as  the  military  tract,  and  parts  of  it  had 
been  sold  and  settled  upon. 

There  was  in  this  section  of  country  an  Indian 
village  and  Indian  cemetery  belonging  to  the  Sac 


1 1 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OP  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


Indians,  the  chief  of  whom  was  named  Black 
Hawk,  at  that  time  an  old  man  but  who  had  been 
a  famous  warrior  in  his  younger  days.  He  was 
one  of  the  principal  aids  of  the  famous  Tecumseh 
and  had  been  chief  of  the  Indian  allies  of  the 
British  in  the  war  of  1812  and  was  by  them  made 
a  Brigadier  General. 

Black  Hawk,  whose  sympathies  were  with  the 
British  and  who  was  prejudiced  against  the  Ameri- 
cans, did  not  join  in  the  treaty  of  peace  made  at 
the  end  of  the  war  of  1812  and  1814,  but  went  up 
into  Canada  with  his 'band  and  nursed  his  ani- 
mosity to  the  Americans.  He  also  repudiated  the 
treaty  by  which  his  country,  with  its  beautiful 
rivers  and  broad  prairies  swarming  with  fish  and 
game  had  been  ceded  away  from  him  and  sullenly 
obeyed  the  order  of  the  government  for  the 
removal  of  his  tribe  across  the  Mississippi  river. 

In  1831  Black  Hawk  with  about  three  hundred 
of  his  tribe,  men,  women  and  children,  moved 
across  the  river  and  went  to  his  old  town.  A 
brigade  of  troops  was  called  up  from  St.  Louis 
but  before  they  could  come  in  contact  with  the 
Indians  they  took  to  their  canoes  and  recrossed 
to  the  west  side  of  the  river.  The  soldiers  then 
burned  the  town,  which  had  been  the  home  for  a 
long  time  of  six  or  seven  thousand  Indians.  This 
ended  the  campaign  for  that  year. 

The  next  spring,  1832,  Black  Hawk,  who  had 
been  nursing  his  injuries  and  working  among  his 
warriors,  again  crossed  the  Mississippi  with  about 
five  hundred  warriors  with  their  women  and  chiJ 
dren  with  the  expectation,  that  the  Kickapoos, 
Pottawatomies  and  Winnebagoes  would  immedi- 
ately join  him.  In  this,  however,  he  was  dis- 
appointed. Still  relying  upon  getting  his  little 
band  reinforced  Black  Hawk  with  his  Indians 
went  up  the  Rock  River  country  to  near  its  head 
waters.  Here  they  were  attacked  by  a  raw,  undis- 
ciplined body  of  militia  under  Major  Stillman. 
The  volunteers  taking  the  bits  in  their  teeth  and 
a  few  of  them,  seeing  what  they  thought  was  rt 
small  band  of  Indians  and  without  officers  or  com- 
mands with  hot  valiant  courage  made  an  attack 
upon  them,  but  finding  more  Indians  than  they 
had  expected,  for  the  whole  band  was  there,  fled 
incontinently  and  as  they  were  pursued  turned 
their  flight  into  a  rout  and  a  panic  which  com- 
municated itself  to  the  rest  of  the  men  and  the 
campaign  was  turned  into  a  wild  and  disorderly 
retreat  which  continued  until  they  reached  Dixon 
thirty-five  miles-  distant. 


The  news  of  this  fiasco  soon  spread  over  the 
entire  state  and  set  everybody  into  a  panic,  and 
from  the  precipitate  action  of  a  few  drunken  men, 
an  Indian  scare  which  would  undoubtedly  have 
been  effectually  squelched  in  a  few  days  more,  kept 
the  inhabitants  of  the  entire  state  filled  with  dread 
and  fear  of  the  horrors  of  an  Indian  massacre 
throughout  the  entire  summer  and  took  most  of 
the  men  away  from  their  farms,  some  volunteering 
in  the  army  and  some  fleeing  to  the  south,  many  of 
whom  never  came  back. 

After  the  battle,  if  it  may  so  be  called,  at  the 
head  of  Rock  river  the  Indians  broke  up  into 
small  bands,  committing  typical  Indian  depreda- 
tions. 

While  there  were  a  considerable  number  of 
settlers  at  this  time  in  the  country  east  of  the  river 
there  were  none  on  the  west  side  and  it  was  deter- 
mined to  so  arrange  matters  that  should  the  In- 
dians come  this  way  they  might  be  stopped  at  the 
river.  Companies  of  volunteers  were  raised  and 
ordered  to  rendezvous  on  May  20th,  at  9  a.  m.,  at 
Columbia,  now  Lacon,  and  at  3  p.  m.  at  Hennepin. 
All  the  settlers,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  re- 
sponded with  such  arms  as  they  could  muster  and 
were  mustered  into  service  as  rangers.  Colonel 
John  Strawn  of  Columbia  had  before  been  ap- 
pointed colonel  and  took  command. 

Colonel  Strawn  had  an  original  way  of  choosing 
his  officers.  He  simply  asked  those  who  wished  to 
be  officers  to  advance  ten  paces  to  the  front  and 
wheel,  and  then  desired  the  men  to  cluster  around 
the  men  they  wanted  for  officers,  and  the  man  who- 
had  the  largest  cluster  was  appointed. 

Four  companies  were  formed,  one  at  Columbia 
and  three  at  Hennepin,  though  the  Hennepin 
companies  were  not  mustered  in  till  the  next  day, 
May  21,  1832. 

The  Columbia  company  consisted  of  Robert 
Barnes,  captain ;  William  McNeil,  first  lieutenant ; 
John  Weer,  second  lieutenant;  eight  non-com- 
missioned officers  and  thirty-four  privates. 

Company  No.  1  at  Hennepin :  George  B.  Willis. 
captain ;  Timothy  Perkins,  first  lieutenant :  Sam- 
uel Loughlin,  second  lieutenant ;  eight  non-com- 
missioned officers  and  fifty-two  privates. 

Company  No.  2 :  William  Haws,  captain ; 
James  Garvin,  first  lieutenant;  William  M.  Hart, 
second  lieutenant;  eight  non-commissioned  offi- 
cers and  twenty  privates. 

Company  No.  3 :  William  M.  Stewart,  captain ; 
Mason  Wilson,  first  lieutenant ;  Livingston  Ro- 


PAST   AND    PBESBNT    OF    MAESHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


berts,  second  lieutenant;  seven  non-commissioned 
officers  and  twenty-six  privates. 

At  the  same  time  soldiers  were  being  raised  the 
settlers  began  building  block  houses  and  "forts," 
three  of  these  were  in  what  is  now  Marshall  coun- 
ty; the  forts  were  made  of  logs  about  twelve  feet 
long  set  upright  close  together,  in  the  ground.  At 
the  corners  square  bastions  were  built,  pierced  with 
port  holes  so  that  the  face  of  the  wall  could  be 
enfiladed  in  case  of  attack. 

One  of  these  was  on  the  farm  of  Mr.  James 
Dever  on  the  edge  of  Round  Prairie  and  about  six 
miles  southeast  of  Columbia.  It  was  about  one 
hundred  feet  from  east  to  west  and  eighty  feet 
north  and  south.  In  it  was  the  cabin  of  Mr.  Dever 
and  several  tents  were  pitched  in  it  for  the  accom- 
modation of  those  who  fled  there  during  the 
alarms. 

Two  miles  south  of  Magnolia  there  was  a  simi- 
lar fort  on  the  farm  of  Jesse  Roberts,  where  seven 
or  eight  families  found  protection,  and  there  was 
another  near  the  head  of  Sandy  Creek.  These 
were  all  in  the  present  territory  of  Marshall 
county,  but  there  were  a  number  on  the  Ox  Bow 
Prairie,  one  on  the  farm  of  J.  W.  Willis  where 
twenty-one  families,  including  one  hundred  chil- 
dren, were  housed  at  one  time. 

The  precautions  taken  will  give  some  little  idea 
of  the  state  of  feeling  of  the  settlers  during  that 
summer.  There  were  no  Indian  attacks  in  Put- 
nam county,  east  of  the  river,  but  the  tension  was 
such  that  the  least  unusual  noise  like  the  firing  of 
a  gun  or  the  supposed  cry  of  Indians  would  send 
all  skurrying  to  the  forts.  It  is  very  probable 
however,  that  the  completeness  of  the  defenses 
deterred  the  Indians  from  crossing  the  river  to 
make  an  attack.  Once  or  twice  they  were  ob- 
served scouting  around  on  the  east  side,  but  no 
hostile  demonstration  was  made. 

But  one  man  in  Putnam  county,  large  as  it 
was  at  the  time,  was  killed  during  the  war.  That 
was  a  man  by  the  name  of  Phillips,  who,  with 
several  others,  went  over  into  what  is  now  Bureau 
county  to  look  after  their  cattle. 

They  remained  over  night  in  the  cabin  of  a  Mr. 
Ament  and  when  Mr.  Phillips  went  to  go  over  to 
his  own  cabin,  but  a  short  distance  away,  he  was 
shot  by  the  Indians  as  he  stepped  out  of  doors, 
the  others  remained  in  the  cabin  till  help  came 
from  Hennepin,  when  the  Indians  disappeared. 

This  was  the  last  trouble  the  settlers  of  Put- 
nam countv  had  with  the  Indians.  The  Indians 


had  committed  several  depredations  arid  mur- 
dered quite  a  number,  but  retribution  was  rapidly 
overtaking  them.  An  army  of  three  thousand  two 
hundred  men  had  been  called  together  and  or- 
ganized and  after  a  number  of  ineffectual  at- 
tacks upon  small  parties  of  the  soldiers,  in  which 
they  were  always  beaten  off  with  more  or  less  loss, 
the  Indians  began  to  make  north  till  they  were 
finally  driven  into  the  hills  and  brakes  on  the 
Wisconsin  river  in  Wisconsin.  They  had  been 
followed  so  closely  that  they  could  not  obtain  food 
and  were  nearly  in  a  starving  condition.  They  were 
at  last  overtaken  by  a  brigade  of  volunteers  and 
rangers  under  General  James  Henry  and  a  most 
determined  engagement  took  place,  the  Indians 
hiding  in  the  tall  grass  and  behind  trees  till  driven 
out  by  the  bayonet.  The  fight  continued  till  night 
when  both  parties  rested.  In  the  morning  General 
Henry  advancing  to  the  Wisconsin  river,  found 
that  the  Indians  had  crossed  it  and  were  in  the 
hills  between  the  Wisconsin  and  Mississippi,  and 
were  making  for  the  Mississippi. 

The  battle  at  the  Wisconsin  had  been  a  dear  one 
for  the  Indians.  Sixty-eight  of  their  number  lay 
dead  on  the  field,  and  twenty-five  more  were  found 
on  the  trail  leading  to  the  Mississippi  who  had 
died  of  their  wounds,  while  General  Henry  had 
lost  only  one  man  killed  and  eight  wounded. 

The  Indians  were  found  just  below  the  mouth 
of  the  Bad  Axe  river  making  preparation  to  cross 
the  Mississippi.  They  were  attacked  there  and 
were  practically  annihilated.  Black  Hawk  was 
afterwards  taken  prisoner  and  taken  to  Washing- 
ton, but  was  afterwards  permitted  to  return  to  hip 
people  and  was  with  them  when  he  died  October  3, 
1840. 

So  ended  a  war  which  could  by  no  possibility 
have  other  ending.  It  was  the  last  despairing 
effort  of  a  brave  and  patriotic  people  to  regain 
possession  of  the  grandest  heritage  the  sun  ever 
shone  upon.  Had  the  Winnebago  and  Pottawat- 
tomie  tribes  joined  in,  as  Black  Hawk  expected, 
although  there  is  no  question  what  the  final  result 
would  have  been,  the  co-operation  of  these  war- 
like tribes  would  have  made  the  task  of  conquer- 
ing them  ten  times  more  difficult  and  the  death 
and  destruction  would  have  been  horrible  to  con- 
template. As  it  was  Black  Hawk,  by  his  con- 
summate generalship,  with  his  little  band  placed 
the  whole  great  state  of  Illinois  in  abject  terror  and 
fought  the  armies  consisting  of  three  thousand 
men  sent  against  him  for  six  months. 


1C, 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Several  men  who  afterwards  became  famous, 
three  of  them  presidents,  were  concerned  in  this 
war.  They  were  Zachary  Taylor,  Jefferson  Davis, 
Sidney  Johnston  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  three 
first  as  officers  of  the  regular  army,  the  other  as  a 
member  of  a  company  of  rangers,  but  it  does  not 
appear  that  any  of  them  distinguished  themselves 
in  the  Black  Hawk  war. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

DIVISION  OF  PUTNAM   COUNTY. 

Following  the  Black  Hawk  war  settlers  began 
to  pour  into  Illinois.  Where  before  single  families 
had  come  and  settled  here  and  there  in  spots  they 
considered  most  favorable,  now  colonies  of  three, 
four  and  sometimes  a  dozen  families,  sometimes 
connected  by  blood  or  marriage,  but  often  made  up 
of  old  neighbors  from  their  eastern  home  that 
were  prompted  to  come  by  the  glowing  accounts  of 
the  fine  climate  and  exhaustless  fertility  of  the 
soil. 

When  they  wrote  back  that  crops,  thought  to  be 
almost  miraculous,  could  be  raised  year  after 
year,  without  manuring  the  ground,  it  was  a  reve- 
lation to  the  farmers  of  Vermont  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, whose  entire  crop  depended  upon  a  fertilizer. 
And  though  they  hardly  credited  all  the  stories 
told,  yet  they  went  on  the  old  adage,  "Where  there 
is  so  much  smoke  there  must  be  some  fire,"  and 
were  surprised  that  the  truth  had  been  told. 

They  in  turn  wrote  back  and  their  accounts,  if 
anything,  outdid  the  former  ones,  and  there  was  a 
constantly  increasing  immigration.  Up  to  1836 
the  attention  of  the  immigrants  had  been  turned 
to  secure  farms,  though  where  necessary  a  small 
town  with  store,  blacksmith  shop  and  generally  a 
schoolhouse  and  church  clustered  in  one  spot.  In 
the  wild  cat  money  times  of  1836  and  1837  the 
spirit  of  speculation  was  rife  in  the  land  and  towns 
sprang  up — on  paper — in  every  direction ;  that  is, 
a  piece  of  land  was  laid  off  in  streets,  alleys,  lots, 
etc.,  and  a  beautiful  drawing  of  them  made  as 
they  were  expected  to  be  when  fully  developed. 
Upon  these  drawings  would  be  located  fine  squares, 
large  buildings  used  for  almost  every  conceivable 
purpose;  even  manufacturing  establishments 
would  l)e  shown  and  other  desirable  things.  The 
idea  that  was  intended  to  be  conveyed  was  that  all 


these  things  were  there  as  represented,  when  the 
truth  was  that  they  only  existed  in  the  imagina- 
tion, and  there  was  nothing  on  the  site  of  the 
"city"  unless  there  might  be  a  cabin  or  two. 

There  was  a  large  traffic  in  these  town  lots,  the 
eastern  states  were  flooded  with  the  handsomely 
drawn  plots  and  the  glowing  descriptions  of  the 
advantages  of  these  towns  and  what  they  were 
sure  to  be  in  the  future  tempted  hundreds  to  buy 
lots  at  higher  prices  than  the  whole  "city"  was 
worth. 

It  helped,  however,  to  boom  things  and  called  at- 
tention to  the  new  country,  and  settlers  poured 
into  the  state  for,  according  to  the  prospectus  of 
the  agents,  everybody  was  going  to  get  rich;  but 
the  financial  troubles  of  1837  and  1838  came  on 
and  there  was  a  rude  awakening,  men  who  thought 
they  were  rich  found  they  were  little  better  than 
paupers,  and  the  many  beautiful  cities  that  had 
looked  so  well  and  promised  so  much  were  most  of 
them  plowed  up  and  converted  into  cornfields. 

There  were  no  less  than  ten  of  these  towns  in 
what  is  now  Marshall  county  and  more  than  dou- 
ble that  number  in  the  rest  of  Putnam  county, 
nearly  all  of  them  being  laid  out  in  1836.  The 
settlers  in  Marshall  county  on  the  west  side  of  the 
river  being  very  few  at  that  time,  nearly  all  the 
towns  in  it  were  on  the  eastern  side;  but  we  will 
say  more  of  the  towns  in  later  chapters,  the  fact 
being  that  this  digression  about  the  towns  and  the 
speculations  of  those  years  had  much  to  do  with 
the  eventual  dividing  up  of  Putnam  county,  for 
the  hawking  of  the  town  lots  all  over  the  east 
called  attention  to  the  country  and  served  to 
largely  increase  the  influx  of  actual  settlers. 

By  1837  there  were  large  settlements  in  the  ex- 
treme western  and  northwestern  part  of  Putnam 
county  and  the  settlers,  who  found  it  very  incon- 
venient at  times  to  go  to  Hennepin  to  do  all  their 
business,  began  to  agitate  the  question  of  a  new 
county,  and  it  culminated  in  setting  off  Bureau 
county,  containing  about  one-half  the  territory 
which  was  set  off  by  act  of  the  legislature  in  1837 
and  the  county  seat  established  at  Princeton.  Bu- 
reau county  took  more  than  one-half  of  the  terri- 
tory of  Putnam  county,  coming  down  to  township 
14  and  extending  four  townships  north,  but  not 
crossing  the  Illinois  river. 

The  cutting  off  of  Bureau  county  left  Hennepin, 
the  county  seat,  in  the  extreme  northeastern  part 
of  the  county,  with  less  than  two  townships  east 
and  nothing  but  the  Illinois'  river  on  the  west.  On 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COTXTIKS. 


ir 


the  south  the  county  was  two  townships  deep  and 
eight  townships  wide. 

The  county  west  of  the  Illinois  river  was  very 
sparsely  settled  except  in  the  extreme  west,  where 
considerable  settlement  had  been  made  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Spoon  river. 

As  early  as  1836  a  petition  was  sent  to  the  leg- 
islature, which  was  well  received,  and  an  act  was 
passed  during  the  winter  of  1836  and  1837  to  set 
off  the  county  of  Coffee,  which  was  to  be  composed 
of  six  townships  from  Putnam  county,  two  from 
Knox  and  one  from  Henry,  to  be  called  Coffee 
county.  To  give  the  act  force  it  was  provided  that 
it  must  be  ratified  by  a  majority  vote  in  Knox  and 
Henry  counties.  The  vote  did  not  carry  and  the 
act  became  void. 

In  1838  the  matter  was  taken  up  again  by  the 
Spoon  river  residents,  who  were  tired  of  going 
some  thirty-five  or  forty  miles  to  the  county  seat 
and  possibly  finding  the  Illinois  river  impassable 
when  they  arrived  there. 

On  the  16th  of  January,  1839,  another  bill  was 
introduced  by  Colonel  W.  H.  Henderson,  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  district,  to  establish  the  county  of 
Stark.  After  considerable  discussion  and  several 
amendments  the  act  was  approved,  March  2,  1839. 
The  bill  cut  off  six  townships  from  Putnam  coun- 
ty and  two  townships  from  Knox  county.  To  give 
the  act  force  the  voters  of  the  Knox  county  town- 
ships were  to  assent  to  the  division,  which  they 
appear  to  have  done. 

In  the  meantime  that  part  of  Putnam  county 
now  comprised  in  Marshall  county  had  been  filling 
with  settlers,  especially  along  the  river  on  both 
sides.  On  the  east  side  a  considerable  settlement 
had  been  formed  around  Columbia  (now  Lacon), 
and  a  number  of  enterprising  business  men  had 
settled  in  the  town  and  near  it,  and  had  given  it 
quite  an  impetus.  Henry,  also  seven  miles  above 
on  the  river  but  on  the  west  side,  had  made  con- 
siderable progress  and  there  was  quite  a  sprinkling 
of  farmers  scattered  along  under  and  on  the  bluffs. 
Three  or  four  miles  west,  the  country  which  has 
since  become  Marshall  county,  had  about  1,500 
population,  which  was  rapidly  increasing. 

On  December  10,  1838,  Colonel  Henderson,  the 
member  of  the  legislature,  presented  a  petition, 
which  was  largely  signed,  to  form  a  new  county 
from  the  southern  part  of  Putnam  county.  There 
does  not  appear  at  this  time  to  have  been  much 
opposition,  even  the  people  in  the  northern  part 
of  the  county,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Hennepin, 


fearing  to  lose  the  county  seat,  gave  it  a  tacit  ap- 
proval. Two  days  afterward  a  bill  answering  the 
"prayers  of  the  petitioners"  was  introduced  into 
the  house.  As  the  bill  only  proposed  to  cut  off 
territory  from  Putnam  county  and  as  no  particu- 
lar opposition  was  made  to  it  by  Putnam  county, 
the  bill  became  a  law  January  19,  1839. 

The  county  as  then  constituted  consisted  of  four 
full  townships  on  each  side  of  the  river,  with  four 
fractional  townships,  two  of  them  covering  an  area 
of  about  one-half  a  township  each  and  the  other 
two  quite  small. 

Before  the  session  of  the  legislature  was  over  a 
bill  was  introduced  and  passed,  adding  to  the 
counties  of  Marshall  and  Putnam  the  townships 
known  as  29,  30,  31,  and  32,  range  1  east,  but 
with  the  proviso  that  it  must  be  ratified  by  the 
voters  of  La  Salle  county,  from  which  county  the 
territory  was  to  be  taken.  The  requisite  vote  was 
not  forthcoming  from  La  Salle  county  and  the  act 
became  void. 

Four  years  later,  however,  the  matter  was  again 
introduced,  and  on  March  1,  1843,  the  two  town- 
ships, 29  and  30,  range  1  east,  by  an  act  which 
set  off  these  two  townships  to  Marshall  county 
alone,  the  people  living  in  the  townships  acqui- 
escing. 

In  the  winter  of  1839  the  legislature  appointed 
a  commission,  consisting  of  William  Ogle  of  Put- 
nam, D.  C.  Salisbury  of  Bureau,  and  Campbell 
Wakefield  of  McLean  counties,  to  locate  a  county 
seat,  their  instructions  being  to  "faithfully  take 
into  consideration  the  convenience  of  the  people, 
the  situation  of  the  settlements  with  an  eye  to  the 
future  population  and  eligibility  of  the  place," 
also  "if  selection  was  made  of  any  town  already 
laid  off  the  proprietors  should  be  required  to  do- 
nate a  quantity  of  lots  equal  to  twenty  acres  of  land 
or  a  sum  of  $5,000  in  lieu  thereof,  for  the  purpose 
of  erecting  public  buildings." 

There  were  only  two  towns  laid  out  in  Marshall 
county  at  the  time,  Henry,  which  contained  only 
some  half  a  dozen  cabins,  a  few  people  and  not 
much  else ;  besides,  the  town  was  laid  out  upon  a 
school  section  and  was  under  the  control  of  the 
school  trustees.  Lacon  (the  name  was  changed  bj 
act  of  the  legislature  from  Columbia  in  1837) 
had  become  quite  a  town  by  this  time  and  was  in  a 
flourishing  condition,  having  a  population  prob- 
ably of  about  200  people. 

As  Henry  was  owned  by  the  school  authorities 
and  the  few  inhabitants  could  not  fill  the  condi- 


18 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


tion,  the  commission,  which  had  been  instructed  to 
make  the  county  seat,  by  their  report  made  April 
6,  1839,  located  the  county  seat  at  Lacon,  and 
Marshall  county  with  the  location  of  the  county 
seat  became  a  full-fledged  county. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ORGANIZATION  OF  MARSHALL  COUNTY. 

The  organic  act  of  the  legislature,  establishing 
the  county  of  Marshall,  fixed  the  time  for  hold- 
ing the  election  of  county  officers  on  the  25th  day 
of  February,  1839,  and  the  prescribed  fifteen-day 
notice  was  given  by  George  Snyder,  a  justice  of  the 
peace,  for  Lacon  precinct. 

Notwithstanding  the  sparsely  settled  country, 
there  appeared  to  be  a  patriotism  among  the  peo- 
ple that  made  them  willing  to  sacrifice  themselves 
upon  their  country's  altar.  No  less  than  twenty- 
eight  candidates  entered  into  the  canvass,  eight  of 
them  being  for  the  office  of  sheriff;  and  though 
the  canvass  was  a  short  one  it  was  exciting  and  in- 
teresting while  it  lasted. 

The  officers  elected  were  Elisha  Swan,  William 
Maxwell  and  George  H.  Shaw,  county  commis- 
sioners; William  H.  Efner,  probate  judge;  Charles 
F.  Speyers,  recorder;  Silas  Ramsey,  sheriff;  An- 
son  L.  Deming,  treasurer;  A.  S.  Fishburn,  county 
clerk ;  George  F.  Case,  coroner ;  Jordan  Sawyer, 
surveyor. 

The  board  of  commissioners  met  on  the  Satur- 
day following  their  election  in  the  house  of  John 
D.  Coutlet,  and  there  organized  the  first  county 
court. 

The  term  under  the  law  for  which  the  commis- 
sioners were  elected  was  to  be  for  three  years,  a 
new  one  to  be  elected  every  year,  and  it  was  neces- 
sary to  decide  which  should  serve  for  the  short 
terms,  which  was  done  by  casting  lots,  with  the 
result  that  William  Maxwell  was  to  serve  one  year, 
Elisha  Swan,  two  years,  and  George  H.  Shaw  for 
three  years.  Ira  I.  Fenn  was  appointed  clerk  pro 
tern.  Besides  arranging  for  a  permanent  county 
court,  the  commissioners  divided  the  county  into 
four  "justices'  districts,"  two  of  them  east  of  the 
river  and  two  west,  to  which  they  gave  the  names 
of  those  east,  Lacon  and  Lyons,  and  those  west, 
Henry  and  Lafayette.  They  also  appointed  John 


Wier  school  commissioner,  he  to  give  a  bond  for 
$10,000. 

The  first  circuit  court  was  held  in  the  county  in 
Lacon,  beginning  April  23,  1839,  and  was  held  in 
the  Methodist  church.  Hon.  Thomas  Ford  sat  as 
Judge,  and  J.  M.  Shannon  as  clerk. 

A  full  panel  of  grand  jurymen  had  been  called, 
consisting  of  Ira  F.  Laury,  foreman ;  Lewis  Bar- 
ney, Jeremiah  Cooper,  Joel  Corbell,  Alban  N. 
Ford,  William  Gray,  Enoch  Sawyer,  Charles  Rice, 
Zorah  D.  Stewart,  Elijah  Freeman,  Nathan  Owen, 
Samuel  Howe,  George  Scott,  Robert  Bennington, 
John  Bird,  Allen  Hunter,  Henry  Snyder  and  An- 
drew Jackson,  but  as  there  was  no  criminal  busi- 
ness to  come  before  them  and  no  jail  to  investi- 
gate they  were  discharged  the  same  day.  There 
had  been  no  petit  jury  called  and  the  business  of 
the  first  circuit  court  held  in  Marshall  county  was 
soon  finished,  little  or  nothing  being  done. 

But  the  session  of  the  court  showed  the  need  of 
a  court  house,  and  in  June,  1839,  the  hoard  of 
commissioners  was  authorized  to  ascertain  the 
probable  cost.  It  would  appear  as  if  their  report 
was  satisfactory,  as  during  the  summer  bids  were 
advertised  for  "to  erect  a  courthouse  55  feet  long 
and  40  feet  wide,  with  basement  and  underpinning 
of  stone  and  superstructure  of  brick." 

The  contract  was  awarded  to  White  &  Shepherd, 
of  Fremont,  who  put  up  the  building  according:  to 
specifications  the  next  year. 

In  the  fall  of  1843,  to  be  exact,  on  September 
7,  a  contract  was  entered  into  between  the  com- 
missioners and  John  Guthrie,  to  build  a  jail,  the 
price  to  be  $515.  Mr.  Guthrie  worked  at  it  awhile 
and  then  took  in  Thomas  Wier  as  a  partner.  It 
was  built  of  large  logs  hewn  square  and  set  close 
together.  It  was  entered  from  the  upper  story,  a 
ladder  furnishing  means  of  ingress  and  egress,  and 
when  the  jailer  went  out  he  took  the  ladder  with 
him,  it  answering  the  purpose  very  well  for  minor 
offenders,  but  was  hardly  secure  enough  to  im- 
prison desperate  criminals,  several  of  whom 
escaped  from  it,  but  it  was  made  to  answer  the 
purpose  until  1857,  when  it  was  replaced  by  a 
brick  and  stone  building,  with  a  house  for  the 
sheriff  attached,  and  cost  $12,000.  It  was  re- 
placed in  1903  by  another,  with  all  the  latest  im- 
provements, at  a  cost  of  $20,000. 

In  the  organization  of  the  county  we  have  al- 
ready mentioned  that  the  county  commissioners 
divided  the  county  into  four  justices'  or  voting 
districts. 


PAST   AND    PEESENT    OF   MAESHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


19 


No.  1,  Lafayette  precinct,  comprised  all  of  the 
county  west  of  the  river  below  or  south  of  town- 
ships 12  and  13,  and  consisted  of  what  are  now 
the  towns  of  Steuben  and  La  Prairie. 

No.  2,  Henry  precinct,  consisted  of  all  the  coun- 
ty west  of  the  river  and  north  of  the  Lafayette 
precinct,  and  consisted  of  what  are  now  the  towns 
of  Henry,  Whitefield  and  Saratoga. 

No.  3,  Lacon  precinct,  consisted  of  all  the 
county  east  of  the  river  and  west  of  the  third 
principal  meridian,  and  was  made  up  of  what  are 
now  the  towns  of  Lacon,  Hopewell  and  Eichland. 

No.  4,  Lyons  precinct,  was  that  part  of  the 
county  west  of  the  meridian  comprising  what  are 
now  the  townships  of  Eoberts  and  Belle  Plain. 

The  third  principal  meridian  was  at  that  time 
the  eastern  boundary  of  the  county,  townships  29 
and  30,  range  1  east,  having  since  been  added  to  it. 

Besides  dividing  the  county  into  voting  districts 
they  also  divided  it  into  fourteen  road  districts 
and  assessed  each  able-bodied  man  a  poll  tax  of 
three  days'  labor  to  be  applied  upon  the  roads  in 
his  district. 

As  there  was  no  court  house,  a  room  was  rented 
from  Elisha  Swan  in  which  the  circuit  clerk,  coun- 
ty clerk,  county  recorder  and  probate  judge  all 
held  their  offices,  and  of  which  the  rental  was  not 
to  exceed  $75  per  annum. 

For  their  own  use  the  commissioners  rented  of 
a  man  by  the  name  of  Coutlett,  to  whom  they  al- 
lowed the  munificent  sum  of  $2.00  for  rent  of 
room  and  fuel  for  their  four  days'  use.  They  also 
voted  themselves  a  per  diem  of  $2.50  and  fixed  the 
pay  of  jurymen  at  75  cents  a  day,  they  to  board 
themselves. 

In  1839  a  tax  was  levied  of  forty  cents  on  the 
one  hundred  dollars,  for  county  purposes,  the  tax 
amounting  to  $875.  Of  this  Silas  Eamsey,  who 
was  sheriff  and  collector,  collected  $787.12. 

In  June,  1840,  the  regular  decennial  census  was 
taken,  the  first  in  Marshall  county.  The  enumera- 
tion gave  the  population  as  1,849,  of  which  993 
were  males  and  854  females;  no  negroes  or  In- 
dians. 

In  1850  the  county,  which  had  been  rapidly  fill- 
ing vip  with  settlers,  had  increased  in  population 
from  1,849  in  1840  to  5,180,  and  having  at  the 
November  election  of  the  previous  year  decided  to 
adopt  the  system  of  township  organization,  in 
March,  1850,  Samuel  Camp,  Addison  Eamsey  and 
Nathan  Patton  were  appointed  commissioners  to 
"divide  the  county  into  convenient  townships." 


CHAPTEE  VIII. 

TOWNSHIP  ORGANIZATION. 

As  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  chapter,  town- 
ship organization  was  adopted  in  Marshall  county 
in  1850. 

The  commissioners  appointed  concluded  in  most 
cases  to  set  off  the  congressional  townships,  and 
proceeded  to  name  them,  with  the  help  of  the  in- 
habitants, as  follows : 

Town  30  N.,  range  1  E.,  3d  p.  m.,  Evans. 

Town  30  N.,  range  1  W.,  3d  p.  m.,  Eoberts. 

Town  30  N.,  range  2  W.,  3d  p.  m.,  Hopewell. 

Town  29  N.,  range  1  W.,  3d  p.  m.,  Belle  Plain. 

Town  29  N.,  range  2  W.,  3d  p.  m.,  Eichland. 

Town  13  N.,  range  9  E.,  4th  p.  m.,  Whitefield. 

Town  12  N.,  range  9  E.,  4th  p.  m.,  Steuben. 

Town  12  N.,  range  8  E.,  4th  p.  m.,  Fairfield. 

Fractional  town,  13-10  E.,  4th  p.  m.,  Henry. 

And  fractional  townships  29  and  30  N.,  range 

3  E.,  3d  p.  m.,  Lacon. 

At  the  time  of  laying  off  the  townships,  town  13, 
8  E.,  4th  p.  m.,  and  town  29  N.,  1  W.,  3d  p.  m., 
had  none  or  very  few  inhabitants,  and  did  not  at 
that  time  come  under  the  organization,  but  in  1855 
town  13  N.,  8  E.,  was  called  Saratoga,  and  town 
29,  1  ^£.  of  3d  p.  m.,  was  in  1856  named  Benning- 
ton.  The  name  Fairfield  was  found  to  have  been 
used  in  other  places  and  was  changed  to  La 
Prairie. 

The  first  board  of  supervisors  held  their  first 
meeting  at  the  court  house  in  Lacon  on  the  llth 
day  of  November,  1850.  It  was  composed  of 
Henry  Snyder,  John  B.  White,  George  W.  Bettes, 
Amasa  Garrett,  William  Maxwell,  Albert  Eamsey, 
Eeuben  F.  Ball,  Charles  S.  Edwards,  James  Gib- 
son and  Theodore  Perry.  William  Maxwell  was 
chosen  chairman. 

About  the  time  that  the  township  organization 
was  adopted  the  county  received  a  great  impetus 
in  the  way  of  new  inhabitants  and  in  the  matter 
of  improvements.  Comfortable  frame  houses  with 
shingle  roofs  and  sawed  board  floors  were  being 
built  by  the  newcomers  instead  of  the  small  log 
cabins  with  their  clapboard  roofs  and  puncheon 
floors.  Also  barns  for  the  storing  of  grain  and 
hay,  as  well  as  horses,  began  to  appear  here  and 
there,  and  sheds  for  the  protection  of  cattle. 
Farms  also  began  to  be  improved,  the  lands  fenced 
and  broken,  and  prepared  for  cultivation.  Men 
who  had  thought  that  fifteen  or  twenty  acres  was 
enough  to  farm  began  to  make  their  fields  of  forty 
and  eighty  acres.  The  farming  implements  were 


20 


PAST    AND    1'RKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM    COUXTJKS. 


also  improved,  the  wooden  mold  and  cast  iron 
plows  being  supplanted  by  steel  plows,  which  were 
more  or  less  given  to  scouring;  the  mower  and 
reaper  began  to  take  the  place  of  the  scythe  and 
cradle,  and  threshing  machines  that  separated  the 
grain  from  the  chaff  taking  the  place  of  the  flail. 

Especially  was  this  true  of  the  west  side,  which 
':ad  not  appealed  to  settlers,  for  some  reason  or 
other,  nearly  as  inviting  as  the  east  side.  At  any 
cate,  nearly  if  not  quite  two-thirds  of  the  popula- 
tion of  Marshall  county  was  living  on  the  east 
side  of  the  river.  So  much  was  this  so  that  the 
early  settlers  of  Whitefield  came  from  the  east 
side  of  the  river,  from  the  neighborhood  of  Mag- 
nolia and  Caledonia,  feeling  they  were  crowded 
out  by  the  settlements  becoming  too  thick. 

It  must  not  be  inferred,  however,  that  the  adop- 
tion of  township  organization  was  the  only  cause 
that  was  making  these  important  changes  or  even 
that  it  was  the  principal  one.  That  it  had  an  in- 
fluence, however,  there  is  no  doubt.  Probably  the 
principal  factor  in  settling  up  Marshall  county 
about  this  time  was  the  completion  of  the  Illi- 
nois and  Michigan  canal  in  1848. 

Up  to  this  time  the  settlers  had  literally  no  mar- 
ket for  anything  but  their  pork.  The  pork  pack- 
ing business  received  early  attention  in  Lacon, 
and  as  it  had  much  to  do  with  the  prosperity  of 
the  inhabitants  in  the  early  days,  it  deserves  more 
than  a  passing  mention.  As  early  as  1837  the  firm 
of  Fenn,  Howe  &  Co.  went  into  the  pork  packing 
business,  and  the  following  year  Elisha  Swan 
bought  and  cut  up  three  thousand  hogs.  Most  of 
these  hogs  were  killed  by  the  farmers  and  the 
carcasses  were  bought  and  cut  up.  In  1840  Jabez 
Fisher  &  Co.  began  to  buy  hogs  and  erected  a 
slaughter  house,  and  soon  monopolized  the  whole 
business  and  drew  their  trade  from  a  circle  of 
about  forty  miles,  handling  during  the  season  an 
average  of  ten  thousand  hogs  or  more,  and  paying 
out  from  two  hundred  to  three  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  for  hogs,  wages,  etc. 

The  product  was  shipped  by  boats  going  down 
the  river,  the  boats  often  makinsr  their  entire 
cargo  of  pork,  and  going  direct  to  New  Orleans. 
The  making  of  the  barrels  was  also  an  important 
industry,  employing  from  fifteen  to  twenty  men 
throughout  the  entire  year.  The  number  of  men 
employed  in  the  entire  business  was  not  far  from 
one  hundred  during  the  busy  season,  and  brought 
to  the  city  and  county  many  of  the  men  who  later 
became  prominent  and  useful  citizens.  The  price 


paid  for  pork  ran  from  $1.75  to  $2.50  per  hundred 
pounds,  according  to  the  weight  of  the  hog,  heavy 
hogs  bringing  more,  accordingly,  than  light  ones. 
Another  great  advantage  to  the  county  was  the 
money  paid  out  by  the  Fishers.  It  was  the  time 
of  the  "wildcat  banks,"  as  they  were  called,  and 
the  currency  from  them,  with  which  the  country 
had  been  flooded  in  the  flush  times  of  1836  and 
1837,  was  practically  worthless  and  only  taken  at 
large  discounts,  which  varied  from  day  to  day, 
and  the  tax  collectors  absolutely  refused  to  take  it. 

The  gold  and  silver  had  been  driven  out  of  the 
country  by  the  cheap  money  and  money  to  pay 
taxes  was  almost  impossible  to  obtain.  In  this  di- 
lemma Mr.  Fisher  made  arrangements  with  a  bank 
in  Boston,  Massachusetts,  to  furnish  him  money. 
Mr.  Fisher  had  the  confidence  of  the  entire  coun- 
try as  being  a  man  of  the  strictest  integrity.  He 
offered  to  guarantee  all  money  he  paid  out  and 
such  was  the  extent  of  that  confidence  that  the 
tax  collectors  gave  "notice"  that  they  would  re- 
ceive "Boston  money"  as  they  called  it  at  par. 

Up  to  1850  this  was  about  the  only  way  the 
farmers  had  to  get  money,  except  a  few  deer  hides 
and  furs  they  might  have,  but  for  farm  produce 
there  was  no  cash  market.  Wheat,  to  be  sure,  in 
Chicago  brought  cash,  twenty-five  cents  a  bushel, 
but  it  was  necessary  to  haul  it  in  wagons,  and  a 
man  who  took  a  load  to  Chicago  and  paid  his  ex- 
penses on  the  way  had  just  a  "long  bit,"  twelve 
and  one-half  cents  left  of  the  proceeds. 

It  is  true  that  some  wheat  was  hauled  to  Chi- 
cago, but  it  was  necessary,  to  save  any  of  the  pro- 
ceeds, to  carry  provisions  and  blankets  and  camp 
along  the  road.  The  trip  occupied  about  a  week. 

Corn  was  nominally  worth  about  ten  cents  :i 
bushel,  but  no  one  wanted  any.  There  was  no 
sale  for  it. 

The  opening  of  the  canal  changed  this.  While 
the  prices  were  not  much  advanced,  things  could 
be  sold  at  home.  Boats  would  come  to  the  land- 
ing, the  grain  was  bought  here  and  then  shipped 
to  Chicago  or  St.  Louis. 

About  this  same  time  the  Chicago,  Eock  Island 
and  Pacific  railroad  was  projected,  and  in  the 
years  1853  and  1854  the  Peoria  branch  was  built 
through  the  townships  of  Henry  and  Steuben. 
Many  of  the  men  who  had  worked  building  the 
road,  charmed  by  the  beauty  of  the  country  and 
fertility  of  the  land,  settled  near  the  road,  some  in 
the  towns  and  some  on  farms  in  the  country,  and 
became  some  of  our  most  useful  and  prominent 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OP   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


citizens,  building  up  a  competency  for  themselves 
and  raising  noble  families  of  boys  and  girls  who 
became  some  of  our  best  citizens. 

About  this  time,  too,  immigration  from  the  New 
England  states,  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  be- 
gan to  come  in  by  great  numbers.  These  men 
had  more  money,  better  ideas  of  profitable  farming 
and  more  energy  or  at  least  were  more  accustomed 
to  work. 

Many  of  the  earlier  settlers  sold  out  to  them  and 
the  entire  country  began  to  put  on  a  new  aspect. 
Land  began  to  advance  in  value,  the  towns  began 
to  fill  up  with  merchants,  mechanics  and  grain 
buyers,  stocks  of  goods  increased,  hotels  were 
built  and  banks  opened,  business  began  to  flourish 
and  the  county  began  to  reap  some  of  the  pros- 
perity which  it  has  enjoyed  to  so  great  an  extent 
ever  since. 

Two  great  advantages  were  experienced  upon 
the  adoption  of  township  organization. 

First  was  the  annual  town  meeting,  which  en- 
abled the  townships  to  choose  their  township  offi- 
cials from  among  their  own  number,  making  their 
official  jurisdiction  coeval  with  the  township  and 
not  extending  beyond  the  lines.  The  other  was 
the  board  of  supervisors,  one  from  each  town- 
ship, a  kind  of  parliament  or  congress  where  the 
business  of  the  whole  county  was  transacted,  bxit 
in  which  each  township  had  a  representative, 
selected  from  among  her  own  citizens,  who  knew 
the  needs  of  the  township,  and  who  was  supposed 
to  look  out  for  her  welfare. 

Before  that  three  commissioners,  who  were  not 
supposed  to  have  any  particular  interest  in  any 
particular  township,  had  transacted  the  county 
business  as  a  whole,  and  the  county  officials  had 
looked  after  the  other  affairs,  the  system  being 
rather  unsatisfactory. 

The  township  and  town  meetings  are  carried  on 
on  true  democratic  principles,  the  people  as  a 
whole  having  complete  control  of  their  own  affairs, 
elect  their  own  officers,  and  are  responsible  to  no 
one  but  themselves. 

The  history  of  the  townships  of  which  Marshall 
county  is  composed  is  the  true  history  of  the  coun- 
ty, and,  in  fact,  the  only  history  that  can  be  writ- 
ten. 

While  there  were  settlements  in  almost  all  parts 
of  the  county,  and  a  county  organization,  yet  the 
settlements  were  scattered  and  the  county  organi- 
zation was  in  a  crude  and  incomplete  state. 

At    the    time    of    township    organization    there 


were  only  four  voting  precincts  in  the  county,  but 
this  did  not  work  so  much  hardship,  as  the  voters, 
as  a  rule,  were,  in  a  manner  bunched  together. 

Take  the  precinct  of  Henry.  Although  the  area 
comprised  what  is  now  the  three  townships  of 
Henry,  Whitefield  and  Saratoga,  yet  more  than 
nine-tenths  of  the  voters  lived  within  five  miles 
of  the  voting  place,  Henry.  At  the  time  of  town- 
ship organization  this  was  changed  and  a  voting 
place  established  in  each  township,  generally  as 
near  the  center  as  practicable,  the  election  being 
held  in  a  school  house.  At  the  time  of  the  elec- 
tion a  portion  of  the  time  was  devoted  to  town 
meeting,  where  any  business  pertaining  to  the 
town  could  be  brought  forward  by  anyone,  where 
it  would  be  properly  discussed  and  then  voted 
upon. 

Also  the  reports  of  the  several  officers,  who 
handled  money  belonging  to  the  township,  would 
be  made. 

As  we  have  said  above,  a  history  of  a  county 
must  necessarily  be  a  history  of  the  several  town- 
ships of  which  it  is  composed,  and  to  give  you  the 
history  of  Marshall  county  we  will  give  a  history 
of  the  several  townships. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

LACON    TOWNSHIP. 

As  the  first  permanent  settlements  in  Marshall 
county  were  made  in  what  is  now  Lacon  township, 
it  appears  to  us  as  though  the  history  of  the  town- 
ships should  begin  with  Lacon. 

Lacon  township  is  composed  of  two  fractional 
townships,  29  and  30  N.,  3  W.  of  the  3d  P.  M., 
and  is  shaped  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  a 
long  triangle,  being  a  trifle  over  four  miles  wide 
at  the  base,  extending  north  about  ten  miles,  and 
"  terminating  in  a  point,  it  contains  fifteen  full  sec- 
tions and  eight  fractional  sections,  the  Illinois 
river  washes  its  entire  western  line,  and  most  of 
the  fractional  sections  consist  of  swamp  lands 
and  bluffs  covered  with  timber  more  or  less  scrub- 
by, not  more  than  one-third  of  the  land  being 
good  farming  land. 

The  first  permanent  settler  in  Marshall  county 
was  Colonel  John  Strawn,  who  built  a  cabin  and 
moved  his  family  into  it  September  21,  1829, 
the  location  of  his  claim  being  about  three  miles 
east  of  where  Lacon  now  stand?. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF  MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


The  country  at  that  time  was  in  the  hands  of 
the  Indians,  who  often  came  to  the  house.  The 
only  white  men  they  saw  were  a  few  hunters,  and 
their  visits  were  few  and  far  between. 

The  nearest  settlement  at  that  time  was  Beards- 
town  and  Mr.  Strawn,  in  looking  for  supplies  for 
his  family  through  the  winter,  went  down  to  that 
place  on  horseback,  chartered  a  keel  boat  then  in 
use  on  the  western  rivers,  which  he  loaded  with 
corn  and  other  things  he  needed  and  laboriously 
poled  it  up  the  river.  This  was  probably  the  first 
landing  made  at  this  point  by  a  boat  larger  than  a 
canoe.  From  that  time  for  several  years  the  place 
was  known  as  Strawn's  landing. 

A  few  days  later  his  little  girls,  Rachel,  11  years 
old,  and  Mary  Jane,  9,  followed  the  wagon  tracks 
from  the  house  to  the  landing  and  were  probably 
the  first  white  persons  that  had  ever  set  foot  upon 
the  present  site  of  Lacon,  certainly  they  were  the 
first  females. 

The  girls  found  a  company  of  Indians  camped 
not  far  from  the  landing,  but  although  the  In- 
dians eyed  them  curiously  they  did  not  molest 
them  and  they  returned  home  greatly  to  the  relief 
of  their  mother. 

In  the  spring  of  1831,  about  eighteen  months 
after  the  settlement  of  John  Strawn,  General  Jona- 
than Babb  and  Major  Filler,  comrades  in  arms 
from  the  war  of  1812,  were  traveling  on  horseback 
from  Ohio  through  Illinois,  they  came  to  Strawn's 
Landing,  as  it  was  then  known,  and  were  struck 
by  the  beauty  of  the  situation  and  saw  that  it  was 
a  very  favorable  location  for  a  town. 

During  the  winter  of  1830-31  the  county  of  Put- 
nam had  been  reorganized,  groups  of  settlers  had 
located  in  different  parts  of  the  county  and  it 
became  imperative  upon  the  part  of  the  govern- 
ment to  open  land  offices  so  that  the  settlers  could 
enter  their  lands,  and  proclamation  was  accord- 
ingly made  that  a  government  land  office  would  be 
opened  in  Springfield,  then  a  small  but  growing 
town  on  the  Sangamon  river. 

When  Babb  and  Filler  saw  the  possibilities  of 
the  place,  upon  conferring  with  Mr.  Strawn,  they 
left  the  money  with  him  to  enter  the  place  in  their 
name,  and  on  July  18th,  1831,  the  first  day  of  the 
sales,  Mr.  Strawn  entered  in  the  name  of  Babb  & 
Filler  the  fractional  quarter  sections  of  land  known 
as-  the  S.  E.  14  Sec.  26,  Town  30,  F.,  3  W.  of  the  3 
P.  M.,  consisting  of  about  67.15  acres. 

A  town  was  laid  off  in  August,  1831,  by 
John  Stevenson,  surveyor  of  Sangamon  county, 


and  Colby  F.  Stevenson,  surveyor  of  Putnam 
county.  The  new  town  was  called  Columbia,  and 
the  dedication  was  acknowledged  before  Thomas 
Gallaher,  a  Justice  of  the  Peace  at  Hennepin,  and 
was  placed  on  the  records  there,  being  the  first 
town  plat  recorded  in  Putnam  county,  the  date 
being  August  19th,  1831. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  up  to  this  time 
the  entire  northern  part  of  the  state  was  an  almost 
unbroken  wilderness.  Five  years  before,  a  gentle- 
man had  ridden  from  Peoria  to  Chicago  without 
seeing  a  single  habitation  where  white  people  lived. 
Peoria  was  only  an  Indian  trading  station  with  a 
few  settlers,  and  Chicago  a  village,  not  yet  laid 
off,  of  some  forty  or  fifty  houses  and  two  hundred 
and  fifty  inhabitants  and  five  stores. 

During  the  next  five  years,  however,  a  great- 
change  had  come  over  the  land  and  settlers  had 
come  in,  in  considerable  numbers,  especially  in 
favored  spots,  and  not  far  from  Strawns  quite  a 
number  had  settled  before  the  fall  of  1831. 

Lot  and  Joshua  Bullman  had  taken  claims  a 
little  north  of  Strawns,  and  a  brother-in-law  of 
theirs,  Beltha  Griffeth,  one  near  them.  James 
Hall  and  Newton  Reeder  located  on  a  claim  a 
little  southeast,  and  they  were  soon  followed  by 
Lunsford  Broaddus,  who  settled  a  little  west  of 
them.  Quite  a  number  of  settlers  had  come  in  to 
the  south,  and  quite  a  settlement  grew  up  in  the 
Crow  Creek  neighborhood,  in  fact  so  thick  had  the 
settlers  become  that  some  of  the  earlier  ones  were 
selling  their  claims  to  others.  A  man  named 
Hamilton  settled  near  where  Joseph  Babb  had 
opened  a  farm.  Robert  Rickey,  George  Easter, 
the  Waughops  and  a  man  by  the  name  of  Lancaster 
had  settled  there. 

In  September,  1831,  there  was  held  a  public  sale 
of  lots  in  Columbia,  the  lots  bringing  from  $5  to 
$10  apiece  according  to  location.  It  appears  as  if 
there  must,  even  at  that  date,  have  been  quite  a 
population,  as  there  was  a  number  of  lots  sold  and 
it  can  hardly  be  expected  that  all  those  present 
wanted  to  buy  town  lots  at  even  the  low  price 
these  were  sold  for.  Among  the  buyers  were 
Samuel  Russell,  Jesse  Sawyer,  Thaddeus  Barney, 
William  Haws,  A.  N.  Denning,  Henry  Cassell, 
Jesse  Smith,  Joseph  Johnson  and  Elisha  Swan, 
but  it  was  not  till  the  spring  of  1832  that  any  at- 
tempt at  building  upon  the  site  was  attempted, 
and  even  then,  owing  to  the  Indian  scare,  it  was 
not  completed  for  two  years. 

At  this   time,   the   spring  of   1832,   there  was 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


quite  a  scare  from  the  rumors  of  Indian  troubles. 
Black  Hawk  had  crossed  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Stillman  fiasco  as  already  mentioned,  had  oc- 
curred. 

General  Neal  of  Springfield  had  been  sent  out 
and  fearing  trouble,  organized  several  companies 
of  militia  along  the  east  bank  of  the  Illinois 
river  as  a  precautionary  measure.  This  he  called 
the  40th  Regiment,  Illinois  Militia,  and  John 
Strawn  was  appointed  Colonel  of  the  regiment  and 
was  assigned  the  duty  of  patroling  along  the  Illi- 
nois river,  but  it  was  soon  found  there  was  no 
danger  of  the  Indians  in  this  vicinity,  and  after  a 
month's  service  they  were  mustered  out  in  Henne- 
pin,  June  18th,  1832. 

The  first  actual  settler  to  build  in  the  town  of 
Columbia  was  Elisha  Swan.  He  came  into  the 
country  in  1831  and  with  a  small  stock  of  goods 
opened  a  store  a  little  distance  from  the  "landing," 
but  not  on  the  site  of  the  town.  In  the  summer 
of  1833  he  made  arrangements  by  hewing  out  the 
frame  of  a  building  and  hauled  it  to  where  Henry 
now  is,  expecting  to  establish  a  claim  and  lay  out  a 
town,  but  he  found  others  had  interests  there,  and 
upon  inquiring  into  the  matter  it  was  found  the 
land  wanted  was  in  a  16th  section,  consequently 
was  school  land  and  could  not  be  entered,  and 
he  abandoned  the  project  and  moved  back  to  La- 
con  and  erected  his  building,  a  frame  20x36,  a 
story  and  a  half  in  height.  The  boards  for  the 
floor,  etc.,  were  brought  on  a  keel  boat  from  St. 
Louis,  but  the  weather  boards  were  rived  by  hand. 
It  was  quite  a  pretentious  and  serviceable  building 
for  the  times  and  served  both  as  store  and  resi- 
dence. While  Columbia  did  not  improve  much 
though  it  had  a  half  dozen  houses  by  1834  the 
country  east  was  rapidly  filling  up  with  settlers. 
And  at  an  election  for  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  a 
Constable  held  at  the  house  of  Colonel  Strawn  in 
June  of  that  year  fifty  votes  were  polled. 

In  1834  Jesse  C.  Smith  and  Joseph  H.  Johnson 
came  out  from  Cincinnati  on  horseback  viewing 
the  land,  and,  stopping  at  Colonel  Strawn's,  told 
him  they  were  thinking  of  building  a  mill  if  a 
suitable  location  could  be  found.  Colonel  Strawn 
persuaded  them  to  stop  at  Columbia,  and  as  an 
inducement  offered  to  donate  them  several  lots. 
They  were  pleased  with  the  site  and  the  mill  was 
built  in  1835  and  went  into  operation  in  the  fall 
of  1836. 

The  flouring  mill  which  was  quite  large  for  the 
times  and  place,  did  a  flourishing  business,  par- 


ties coming  from  all  the  northern  country  for  their 
supplies,  even  as  far  as  Galena. 

From  1835  the  town  improved  more  rapidly. 
Quite  a  number  of  houses  were  built  in  the  towii 
that  year.  In  1836  a  cemetery  was  laid  out.  The 
first  person  to  be  buried  in  it  was  a  young  lady 
by  the  name  of  Lancaster,  and  the  second  was 
James  Henthorn,  who  had,  during  the  summer, 
helped  to  form  the  first  Methodist  society,  and 
was  its  class  leader  at  the  time  of  his  death.  Dur- 
ing the  fall  of  this  year  a  sawmill  was  put  up  at 
the  lower  end  of  town  and  a  few  miles  south  a 
man  by  the  name  of  Barney  put  up  another  saw 
mill,  and  added  to  it  a  wood  cording  and  fulling 
machine. 

In  1835  the  little  village  of  Columbia  received 
an  influx  of  population  that  did  much  to  give  to 
Lacon  its  high  standing  as  a  literary  and  social 
place,  and  whose  names  became  household  words 
throughout  the  country.  They  were  the  brothers 
Fenn,  Ira,  Norman  and  William,  Dr.  Robert 
Boal,  William  Fisher,  Rev.  Augustus  Pomeroy, 
Samuel  Howe,  William  Hancock,  Hartley  Malone, 
H.  L.  and  H.  P.  Crane  and  some  others  who  were 
given  the  name  of  the  "Lacon  Colony."  They 
were  all  men  of  high  intellectual  attainment  and 
of  good  character  and  high  standing — men  that 
would  exert  an  influence  for  good  wherever  they 
might  go.  About  this  time  in  1836  the  name 
Columbia  was  changed  to  that  of  Lacon. 

During  this  time  immigrants  had  been  coming 
in  from  the  eastern  states  and  a  fine  class  of 
people  were  coming  in  rapidly,  the  farming  com- 
munity keeping  ahead  of  the  towns,  the  object  of 
the  greater  portion  being  to  establish  homes  for 
their  families.  But  about  this  time  it  received  a 
setback  in  the  hard  times  of  1836  and  '37.  Banks 
had  been  chartered  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
which  had  been  issuing  their  notes  without  limit. 
For  a  year  or  two  all  had  gone  well,  money  was 
plentiful  and  a  season  of  speculation  followed 
such  as  the  country  has  seldom  seen.  Everybody 
was  making  fortunes — on  paper — but  when  they 
came  to  realize  on  their  investments  the  bubble 
burst  and  they  found  what  they  thought  was 
money  was  but  little  if  any  better  than  scraps  of 
brown  paper;  the  money  was  absolutely  worthless. 
Then  came  hard  times.  The  gold  and  silver  which 
had  been  the  circulating  medium  had  been  driven 
out  of  the  country  by  the  cheap  money  and  there 
was  absolutely  no  money,  or  very  little,  to  be  had. 
This,  although  worse  probably  in  the  new  states 


:24 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


than  elsewhere,  was  felt  all  over  the  country  and 
put  quite  a  check  upon  immigration  for  a  time. 

About  the  year  1837  an  enterprise  was  started 
in  Lacon  that  did  more  than  any  other  thing, 
possibly  than  all  others  together,  to  bring  pros- 
perity to  it.  We  refer  to  the  pork  packing  in- 
dustry. The  first  buyers  were  Feiin,  Howe  &  Co., 
who  bought  and  cut  up  750  hogs  in  1837.  With 
this  firm  William  Fisher  was  connected.  In  the 
next  year,  1838,  William  Fisher  withdrew  from 
the  firm  and  went  into  partnership  with  his 
brother  Jabez.  They  established  one  of  the  larg- 
est pork  packing  plants  in  the  west,  buying  and 
packing  from  8,000  to  11,000  hogs  a  year,  paying 
out  some  years  as  high  as  $250,000  and  $300,000 
a  year,  and  Jabez  Fisher,  who  appears  to  have 
been  the  main  spirit  in  the  pork  business,  paid 
out  money  that  he  received  from  Boston  that  was 
guaranteed  good  and  that  the  collectors  would  re- 
ceive for  taxes.  It  was  a  godsend  to  the  farmers, 
for  no  other  money  could  they  get  that  would  pay 
taxes. 

In  addition  to  the  immense  trade  that  flowed 
from  the  pork  industry,  and  farmers  for  a  circle 
of  forty  and  fifty  miles  brought  their  pork  to  La- 
con,  the  establishment  employed  something  like 
100  men  during  the  busy  season. 

In  the  coopering  business  they  employed  from 
twelve  to  twenty  men  the  year  round,  and  used 
thousands  of  hooppoles  that  made  very  handy 
pocket  money  for  those  who  gathered  them. 

The  pork  packing  business  was  a  great  thing 
for  Lacon  and  was  also  a  good  thing  for  the 
Fishers,  for  they  prospered  exceedingly  and  in 
1849  and  '50  erected  in  Lacon  what  at  the  time 
was  probably  the  most  complete  building  for  the 
purpose  of  pork  packing  in  the  west,  not  excepting 
Chicago  and  Cincinnati,  expending  on  it  what  at 
the  time  was  an  immense  sum  of  money,  $10,000. 

The  pork  packing  industry  no  doubt  had  a  good 
deal  to  do  with  bringing  settlers  into  Lacon  and 
the  adjoining  country  that  is  now  Marshall  county. 

Much  happened  to  Lacon  about  the  years  1835 
to  1840. 

In  1835  a  postoffice  was  established  there.  Be- 
fore that  they  had  gone  to  Bell's  ford  on  Crow 
creek,  about  six  miles,  for  their  mail,  but  as  the 
postage  was  then  25  cents  on  a  letter  the  mail, 
as  might  be  expected,  was  not  heavy  and  it  is  said 
the  postmaster  carried  the  mail  in  his  hat  and 
handed  it  to  the  owners  as  he  met  them. 

In  1836  the  town's  name  was  changed  from  Co- 


lumbia to  Lacon,  and  in  the  same  year  the  road 
from  the  landing,  which  was  through  a  long  piece 
of  lowland,  most  of  the  time  a  swamp  or  marsh, 
was  made  a  substantial  road  by  laying  down  logs, 
covering  them  with  bushes  and  slough  grass  and 
putting  dirt  upon  it. 

A  ferry  across  the  river  had  been  established  by 
Blisha  Swan.  He  built  a  flatboat  propelled  with 
oars,  but  it  was  little  used  except  to  transport  coal 
across  the  river  from  the  Sparland  banks.  Mr. 
Swan  had  a  license  to  run  the  ferry,  for  which  he 
paid  $5  per  annum,  but  it  was  not  a  paying  in- 
vestment even  at  that  price.  In  1837  he  sold  his 
interest  in  the  ferry  to  Dr.  Boal,  who  built  a 
larger  boat.  It  afterward  passed  into  the  hands 
of  Fisher  &  Co.,  who  built  a  still  larger  boat  and 
stretched  a  rope  across  the  river  to  pull  it  back 
and  forth.  They  also  assisted  materially  in  build- 
ing the  causeway  that  runs  from  the  river  to 
Sparland.  In  1879  the  ferry  rights  passed  to  the 
city  of  Lacon,  which,  after  maintaining  the  ferry 
for  many  years,  in  1882  built  a  pontoon  bridge, 
which  was  renewed  in  1900,  which  with  some  re- 
newing and  repairing  is  in  use  today,  a  very  satis- 
factory bridge. 

In  1836  the  Lacon  academy  was  organized  and 
one  thousand  dollars  pledged  for  its  support,  a 
building  was  built  that  year  capable  of  accommo- 
dating sixty  or  seventy  pupils,  but  the  building 
was  intended  for  more  than  school  purposes,  and 
served  for  a  church,  a  town  hall,  where  elections 
and  courts  were  held ;  for  lyceums  and  other  pub- 
lic purposes,  but  no  school  was  taught  there  till 
the  spring  of  1837,  which  was  the  first  school  in 
Marshall  county,  when  Miss  Jane  M.  Kilgore  was 
employed  as  a  teacher.  This  school  house  an- 
swered the  purpose  for  a  few  years,  when  it  was 
necessary  to  build  a  larger  one,  which  in  1856 
gave  place  to  a  much  larger  and  better  building, 
which  in  1878  was  reconstructed,  more  room  added 
and  other  improvements  made.  This  building  had 
become  superannuated  and  out  of  date,  when  in 
1902  John  S.  Thompson,  a  wealthy  and  public- 
spirited  citizen,  offered  to  give  twelve  thousand 
dollars  towards  a  new  school  house  if  the  board 
would  build  one  worth  at  least  twenty-five  thou- 
sand dollars.  The  board  took  him  up  on  his  offer 
and  had  a  fine  building  erected,  up-to-date  in 
every  particular,  costing  about  thirty  thousand 
dollars.  It  is  undoubtedly  the  best  school  house  in 
the  county. 


LACON  PUBLIC  SCHOOL. 


PAST    AM)    1MJKSKNT    OK    MAIfSIIALL    A  XT)    1TTXAM    COTXTl  KS. 


The  first  church  was  built  by  the  Methodists  in 
1837,  and  was  the  only  church  building  for  sev- 
eral years.  Other  societies  were  formed,  but  wor- 
shiped generally  in  the  school  house  already  men- 
tioned. A  Presbyterian  society  was  formed  also 
in  this  year  and  a  remarkable  revival  experienced 
and  some  thirty-five  members  brought  into  the 
church. 

January,  1839,  the  act  establishing  Marshall 
county  was  passed  and  under  the  instructions  of 
the  law  the  commissioners  appointed  for  the  pur- 
pose made  Lacon  the  county  seat,  April  6,  1839. 
The  first  circuit  court  convened  in  Marshall 
county  April  23  of  that  year,  with  Thomas  Ford 
as  judge  and  J.  M.  Shannon  as  clerk.  A  grand 
jury  was  summoned  and  impaneled,  but  as  there 
were  no  cases  to  come  before  the  court  no  petit 
jury  was  called.  The  first  sessions  were  held  in 
the  Methodist  church,  but  in  December  a  contract 
was  let  for  the  building  of  a  court  house  of  stone 
and  brick,  forty  by  fifty-five  feet,  at  a  cost  of 
eight  thousand  dollars.  January  5,  1853,  this 
building  was  burned  down  through  some  defect  in 
the  chimney,  but  fortunately  the  records  were 
saved.  Another  buil^g  w?«  h"i1t  i"  IKJU,  at.  n 
cost^of  seven  thousand  *"'ght  b'UldrP^  fln11ara_JTliis 
building  was  entirely  remodeled  and  rebuilt  and 
greatlv  enlarge.!  in  is'.i:;.  !.i  what  it  is  at  piv.-.em. 
1906. 

Besides  her  pork  packing  interests  Lacon  at  one 
time  had  extensive  flouring  mills.  In  1855  Will- 
iam Fisher  built  a  mill  that  he  called  the  Phoenix 
mill,  at  a  cost  of  over  forty  thousand  dollars,  and 
soon  after  the  firm  of  Fenn,  Perry  &  Dobbs  built 
the  Model  mills,  costing  about  the  same  amount, 
and  later  added  to  it  a  small  distillery.  Both  the 
mills  nourished  for  several  years.  The  Phoenix 
burned  down  in  1871  and  was  never  rebuilt.  The 
Model  mills  partially  burned  in  1862,  but  the  next 
year  was  purchased  by  two  brothers  by  the  name 
of  Thayer,  who  rebuilt  the  mill  and  greatly  in- 
creased the  capacity  of  the  distillery,  and  in  a 
single  year  paid  the  government  one  million  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-three  thousand  dollars  in 
revenue  tax.  August  12,  1864,  the  boilers  of  the 
distillery  exploded, 'nearly  demolishing  the  build- 
ing and  killing  five  men.  The  building  was  patched 
up  after  this  but  the  Thayer  brothers  dying,  the 
business  ran  down  and  was  some  time  after  aban- 
doned. The  bonded  warehouse  in  use  when  the 
distillery  was  running  was  afterwards  converted 
into  a  hotel,  and  today  has  the  only  hall  of  any 


size  there  is  in  Lacon,  but  there  has  been  no  hotel 
in  it  for  several  years,  though  the  owner  and  wife 
have  their  residence  there. 

We  must  not  omit  mention  of  the  woolen  mill 
industry  of  which  the  citizens  of  Lacon  are  justly 
proud,  and  they  may  well  be,  for  if  we  except 
probably  a  brick  yard  or  two  it  is  the  only  manu- 
facturing establishment  in  Marshall  county. 
About  1862  Spencer  Ellsworth,  then  editor  of  the 
Lacon  Journal,  wrote  for  the  Chicago  Tribune  an 
article  on  manufactures,  which  came  to  the  atten- 
tion of  two  gentlemen  who  were  interested  in 
woolen  manufactures,  and  they  opened  a  corre- 
spondence on  the  subject  with  him.  The  corre- 
spondence led  to  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  and 
William  Fisher  and  Mr.  Ellsworth  were  appointed 
a  committee  to  meet  the  gentlemen,  and  the  out- 
come was  that  a  company  was  organized  and  in- 
corporated under  the  name  of  the  Lacon  Woolen 
Mill  Company,  with  a  capital  of  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  D.  E.  Thomas  was  chosen  presi- 
dent and  Spencer  Ellsworth  secretary.  During  the 
winter  books  were  opened  and  fifty  thousand  dol- 
lars worth  of  stock  subscribed  for,  and  the  next 
summer  the  necessary  buildings  were  built  and 
the  machinery  installed,  and  Mr.  Grieves  employed 
to  superintend  it.  The  mill  was  run  for  several 
years  quite  successfully  in  making  a  certain  kind 
of  shawl,  which  found  a  large  demand,  also  cer- 
tain kinds  of  piece  goods  were  made  that  gave  ex- 
cellent satisfaction,  the  mill  giving  employment 
to  about  seventy-five  persons,  but  during  the  hard 
times  of  1896  to  1898  the  business  fell  off  and  the 
mill  was  closed  down.  It  remained  closed  for 
about  three  years,  when  it  was  bought  by  Mr. 
Grieves  and  was  again  run  by  Grieves  &  Son,  and 
was  doing  a  good  business,  when  it  took  fire  and 
was  burned  to  the  ground  in  the  spring  of  1901. 
It  was  a  sad  loss  to  the  Messrs.  Grieves,  as  the 
insurance  was  light  and  they  were  not  able  to 
rebuild.  However,  a  popular  subscription  was 
started  that  fall,  the  building  rebuilt  and  some- 
what enlarged,  new  and  up-to-date  machinery  in- 
stalled the  next  summer,  and  it  was  turned  over 
to  the  Messrs.  Grieves.  It  was  too  good  a  thing 
for  Lacon  to  lose. 

Lacon  has  a  number  of  fine  churches.  The 
Presbyterian  society  in  Lacon  was  organized  May 
12,  1837,  the  first  minister  being  the  Rev.  Aug- 
ustus Pomeroy,  who  had  come  to  Columbia,  as  it 
was  then,  with  a  number  of  others,  the  year  be- 
fore, from  Ohio.  For  several  years  services  were^ 


PAST    AXJ)    PEKSEXT    OF    MARSHALL    A\I>    IH'TXAM    COt'XTI  KS. 


Jicld  in  the  house  of  Henry  T.  C'rane  till  the  school 
house  was  built.  The  present  fine  building  in 
which  they  worship  was  started  in  1849  and  con- 
secrated in  1851.  It  cost  four  thousand  dollars 
and  has  a  fine  bell  and  church  organ. 

In  1836  the  Methodists  formed  a  society,  the 
Eev.  A.  E.  Phelps,  with  John  McMurtrie,  a  sweet 
singer,  holding  a  meeting  in  an  unfinished  mill. 
On  his  next  visit,  two  weeks  later,  the  Methodists 
there,  to  the  number  of  sixteen,  handed  in  their 
letters,  a  class  was  formed  and  the  Methodist 
church  society  was  organized. 

For  the  first  year  meetings  were  held  in  a 
frame  building.  It  had  neither  fireplace  nor 
stove  and  was  used  summer  and  winter  by  both 
Methodists  and  Presbyterians.  In  1837  the  Meth- 
odists erected  a  building  which  was  dedicated  in 
November  of  that  year  by  the  Eev.  William  Can- 
cliff.  For  twenty  years  they  used  this  building, 
and  in  1855  began  building  their  present  place 
of  worship,  which  was  dedicated  on  June  24, 
1860.  It  is  a  large,  roomy  building  and  well  fitted 
for  their  accommodation. 

A  Baptist  society  was  organized  in  February, 
1855,  under  Elder  I.  L.  Mahan,  but  it  was  not 
until  January,  1856,  that  they  decided  to  build, 
and  in  the  latter  part  of  1856,  after  having  raised 
$4,500,  they  proceeded  to  erect  a  building,  trust- 
ing in  the  Lord  for  aid  to  finish  it.  They  erected 
a  substantial,  convenient  church  and  have  a  flour- 
ishing society,  with  resident  minister. 

The  Congregationalists  also  have  a  fine  place  of 
worship  and  a  large  congregation.  The  church 
was  organized  October  1,  1865,  with  a  member- 
ship of  forty  and  a  church  building,  costing  $4,- 
200,  was  erected  the  same  year,  the  lots  upon 
which  it  stands,  valued  at  the  time  at  $1,000, 
were  donated  by  Washington  E.  Cook.  In  1879 
the  Presbyterian  and  Congregational  societies  were 
united  upon  a  common  confession  of  faith  as  the 
Union  Church  of  Lacon. 

There  is  also  a  Catholic  society  and  church, 
built  in  1867.  It  is  one  of  the  finest  church  build- 
ings in  the  county  and  cost  about  $13,000. 

Lacon  has  the  usual  number  of  secret  societies. 
A  Masonic  blue  lodge  was  organized  October  4, 
1848,  and  the  Odd  Fellows  established  a  lodge 
October  17,  1851.  At  present  there  is,  besides 
these,  a  Knights  of  Pythias  lodge,  a  camp  of 
Modern  Woodmen,  a  Eebekah  lodge,  etc.,  which 
have  been  instituted  in  the  last  few  years. 

The  first  newspaper  published  in  Marshall  coun- 


ty was  the  Lacon  Herald,  the  first  number  appear- 
ing December  13,  1837.  It  was  published  by 
Allen  N.  Ford,  the  people  of  Lacon  giving  him  a 
bonus  of  $2,000,  and  he  was  to  publish  the  paper 
for  at  least  two  years.  After  the  two  years  were 
up  he  changed  the«name  of  the  paper  to  Illinois 
Gazette.  L"p  to  this  time  it  had  been  non-partisan, 
but  with  the  change  of  name  he  espoused  the  Whig 
side  of  politics.  Mr.  Ford  published  the  paper 
until  1866,  when  he  sold  it  to  Spencer  Ellsworth, 
who  changed  the  name  to  the  Home  Journal.  Mr. 
Ellsworth  published  it  until  his  death,  when  it 
went  into  the  hands  of  his  son,  Spencer,  who, 
after  a  few  years,  sold  it  to  W.  B.  Powell,  and  after 
his  running  it  for  a  few  months  it  passed  into 
the  hands  of  Charles  F.  Hacker,  who  had  been  in 
the  office  from  the  time  of  the  elder  Ellsworth. 
The  paper  has  always  maintained  a  high  reputa- 
tion and  in  execution  and  contents  will  compare 
favorably  with  the  best  of  the  country  newspa- 
pers. It  is  republican  in  politics  and  Mr.  Hacker, 
the  editor  and  proprietor,  is  now  postmaster  of 
Lacon. 

In  1850  the  democrats  started  the  Lacon  Her- 
ald, with  Jesse  Lynch  as  editor.  It  was  published 
by  different  parties  for  several  years  with  more  or 
less  success  until  at  length  it  was  purchased  by 
Spencer  Ellsworth,  who  stopped  the  publication 
and  sold  the  material  of  the  office. 

In  1867  J.  G.  Ford  started  the  Lacon  Democrat, 
but  though  he  published  a  very  good  paper  was 
not  as  successful  as  he  hoped  it  to  be  and  moved  ' 
the  office  to  Pontiac ;  but  a  short  time  later  Will- 
iam B.  Whiffen  brought  an  outfit  from  Chillicothe 
and  continued  the  publication  under  the  name  of 
the  Marshall  County  Democrat. 

Mr.  Whiffen  was  well  versed  in  the  political  his- 
tory of  the  state,  with  a  large  acquaintance  of 
the  prominent  men  and  he  soon  made  the  paper  a 
power  in  democratic  politics.  After  his  death  it 
passed  into  the  hands  of  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Day,  who  put  in  new  type  and  machinery  and 
greatly  improved  it  as  a  newspaper.-  It  has 
changed  hands  several  times  since  then  and  is 
now  owned  and  edited  by  F.  C.  Sorrells,  who 
maintains  the  high  reputation  it  has  won  as  a 
newspaper  and  party  organ. 

Marshall  county  may  well  be  proud  of  the  num- 
ber of  lawyers  who  have  been  educated  in  Lacon 
and  been  advanced  to  high  public  position,  some 
of  them  attaining  national  repute  and  many  of 
them  attaining  distinction  as  learned  and  honest 


PAST    AXD    PRESENT    OF   MAESHALL  AXD   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


judges  upon  the  bench.  Mark  Bangs,  United 
States  district  attorney  for  the  Northern  District 
of  Illinois;  G.  L.  Fort,  member  of  congress  for 
several  terms,  and  a  strong  candidate  for  the 
nomination  for  governor  of  the  state ;  Mark  Bangs, 
Samuel  L.  Richmond,  John  Burns,  Thomas  M. 
Shaw,  all  of  whom  served  with  distinction  a?  able 
and  upright  judges,  upon  the  circuit  bench. 
George  0.  Barnes,  who  was  honored  twice  as  a 
candidate  by  his  party  with  the  nomination  for 
Congress,  his  son,  R.  M.  Barnes,  now  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  lawyers  in  this  section ;  C.  N. 
Barnes  and  Judge  Winslow  Evans,  now  among  the 
most  prominent  members  of  the  Peoria  bar.  It 
is  certainly  a  grand  record  for  so  small  a  county 
as  Marshall  and  a  city  the  size  of  Lacon  to  con- 
tribute so  many  public  men  to  the  service  of  their 
country.  This  is  the  list:  A  United  States  dis- 
trict attorney,  a  congressman,  five  circuit  judges, 
and  two  state  senators. 

We  have  devoted  considerable  space  to  the  his- 
tory of  the  city  of  Lacon  because  it  has  made  and 
furnished  much  of  the  history  of  Marshall  county. 

As  for  the  rest  of  the  townships,  not  so  much 
can  be  said.  Lacon  township,  as  has  been  already 
mentioned,  is  a  long,  triangular  piece  of  land  with 
a  hypothenuse  of  about  twelve  miles  in  length, 
forming  the  east  bank  of  the  Illinois  river.  The 
land  along  the  river  from  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to 
a  mile  or  more  wide  is  more  or  less  of  a  swampy 
nature  and  this  is  bordered  by  a  system  of  bluffs 
covered  with  timber  of  more  or  less  value. 
Through  the  southern  part  of  the  township  flows 
Crow  creek  and  the  country  along  this  is  very 
rolling  and  was  covered  with  timber.  The  land  is 
reasonably  productive  where  it  can  be  worked  and 
the  rest  makes  very  good  pasture  land,  while  the 
timber  is  utilized  for  firewood.  As  it  contains 
the  two  necessities  of  the  pioneer,  wood  and  wa- 
ter, in  abundance,  the  Crow  creek  country  was 
early  settled  and  by  1835  there  was  quite  a  set- 
tlement there,  but,  like  the  face  of  the  country, 
the  settlers  there  were  a  rough  lot  and  were  mostly 
a  law  unto  themselves,  settling  most  of  their  quar- 
rels by  fighting — the  courts,  justices  and  constables 
enforcing  their  decrees  in  the  same  way  and  not 
always  coming  out  first  best.  Although  they  were 
hospitable  to  a  degree,  they  would  not  tolerate 
preachers  or  lawyers;  they  could  remain  over 
night,  but  next  day  were  given  to  understand 
they  had  no  use  for  them.  They  generally  took 
the  hint  and  left.  That  part  of  the  township  was 


in  bad  odor  with  the  more  civilized  communities 
for  a  long  time,  but  the  old  inhabitants  have  died 
or  moved  away  and  the  neighborhood  now  aver- 
ages up  with  the  rest  of  the  county. 

There  are  a  few  sections  of  fine  prairie  farm- 
ing land  in  Lacon  township,  but  the  greater 
part  of  it  is  rolling  and  was  at  one  time  covered 
with  timber.  It  has  been  largely  cut  away  and 
the  land  cleared,  some  of  it  utilized  for  crop 
raising  and  some  for  pasture. 


CHAPTER  X. 

IIOPEWELL    TOWNSHIP. 

This  township,  being  township  30  north,  range 
2  west  of  the  third  p.  m.,  lays  partly  along  the 
Illinois  river  and  partly  east  of  one  of  the  frac- 
tional townships  composing  the  township  of  La- 
con,  the  river  extending  about  four  miles  along 
the  northwestern  corner  in  a  southwesterly  direc- 
tion, cutting  off  parts  of  sections  5  and  7  and 
most  of  section  C. 

The  land  along  the  river  is  swampy  and  the 
greater  part  of  it  worthless,  so  far  as  crop  raising 
is  concerned,  for  something  like  a  mile  back  from 
the  river,  when  bold  bluffs  covered  with  timber 
take  up  the  land  for  about  two  miles  further  back, 
although  in  many  places  the  timber  has  been  cut 
off  and  the  land  cultivated.  Along  the  north  side 
of  the  township  are  the  bluffs  of  Sandy  creek,  but 
the  southwestern  part  of  the  township  is  fine 
prairie  land  and  contains  many  excellent  farms. 

The  first  settler  in  Hopewell  was  George  Wag- 
ner, who  put  up  a  cabin  in  1830,  on  the  farm 
known  as  the  Jerry  Feazle  farm.  James  Hall, 
William  McNeill  and  Newton  Reeder,  Lot  and 
Joshua  Bullman  and  Jacob  Smalley  came  in  1831. 

In  that  year  Elisha  Swan,  who  afterwards  fig- 
ured extensively  in  the  history  of  Lacon,  with  a 
man  by  the  name  of  Deming,  put  up  a  log  building 
on  the  Broaddus  farm,  near  Strawn's  landing,  and 
with  a  small  stock  of  goods  opened  the  first  store 
in  Marshall  county,  where  he  sold  such  things  as 
the  settlers  needed  and  traded  largely  with  the 
Indians. 

Those  mentioned  settled  in  the  southern  part  of 
the  township.  In  the  northern  part  Jesse  Sawyer 
and  Caleb  Forbes  settled  in  1831.  The  Free- 
mans,  William  White  and  John  Benson,  came  in 
1833,  as  did  Robert  Antrim,  Lemuel  Russell, 
Peter  Barnhart  and  William  Boys.  John 


30 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


Brumsey  settled  on  Sandy,  on  the  farm  where  his 
grandson,  James  Brumsey,  now  resides,  in  1833. 

From  this  on  settlers  came  in  rapidly  and  as 
the  country  filled  up  the  people  began  to  think  of 
schools,  and  the  first  school  was  built  about  two 
miles  west  of  Jesse  Sawyer's  in  1835.  It  was  a 
single  log  house  with  a  door  and  a  log  cut  out 
and  a  hole  left  for  light,  but  the  door  was  usually 
left  open  and  was  more  depended  upon  for  light 
than  the  window.  In  the  fall  of  the  same  year, 
1835,  another  school  house  was  built  further  south 
by  Lemuel  Russell,  James  Hall,  John  Wier,  John 
Strawn,  James  Kane,  William  Hancock,  the  Bull- 
mans  and  others,  which  was  in  comparison  quite  a 
pretentious  building,  and  was  used  for  meetings, 
debating  societies,  public  meetings,  shows,  etc.  It 
served  its  turn  for  several  years  and  at  last  was, 
after  a  more  up-to-date  house  had  been  built, 
turned  into  a  stable  for  horses. 

There  many  of  Marshall  county's  future  citi- 
zens imbibed  their  first  ideas  of  learning  and  in 
1880,  forty-five  years  after  the  building  of  the 
old  school  house,  a  picnic  composed  of  those  who 
had  attended  school  there  in  the  early  days  was 
held  on  the  spot  and  some  eighty  persons  were 
present  and  among  them  were  represented  some 
of  the  most  prominent  names  in  Marshall  county's 
history. 

The  first  mill  in  Marshall  county  was  (we  had 
almost  said  built,  but  there  was  no  building)  lo- 
cated on  Sandy  on  the  Broaddus  place  by  Zion 
Shugart  in  1830.  He  made  his  own  millstones, 
fastened  one  of  them  to  a  large  stump  and,  fix- 
ing up  some  machinery,  revolved  the  iipper  one 
around  on  it.  It  was  a  slow  process  and  only 
cracked  the  corn  into  small  pieces — did  not  grind 
it  into  meal — but  it  beat  the  hollowed  stump  and 
hickory  pestle  which  had  been  in  use,  a  long  way. 

Mr.  Shugart,  who  appears  to  have  been  an  in- 
genious and  practical  man,  built  a  mill  the  next 
season  to  run  by  water  and  was,  under  good  con- 
ditions, able  to  grind  about  two  bushels  of  dry 
corn  an  hour  into  very  fair  meal,  but  if  the  cus- 
tomers wished  the  bran  and  chaff  taken  from  it 
they  had  to  winnow  it  out  in  the  wind.  A  freshet 
the  next  spring  swept  away  every  vestige  of  the 
mill  except  the  stones. 

Two  of  the  more  noted  families  of  Hopewell  are 
the  Sawyer  and  Forbes  families.  Jesse  Sawyer  and 
Caleb  Forbes  came  into  this  county  on  horseback 
in  1830.  They  liked  the  country  so  well  that  they 
concluded  to  return  and  settle  in  it.  They  went 


to  their  home  in  North  Carolina  and  the  next 
April  packed  up  their  effects  and,  loading  them 
into  wagons,  they  started.  The  family  of  Mr. 
Sawyer  consisted  of  himself  and  wife,  four  sons 
and  a  step-son,  Lemuel  Russell,  who  became  quite 
famous.  Mr.  Forbes  had  two  sons  and  two  daugh- 
ters. They  traveled  across  Tennessee,  Kentucky 
and  Indiana,  a  distance  of  1,100  miles,  and  after 
going  through  many  trials  and  hardships  arrived 
at  their  destination  September  2,  1831,  having 
been  on  the  road  for  five  months.  Mr.  Sawyer, 
who  was  somewhat  of  a  rover,  explored  the  east 
side  of  the  river  that  fall  for  many  miles,  but  as 
he  found  no  country  that  suited  him  better  came 
back.  In  the  meantime  Mr.  Forbes  had  built  a 
very  comfortable  cabin  of  hewn  logs,  which  some- 
what later  was  arranged  with  port  holes,  etc.,  and 
used  as  a  fort  to  protect  them  from  the  Indians, 
but  they  were  never  attacked. 

For  some  time  after  their  settling  they  were 
often  visited  by  roving  bands  of  Indians,  who 
would  come  into  the  house,  sit  down  wherever 
the  notion  took  them,  after  begging  for  food, 
which  was  generally  given  them.  They  were 
scared  at  times,  as  the  Indians  could  not  speak  a 
word  of  English  and  their  motions  would  not  be 
understood,  but  they  were  never  molested.  The 
Indians  disappeared  from  this  section  at  the  time 
of  the  Black  Hawk  war  and  never  returned  in  any 
numbers. 

The  lands  that  Sawyer  and  Forbes  settled  upon 
are  now  occupied  by  their  descendants,  they  never 
having  gone  out  of  the  families. 

Probably  about  as  peculiar  a  case  of  long  dis- 
tance walking  as  ever  occurred  started  from  Hope- 
well.  In  1833  a  Mrs.  White  and  her  son,  who 
had  come  from  North  Carolina  the  year  before, 
became  so  much  discouraged  by  the  wildness  of 
the  country  that  they  determined  to  go  back.  Mrs. 
White  was  over  70  years  of  age.  They  had  n» 
money  to  buy  even  the  food  they  would  need,  the 
country  they  would  traverse  was  for  several  hun- 
dred miles  but  little  better  than  a  wilderness,  with 
a  settler  here  and  there,  yet  so  strong  was  her 
desire  to  see  her  old  home  that,  braving  all  ob- 
stacles, they  set  out.  Their  pathetic  story  made 
them  friends  everywhere  they  went,  who  furnished 
shelter  and  food,  and  they  actually  reached  home 
after  a  tramp  of  nearly  1,100  miles.  It  was  a 
most  wonderful  journey  when  it  is  remembered 
what  the  condition  of  the  countrv  was  in  1833 — 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


few  roads,  no  bridges,  and  houses  scattered  in 
clusters  many  miles  apart. 

Hopewell  township,  with  its  swampy  lands 
along  the  river,  covered  with  grass  higher  than 
a  man's  head,  its  heavily  timbered  bottoms  and 
the  hills  and  hollows,  was  an  ideal  place  for  game. 
Deer  and  wild  turkey  abounded,  rabbits,  raccoons, 
muskrats,  mink  and  other  fur-bearing  animals 
were  to  be  had  for  the  taking.  It  was  a  paradise 
for  a  hunter.  Long  after  the  game  had  mostly 
disappeared  from  other  parts  of  the  country  hunt- 
ers from  Henry  and  other  places  would  go  over 
there  for  deer  and  turkeys.  It  was  also  a  great 
place  for  wolves,  both  of  the  large  gray  timber 
and  smaller  prairie  varieties,  but  the  wolf  is  a 
cowardly  animal  and  seldom  attacks  man. 

The  northern  part  of  Hopewell  township  is,  as 
we  have  said,  somewhat  rough  for  farming,  though 
the  soil  is  excellent.  It  makes  excellent  pastures 
and  most  of  the  farmers  have  turned  their  at- 
tention to  raising  improved  stock.  Here,  on  the 
farm  first  settled  upon  by  their  ancestors  in  1831, 
live  I.  M.  Forbes  and  his  son  Rankin,  whose 
names  and  whose  magnificent  herd  of  Shorthorn 
Durham  cattle  have  a  national  reputation.  Wher- 
ever shorthorn  cattle  are  raised  the  name  of  I. 
M.  Forbes  is  a  household  word. 

On  the  Sawyer  farm,  upon  which  live  the  Saw- 
yer brothers,  grandsons  of  the  original  Jesse  Saw- 
yer. They  have  made  a  specialty  of  fine  Poland 
China  hogs,  of  which  there  are  no  better  in  the 
country. 

T.  W.  Stoner  &  Son,  later  comers,  but  still  old 
settlers,  are  making  quite  a  reputation  on  a  par- 
ticular strain  of  Duroc  Jersey  hogs.  Others  also 
are  engaged  in  improving  stock,  and  Hopewell 
township  and  the  adjoining  township  in  Putnam 
county  are  having  a  reputation  for  their  finely 
improved  breeds  of  horses,  cattle  and  hogs  all  over 
the  country. 

About  one-half  of  the  township,  the  southeast- 
ern part,  was  originally  prairie  land  and  some  of 
the  finest  farms  in  the  state  are  found  in  it.  You 
may  travel  far  before  you  find  a  country  where 
everything  denotes  a  more  prosperous  community 
than  you  will  find  in  Hopewell.  The  homes  are 
elegant,  roomy  and  commodious,  the  barns  are 
large  and  well  built,  the  outhouses  and  sheds  are 
plentiful  and  well  kept  up  and  everything  denotes 
an  industrious  and  painstaking  people,  as  well  as 
one  on  whom  prosperity  smiles. 

The    Lacon-Varna    branch    of    the    Chicago    & 


Alton  railroad  runs  through  the  southern  part  of 
Hopewell  and  on  it,  on  section  25,  is  located  Held, 
named  after  a  prominent  family.  An  elevator  and 
a  small  store  are  located  there  and  but  little  else. 
Considerable  shipping  is  done  there  and  passen- 
gers are  taken  on  and  let  off. 

There  are  no  churches  in  the  township  and  but 
four  school  houses,  but  many  of  the  children  at- 
tend school  in  Henry,  Lacon  and  other  outside 
townships. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

HENRY    TOWNSHIP. 

This  is  the  smallest  township  in  the  county,  but 
not  the  most  insignificant  by  any  means.  Its 
legal  designation  is  town  13  north,  10  east  of  the 
4th  principal  meridian,  or,  as  it  is  generally  writ- 
ten, town  13  N.,  10  E.  of  4th  p.  m. 

It  is  a  fractional  township  containing  only  ten 
full  sections  and  eight  parts  of  sections,  the 
others  being  cut  off  by  the  Illinois  river,  which 
flows  in  a  southwesterly  direction  along  its  east- 
ern boundary,  but,  unlike  the  eastern  side  of  the 
river,  it  here  washes  a  bold  bank  from  fifty  to 
seventy-five  feet  above  the  stream,  which  slopes 
from  the  top  down  to  the  water's  edge. 

In  the  township  of  Henry  is  located  the  city  of 
Henry,  one  of  the  important  cities  of  the  county. 
It  is  built  upon  a  bold  bluff  overlooking  the  river, 
the  soil  below  being  a  loose  gravel,  giving  at  all 
times  a  perfect  under-drainage,  so  that,  except  for 
a  few  days  in  spring,  when  the  frost  is  going  out, 
there  is  very  little  or  no  mud,  the  streets  being 
dry  and  dusty,  while  the  towns  of  the  prairie  are 
wallowing  in  mud  hub  deep,  yet  the  gravel  is  cov- 
ered with  a  fertile,  sandy  loam  which  enables  all 
who  wish  to  raise  fine  gardens. 

Running  back  from  the  brow  of  the  hill  at  the 
river  banks  lies  one  of  the  most  beautiful  prairies 
mortal  eyes  ever  rested  upon.  It  is  some  six  or 
eight  miles  long  and  about  three  miles  wide  and 
as  fertile  as  it  is  beautiful.  Who  was  the  first 
settler  in  Henry  is  very  uncertain.  A  man  by 
the  name  of  Hart  is  said  to  have  built  a  cabin  or 
shack  on  the  site  in  1830  and  another  cabin  is 
said  to  have  been  built  and  occupied  by  a  man 
named  Stacy,  who  moved  the  next  year  to  Web- 
ster, but  be  that  as  it  may  the  first  permanent 
settlers  were  Elias  Thompson  and  his  family, 
Mr.  Thompson  and  his  eldest  son,  David,  opening 
farms  and  cultivating  small  pieces  of  land,  rais- 
ing mostly  vegetables,  in  1833.  Mr.  Thompson 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


also  "kept  tavern"  in  his  house,  which  was  situ- 
ated across  the  ravine  near  the  old  Bowars  mill. 
His  son  David's  farm  was  a  little  further  out  on 
what  is  now  known  as  the  Davis  place. 

As  early  as  1832  there  was  a  wrangle  over  the 
claim  to  the  land  that  Henry  stands  on,  although 
the  land  was  not  yet  on  the  market.  The  site  was 
too  fine  a  one  to  be  passed  by. 

Erastus  Wright  and  William  Porter  of  Spring- 
field were  passing  through  and,  seeing  the  pros- 
pect of  a  future  town,  made  a  claim  and  also  pro- 
cured a  license  for  a  ferry.  In  1833  Anson  L. 
Deming  and  Elisha  Swan  made  a  claim  and  to 
strengthen  it  Mr.  Swan  procured  a  boat  for  a 
ferry  and  engaged  Mr.  Thompson  to  run  it.  He 
also  had  framed  a  store  building,  which  he  ex- 
pected to  erect  on  the  site  and  put  in  a  stock  of 
goods. 

After  some  wrangling  over  the  matter  the  rival 
claimants  agreed  to  get  a  surveyor  to  lay  off  a 
town  and  they  would  sell  the  lots  and  divide  the 
profits. 

They  sent  to  Springfield  for  a  surveyor,  but 
when  he  came  he  discovered  the  proposed  town 
was  on  section  No.  16  and  therefore  could  only  be 
sold  for  school  purposes,  by  school  authority. 

The  claimants  then  abandoned  the  project,  Mr. 
Swan  took  his  store  back  and  located  it  in  Colum- 
bia, afterwards  Lacon,  the  ferry  he  left  in  the 
possession  of  Thompson,  who  operated  it  for  some 
years.  During  this  time  a  few  transient  men 
had  come  into  the  region,  some  of  whom  took 
claims  or  rather  "squatted,"  for  they  could  get  no 
title  to  the  land  whatever,  and  these  petitioned 
the  superintendent  of  schools  of  Putnam  county, 
as  it  was  then,  for  permission  to  sell  the  school 
land,  alleging  there  was  fifty  white  people  and 
fifteen  voters  in  the  district,  though  they  must 
have  stretched  the  limits  of  the  township  to  have 
secured  the  requisite  number  of  voters.  The  neces- 
sary permission  was  granted,  rather  loosely,  it 
must  be  confessed,  to  sell  it  and  on  April  22. 
1834,  Charles  Nock,  Elias  Thompson  and  Reuben 
Convers,  as  school  trustees,  employed  B.  M. 
Hayes  to  survey  the  section  into  town  lots.  They 
reported  to  the  superintendent  as  follows : 

"Lots  from  No.  30  to  291,  inclusive,  with  streets 
and  alleys  within  and  thereto  appertaining  and 
the  public  grounds  on  said  map  designated,  we 
propose  as  a  town  by  the  name  of  Henry,  in 
memory  of  the  late  Gen.  James  D.  Henry,  de- 
ceased, who  gallantly  led  the  Illinois  volunteers 


to  victory  over  the  hostile  Sac  and  Fox  Indians 
in  the  year  1832,  and  who  lately  died  of  disease 
caused  by  the  arduous  service." 

The  suggestion  of  the  name  is  ascribed  to  Mr. 
Hooper  Warren,  who  was  an  intimate  friend  of 
the  general. 

A  week  after  the  survey  a  public  sale  of  the 
lots  was  held  in  Hennepin  by  Nathaniel  Cham- 
berlain, school  commissioner  of  Putnam  county. 
There  was  no  speculative  bidding  and  the  lots 
were  generally  sold  at  a  dollar  a  lot,  equivalent  to 
about  $1.25  an  acre,  the  price  of  government  land, 
and  in  that  way  the  wise  provision  of  the  govern- 
ment for  the  use  of  schools  was  frittered  away  be- 
fore anybody  was  here  to  look  after  the  people's 
interest.  In  less  than  five  years  $300  to  $500  was 
asked  for  these  same  lots.  Had  they  been  held  by 
the  school  authorities  for  a  few  years  they  would 
have  supported  a  good  school  here  for  several 
years.  The  sale  of  the  lots  did  not  at  the  time 
stimulate  the  building  of  the  city,  but  the  country 
around  it  began  to  fill  up  rapidly.  A  number  set- 
tled along  what  is  called  Crow  creek,  west  of 
Henry.  The  Mallorys,  a  father  and  several  grown 
sons,  came  about  1836;  David  B.  Culver  and 
Orsenus  Culver  and  a  brother-in-law,  Hiram  Kel- 
logg, about  the  same;  Laton  Frisbee,  a  brother- 
in-law  of  the  Mallorys,  and  Andrew  Styles  came 
in  1835,  Col.  Henry  Snyder,  William  Kidney  and 
Simeon  Pool  came  in  1836. 

Quite  a  number  of  German  families  settled 
just  below  Henry,  forming  quite  a  settlement, 
that  was  known  in  the  early  days  as  the  "Dutch 
settlement."  George  and  William  Klein,  George 
Heller,  Fred  Reinbeck,  Anton  Appel  came  in 
1837  and  later  came  Valentine  Wies,  Anton  Sidel, 
Fred  W.  Troendley  and  Balser  Klein  and  Joseph 
Merdian.  Others  also  were  coming  in:  Young 
Wren,  Sampson  Rowe  and  William  Lottrop,  and 
a  man  calling  himself  Joseph  Burr,  all  three  of 
whom  married  daughters  of  Elias  Thompson,  the 
pioneer  of  Henry.  Mr.  Thompson,  as  we  have 
already  said,  used  the  cabin  he  had  built  as  a 
tavern  to  keep  wayfarers.  In  or  about  1840  he 
built  a  more  pretentious  building  near  the  foot 
of  Edward  street  and  called  it  the  Henry  House. 
At  the  side  of  it  Joseph  Burr,  then  his  son-in- 
law,  built  a  smaller  building  and  opened  out  a 
general  store,  the  first  in  Henry.  He  was  alsa 
the  first  postmaster,  but  his  duties  were  not  oner- 
ous, as  the  postage  on  letters  was  twenty-five 
cents  and  on  papers  prohibitory. 


PAST    AND    PEESENT    OF    MAESHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNT1KS. 


33 


Burr  had  quite  a  history.  It  appears  that  he 
had  failed  in  business  in  the  east,  and  taking 
what  he  could  save  of  his  effects,  dropped  the  lat- 
ter part  of  his  name,  which  was  Joseph  Burr 
Bradley,  and  was  known  here  and  married  under 
the  name  of  Joseph  Burr.  He  did  a  flourishing 
business  for  a  while,  when  he  sold  out  the  busi- 
ness, went  east  and  settled  honorably  with  his 
creditors.  He  later  came  back  and  went  on  a 
farm  in  Whitefield,  where  he  lived  for  several 
years  and  raised  a  fine  family.  Later  he  moved  to 
Missouri,  where  he  died. 

With  the  building  of  the  Henry  House  Henry 
began  to  improve.  Benjamin  Lombard  came  to 
Henry  from  St.  Louis  with  a  small  stock  of 
goods  in  1840  or  1841,  and  he  was  followed  by 
Thomas  Gallaher,  who  came  from  Hennepin  a 
little  later.  These  stores  were  on  Water  street, 
that  runs  below  the  waterworks  under  the  hill, 
but  a  firm  by  the  name  of  Cheever  &  Cowel,  start- 
ing a  store  upon  the  hill  about  1844,  soon  began 
to  draw  the  greater  part  of  the  trade,  when  Thom- 
as Gallaher  a  year  or  two  later  built  what  for  the 
time  was  quite  a  pretentious  building,  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Front  and  Edward  streets  and  from  that 
on  the  building  was  all  on  the  hill. 

Sampson  Eowe  put  up  a  building  about  184Q 
near  where  the  Yaeger  sample  room  stands,  in 
which  for  a  time  he  kept  a  stock  of  goods,  and  in 
1845  Silas  Lock  built  the  building  in  which  he 
kept  a  hotel,  which  was  afterwards  a  part  of  the 
Paskell  bouse.  Up  to  this  time,  1845,  Henry  had 
improved  but  slowly,  the  stores  we  have  mentioned 
Jerry  Ong  had  a  blacksmith  shop  on  School  street 
and  Eichard  Dikes  a  tinsmith's  shop,  and  J.  J. 
Merdian  a  wagonmaker's  shop,  but  from  this  on 
it  filled  up  more  rapidly  and  by  1850  began  to 
take  on  city  airs.  Two  churches  had  been  built, 
a  Protestant  Methodist  in  1847  and  a  Christian 
church  in  1849 ;  the  first  was  a  frame  building 
with  little  pretention  to  ornament.  It  was  later 
sold  to  the  Episcopalians,  who  remodeled  it  and 
used  it  for  several  years.  It  stood  on  a  pretty 
knoll  on  Second  street,  near  the  corner  of  Carroll. 
The  Christian  church  was  of  brick  and,  for 
the  times  when  it  was  built,  a  fine  church  edi- 
fice. But  the  societies  that  built  them  gradually 
dwindled  away  and  the  churches,  though  used  for 
other  purposes,  gradually  went  into  decay  and 
now  have  both  disappeared. 

About  1844  the  first  frame  residence  was  built 
in  Henry,  on  the  corner  of  Front  and  School 


streets.  We  are  not  advised  who  built  it,  but  it 
was  occupied  in  a  very  early  day  by  a  family  of 
the  name  of  Sinclair.  It  is  still  in  existence  and 
is  in  fairly  good  repair. 

Between  1845  and  1850  there  was  a  considerable 
influx  of  population  and  the  buildings  began  to 
be  more  substantially  built.  A  brickyard  had 
been  installed  just  below  town  and  another  west 
of  town,  a  mile  or  so.  Men  with  capital  had 
come  in  and  Henry  had  began  to  have  a  healthy 
boom. 

In  1848  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal  was 
completed,  making  an  outlet  for  grain.  Boats  on 
the  river  became  more  frequent  in  their  visits  and 
the  facilities  for  shipping  products  greatly  in- 
creased. The  first  boatload  of  grain  shipped  from 
this  section  was  in  the  fall  of  1848.  It  was  load- 
ed at  Hall's  Landing,  about  four  miles  above 
Henry,  by  J.  C.  Bolley  for  W.  H.  Kellogg.  Mr. 
Eolley  came  to  Henry  the  next  spring  and  bought 
grain  and  shipped  it  to  Chicago.  Before  this  all 
the  wheat  sold  had  been  hauled  to  Chicago  on 
wagons,  requiring  about  a  week  to  make  the  jour- 
ney, and  it  brought  twenty-five  cents  a  bushel,  so 
that  the  incentive  to  raise  wheat  was  not  strong. 

In  1850  Thomas  Harless  put  up  the  double 
brick  known  as  the  Campbell  building,  later  the 
double  brick,  on  the  corner  of  Front  and  Edwards 
was  built  by  the  Warren  brothers  and  L.  Kauf- 
man, and  then  the  one  on  the  corner  of  Edwards 
and  Third  streets  by  Valentine  Weis,  while  the 
places  between  were  filled  up  with  less  preten- 
tious wooden  buildings. 

In  1850  two  brothers  by  the  name  of  Benjamin 
and  John  Bowars  put  up  a  flouring  mill  over  the 
ravine  just  north  of  Henry.  About  that  time, 
1851  and  1852,  came  Thomas  Harless,  the  Lloyd 
brothers,  Pool  &  Jones,  Thomas  Davis  and  his 
brother  Eichard.  Bichard  established  a  cooper 
shop,  made  money  and  invested  it  in  land.  He 
died  young  and  as  he  was  not  married  his  prop- 
erty fell  to  his  brother  Eobert.  Also  came  W.  W. 
Heath,  and  many  others,  men  of  sound  business 
qualifications  and  most  of  them  with  some  capi- 
tal. The  Peoria  branch  of  the  Chicago  &  Eock 
Island  railroad  was  finished  in  1854  and  this 
caused  a  new  influx  of  population,  mostly  work- 
ing men. 

In  1850  the  population  of  Henry  was  401,  in 
1851,  789;  in  1853,  1,009;  in  1854,  1,306. 

During  the  next  five  years  Henry  became  quite 
a  manufacturing  point.  W.  H.  Hanna  estab- 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


lished  a  wagon  shop,  which  afterwards  grew  into 
the  Hanna  wagon  factory.  A  man  by  the  name 
of  Seymour  had  a  large  wagon  factory,  employing 
from  fifteen  to  twenty  hands,  Holmes  &  Tabor  also 
established  a  wagon  and  plow  factory,  which  was 
run  by  different  parties  till  a  year  or  so  ago. 

I.  Koehler  manufactured  buggies  and  carriages, 
as  did  Joiner  &  Morten,  and  Ken.  McNeal,  and 
Henry  carriages  have  a  fine  reputation  through- 
out the  country.  Each  of  them  kept  from 
six  to  ten  hands  employed.  Henry  Watercott  at 
this  time  had  a  boot  and  shoe  shop  in  which  he 
employed  twelve,  fifteen  or  twenty  hands,  accord- 
ing to  the  season.  There  was  also  two  or  three 
harness  shops,  employing  from  three  to  six  hands 
•each,  and  a  number  of  blacksmith  shops.  The 
Granite  flouring  mill  was  built  and  put  in  opera- 
tion by  Alexander  and  Calvin  Hoagland  about 
1856  or  1857  and  for  a  time  did  a  tremendous 
business.  About  this  time  it  was  decided  to  build 
and  equip  a  paper  mill.  A  subscription  paper  was 
circulated  and  the  stock  needed,  about  $27,000, 
was  subscribed  and  the  mill  put  in  operation  in 
1858.  It  ran  with  various  success  till  1872,  when 
it  was  burned  to  the  ground  and  never  rebuilt. 

About  1864  the  state  legislature  took  up  the 
question  of  slack  water  navigation  and  in  1868 
it  was  decided  to  build  a  system  of  dams  and 
locks  and  it  was  decided  to  build  one  at  Henry. 
Work  was  begun  on  it  in  1869.  The  work  was 
under  way  for  three  years,  being  finished  in  1871, 
and  $500,000  were  expended  upon  it.  This  work 
was  done  by  the  state.  It  was  a  grand  piece  of 
work  and  employed  a  large  number  of  men  while 
building.  Ten  years  later  the  state  built  an- 
other lock  and  dam  at  Copperas  creek,  sixty  miles 
below,  and  later  the  United  States  government 
built  two  others,  one  at  La  Grange  and  one  at 
Kampsville. 

In  1859  a  company  was  incorporated  as  the 
Henry  City  Bridge  Company  and  the  next  spring 
work  was  begun  upon  a  dike  from  the  ferry  land- 
ing to  the  bluffs  and  a  good,  substantial  road 
above  ordinary  high  water  was  built.  This  ex- 
hausted their  funds,  however,  and  nothing  further 
was  done  till  about  1867  and  1868,  when  a  move- 
ment was  made  to  raise  funds  to  build  the  bridge. 
Shares  of  the  value  of  $50  each  to  the  amount  of 
nearly  $100,000  were  sold,  the  city  of  Henry 
taking  $30,000  and  the  township  $20,000,  the  rest 
being  sold  to  private  parties,  and  in  1870  a  mag- 
nificent bridge,  costing  $80,000,  was  built.  It 


has  never  paid  much  in  the  way  of  dividends,  but 
has  been  of  incalculable  service  to  the  city  by  giv- 
ing certain  and  safe  crossing  at  all  times  to  the 
fertile  and  prolific  farms  on  the  east  side  of  the 
river. 

About  1880  a  man  by  the  name  of  Stetson 
started  a  manufactory  of  pumps  just  west  of  the 
depot,  but,  having  some  trouble  about  the  pat- 
ents he  was  using,  he  abandoned  the  business, 
which  fell  into  the  hands  of  Theodore  Bickerman, 
who  established  the  Aera  Manufacturing  Company 
for  the  manufacture  of  the  Aera  windmills,  and 
for  several  years  did  a  thriving  business,  but  of 
late  years  there  does  not  appear  to  be  so  much  de- 
mand for  the  wooden  windmills,  but  the  factory 
is  still  running  under  the  care  of  Mr.  Bickerman's 
son-in-law,  Fred  Merdian. 

In  1901  George  Travis  started  a  small  factory 
for  the  manufacture  of  a  belt  tightener  of  his  own 
invention  for  traction  engines.  Two  years  later 
he  began  the  manufacture  of  a  peculiar  rocking 
grate,  also  of  his  own  invention,  for  engines,  for 
which  he  is  having  considerable  demand,  which  is 
constantly  increasing,  and  it  is  very  probable  that 
more  room  and  a  larger  supply  of  the  grates  will 
be  wanted  soon.  Mr.  Travis  is  the  patentee  of 
both  articles. 

The  palmy  days  of  Henry's  manufacturing  are 
past.  There  was  a  time  when  there  was  consid- 
erable done  and  the  shops  here  gave  employment 
to  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred 
men,  mechanics  and  artisans,  to  say  nothing  about 
the  carpenters,  masons,  painters,  etc.,  engaged  in 
building  trades. 

But  Henry  is  splendidly  located  for  factories 
and  some  day  when  the  transportation  facilities 
are  better  they  will  come  here.  • 

As  has  been  already  mentioned,  the  people  of 
Henrjr  began  very  early  to  look  after  their  spirit- 
ual welfare.  As  early  as  1840,  when  there  were 
only  some  twenty  or  thirty  persons  living  in  town, 
a  society  was  under  the  preaching  of  Rev.  Elder 
Devore,  a  Protestant  Methodist.  Services  were 
held  in  the  cabins  of  the  settlers  for  some  time 
and  in  1847  the  house  of  worship  already  spoken 
of  was  built.  In  February,  1850,  a  society  was 
formed  under  the  preaching  of  Elder  S.  L.  Per- 
vier,  which  took  the  name  of  the  First  Christian 
church.  For  a  time  services  were  held  in  the 
Protestant  Methodist  church,  but  arrangements 
were  made  during  the  summer  following  to  erect 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF      MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


a  church  and  a  very  substantial  brick  one,  30x50 
feet,  with  a  basement  room  below  (which  was 
later  used  for  a  school  room),  was  dedicated  in 
June,  1851. 

Thomas  Harless  and  Richard  Garretson  were 
the  heaviest  contributors,  but  almost  every  inhab- 
itant of  the  town  contributed  to  the  extent  of 
their  ability.  Richard  Dikes,  who  wished  to  do 
something,  brought  a  number  of  small  trees  from 
across  the  river  on  his  back  and  set  them  out  be- 
fore the  church.  The  trees  are  standing  today, 
noble  specimens,  but  the  society  dropped  off  one 
by  one  till  it  entirely  lost  its  identity  and  the 
church,  after  being  used  for  various  purposes,  was 
sold  at  auction  a  few  years  ago  and  was  taken 
down. 

About  1854  a  number  of  Presbyterians  from 
New  Jersey,  several  families  of  Hoaglands,  W.  P. 
Williams  and  others  came  to  Henry  and  the  year 
following  came  the  Rev.  John  Marquis,  and  steps 
were  taken  to  organize  a  church  society.  Lucas 
V.  Hoagland,  William  P.  Williams  and  James 
Petrie  were  selected  as  ruling  elders  and  the  next 
season  a  church  was  built.  The  society  flourished 
till  it  was  much  the  strongest  church  in  town, 
nearly  all  of  the  better  class  affiliating  with  it.  A 
church  was  built  and  a  strong  and  healthy  society 
grew  up. 

About  1880  a  rather  peculiar  circumstance  oc- 
curred, which  had  the  effect  of  dividing  the  con- 
gregation and  caused  it  .to  change  the  name  to 
"Congregationalists."  About  that  time  a  minister 
in  Jersey  City  who  had  acquired  considerable  ce- 
lebrity as  an  eloquent  preacher,  found  himself 
out  of  a  position  for  the  reason  that  his  name 
was  connected  with  the  cause  of  the  death  of  a 
young  lady  who  had  been  a  member  of  his  choir. 
Some  of  the  prominent  members  of  the  church 
broached  the  subject  of  giving  Mr.  Glendenning, 
the  gentleman  in  question,  a  call.  An  equal  num- 
ber opposed  the  idea.  The  matter  was  argued, 
pro  and  con,  for  some  months  and  although  those 
who  had  first  broached  the  subject  were  joined  by 
others,  they  coiild  not  get  votes  enough  to  carry 
their  point. 

At  last,  however,  a  meeting  was  held  where  the 
majority  present  were  in  favor  of  the  call  and 
voted  to  make  it  .and  Mr.  Glendenning  received  a 
call  to  Henry,  but  it  stirred  up  an  immense 
amount  of  ill  feeling,  not  only  in  the  church,  but 
through  the  whole  town,  people  who  had  no  in- 
terest in  the  church  taking  sides.  As  the  Pres- 


bytery would  not  receive  Mr.  Glendening,  the 
church  voted  themselves  Congregationalists.  An- 
other minister  was  secured  by  the  others  and  the 
dissenting  Presbyterians  and  others  held  services 
in  the  old  Christian  church,  which  was  not  at 
that  time  otherwise  occupied. 

Mr.  Glendenning  preached  here  for  several  years 
and  the  prejudice  died  out  somewhat,  but  many 
never  overcame  their  dislike.  After  he  went  away 
the  church  gradually  came  together  again.  About 
fifteen  years  ago,  they  built  a  new  church,  taking 
down  the  old  one,  and  have  since  built  a  parson- 
age and  keep  a  resident  minister  most  of  the  time. 

Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  Methodist  preachers 
were  the  first  on  the  ground  and  services  were 
held  at  a  very  early  date  by  the  "circuit  riders" 
in  the  cabins  of  the  settlers.  We  cannot  tell  when 
the  first  "class"  was  formed  or  when  the  first 
society  was  organized,  but  it  was  at  a  very  early 
date.  The  first  church  was  built  in  1852,  and  a 
few  years  after  a  parsonage  was  built.  The 
church  has  been  in  a  reasonably  nourishing  con- 
dition, having  its  ups  and  downs,  to  be  sure,  ever 
since  its  organization. 

In  1885  Mrs.  Harrom,  a  wealthy  widow  lady, 
gave  a  sum  of  money  to  the  church  and  it  was 
decided  to  build  a  new  church.  The  old  church 
was  given  to  the  Duke  brothers,  who  were  just 
getting  fairly  started  in  business  when  they  were 
burned  out  and  for  several  years  it  formed  a  part 
of  the  building  they  used,  but  is  now  occupied 
by  A.  &  A.  Dalzer  as  a  wagon  shop. 

A  fine  new  church  was  built  in  modern  style, 
with  conference  and  session  rooms,  that  can  be 
thrown  into  one  large  audience  room  by  movable 
partitions. 

In  1900  they  built  a  new  parsonage,  a  fine, 
up-to-date  residence,  and  rent  the  old  one.  The 
church  is  now  very  flourishing,  the  pastor,  Rev. 
D.  S.  McCown,  now  serving  his  fifth  year. 

In  March,  1857,  Rev.  J.  R.  Hibbard,  at  the 
request  of  Charles  Davis,  Henry  Vogelsang  and 
Joseph  Holmes,  organized  a  society  of  the  follow- 
ers of  the  doctrines  of  Emanuel  Swedenborg.  In 
1865  and  1866  they  built  a  small  church  capable 
of  accommodating  some  200  people. 

They  have  maintained  their  organization  through 
the  years  and  for  a  time  had  a  flourishing  society, 
but  they  have  dropped  off  one  by  one  and  as  they 
have  had  very  few  accessions  for  several  years  the 
society  has  dwindled  till  it  is  quite  small.  A 


36 


PAST   AND   PEESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


missionary  preacher,  Rev.  L.  G.  Landersberger, 
comes  and  holds  services  once  a  month. 

The  sect  known  as  Christian,  or  Campbellites, 
have  a  small  but  a  very  comfortable  and  well  fur- 
nished church  here.  The  society  is  not  a  strong 
one.  The  church  was  built  about  1890  through 
the  efforts  of  Elder  John  Wherry,  who,  with  his 
two  sons,  all  wealthy  farmers,  had  moved  into 
town  and  were  engaged  in  the  mercantile  busi- 
ness. A  few  years  before  a  revivalist  of  that  per- 
suasion had  held  a  series  of  meetings  and  made  a 
number  of  converts,  mostly  young  women.  They 
generally  have,  services  about  every  other  week, 
the  pulpit  being  filled  by  students  from  Eureka 
College,  who  in  this  way  eke  out  their  finances 
and  get  practical  experience. 

An  Episcopal  society  was  formed  here  probably 
some  time  in  the  early  '60s.  Soon  after  its  for- 
mation they  secured  possession  of  the  Protestant 
Methodist  church,  which  they  repaired  and  remod- 
eled, and  for  several  years  held  services  in  it. 
About  1875  two  ladies,  daughters  of  Robert  Da- 
vis, a  wealthy  man  who  had  recently  died,  built  a 
small  but  very  neat  church  in  memory  of  their 
father  and  presented  it  to  the  society.  About  1900 
the  society  bought  a  residence  and  fitted  it  up 
for  a  parsonage.  The  present  rector  is  the  Rev. 
R.  F.  Keicher. 

In  1870  there  were  several  Baptists  residing  in 
and  near  town,  one  of  the  principal  ones  being 
Deacon  Nehemiah  Merritt,  living  on  the  place 
now  occupied  by  his  nephew,  S.  S.  Merritt.  Dea- 
con Merritt  had  two  daughters,  one  of  whom 
married  a  young  minister  by  the  name  of  Greg- 
ory. Rev.  Gregory  was  quite  an  energetic  man 
and  persuaded  the  few  members  to  build  a  church, 
going  considerably  in  debt  himself  for  it. 

He  preached  for  a  short  time  only,  when  he 
found  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  look  up  other 
business,  as  the  society  was  so  small  and  scat- 
tered that  it  could  not  support  him.  The  church 
stood  empty  for  some  time  and  then  was  sold  to 
pay  the  debts  and  was  moved  to  a  farm  about  two 
miles  from  town  and  converted  into  a  residence. 

Although  among  the  very  earliest  settlers  in  the 
vicinity  of  Henry  were  a  considerable  number  of 
German  Catholic  families  and  many  priests  came 
among  them  to  say  mass,  officiate  at  funerals,  wed- 
dings and  christenings,  and  visit  the  sick, 
etc.,  it  was  not  until  1850  that  they  had 
any  established  place  of  worship.  In  1852  the 
foundation  of  a  church  was  laid,  but  it  was  not 


until  two  years  later  that  the  church,  known  as 
St.  Mary's,  or  the  "German  Catholic  church," 
was  built.  It  was  considered  a  very  fine  church 
at  the  time,  was  35x56  feet,  with  22-foot  ceiling. 
It  was  nicely  arranged  inside,  With  a  gallery  for 
the  choir,  was  equipped  with  a  bell,  and  later  a 
fine  pipe  organ,  the  first  in  the  city,  was  in- 
stalled. In  1870  a  much  larger  brick  building 
was  built  for  a  school,  which  has  since  been 
looked  after  by  the  sisters. 

In  1874  the  congregation  exceeded  the  ca- 
pacity of  the  church  and  about  one-third  of  the 
congregation  speaking  English  exclusively,  while 
most  of  the  services  were  in  the  German  language, 
they  concluded  to  separate,  and  the  Irish  built  a 
fine  church,  under  the  name  of  St.  Joseph's,  to- 
ward which  the  German  congregation  gave  $4,000. 

They  have  a  fine  building,  well  adapted  for  the 
purpose  it  is  intended,  have  a  bell  and  organ, 
and  the  congregation,  which  is  mostly  Irish,  have 
a  resident  priest  of  their  own  nationality.  A  few 
years  ago  they  built  an  extremely  nice  residence 
near  the  church  for  a  parsonage. 

The  present  pastor  of  St.  Joseph's  is  the  Rev. 
E.  S.  Kniery  and  of  St.  Mary's  is  Rev.  Leonz 
Zumbuehl.  St.  Mary's  church  is  getting  rather 
old  and  is  out  of  date  and  the  congregation  are 
making  preparations,  having  already  quite  a  sum 
laid  aside  for  the  purpose,  to  build  a  new  church 
at  a  cost  of  between  $35,000  and  $40,000. 

Henry  people  have  always  taken  great  interest 
in  schools  and  education.  In  1846,  when  the  in- 
habitants all  told  amounted  to  no  more  than 
thirty  people,  the  first  school-house  was  built  on 
School  street,  where  Charles  Balleweg's  house  now 
stands.  In  the  spring  of  1847,  Miss  Sarah  Burt 
was  engaged  to  teach  the  first  school,  which  con- 
sisted of  six  or  eight  little  fellows,  two  of  whom 
are  still  living  at  Henry. 

The  house,  as  may  be  supposed,  was  a  small  one, 
built  of  logs  and  supplied  with  puncheon  floors  and 
benches,  but  it  was  about  as  good  as  could  be  ex- 
pected under  the  circumstances.  This  building 
was  used  off  and  on  for  school  purposes  till  the 
Christian  church  was  built,  when  the  basement  of 
the  church  was  fittted  up  and  used  for  school  pur- 
poses, but,  it  not  being  considered  healthy  for  the 
children,  a  new  two  story  brick  building  was 
erected  in  1854,  which  was  amply  sufficient  for  a 
time. 

About  1870  the  school  was  graded  and  the  build- 
ing being  somewhat  crowded,  the  building  built 


I'AST    AND    1'HKSKNT    OF    MAESHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


37. 


for  the  Northwestern  university  was  secured  and  the 
high  school  department  was  moved  to  that  and  the 
first  class  of  four  members  was  graduated  in  1876. 

In  1885  the  high  school  building  being  pro- 
nounced unsafe  and  at  the  same  time  being  on 
the  extreme  verge  of  the  city,  it  was  decided  to 
build  a  n§w  school  building  nearer  the  center  of 
the  city  and  have  the  school  all  under  one  roof, 
and  the  present  magnificent  building  was  erected 
at  a  cost  of  $25,000.  Nine  teachers  and  a  super- 
intendent are  employed  and  the  high  school  grad- 
uates from  fifteen  to  twenty  each  year.  Beside  the 
Henry  public  school  there  are  five  other  school 
districts  in  the  township. 

In  1860  a  frame  building  was  built  near  St. 
Mary's  church  for  a  school  house.  The  building 
had  been  originally  intended  for  a  barn,  but  it 
was  finished  for  a  school.  It  did  for  awhile, 
but  about  1870  the  project  was  started  to  build  a 
larger  building  and  the  present  fine  structure  was 
the  result.  The  building  is  of  brick,  well  built 
and  well  furnished,  two  stories  in  height,  and  is 
largely  patronized  by  the  younger  scholars  for 
several  miles  around.  Only  the  elementary 
branches  are  taught  and  the  scholars  who  wish  to 
advance  farther  attend  the  public  school.  The 
school  is  supported  by  the  church. 

In  the  history  of  the  educational  institutions 
of  Henry  it  will  hardly  do  to  pass  entirely 
the  college  and  seminary,  though  both  are  now 
among  the  things  that  were.  As  early  as  1848 
Rev.  Henry  G.  Pendleton,  a  Presbyterian  minis- 
ter, who  had  come  into  the  country  a  few  years 
before,  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  a  semi- 
nary for  females  for  training  as  teachers.  He 
canvassed  the  country  among  the  then  sparse  pop- 
ulation and  succeeded  in  getting  subscriptions  to 
be  paid  back  later  in  tuition  and  in  1849  built  a 
frame  building  about  a  mile  and  a  half  northwest 
of  Henry.  He  had  a  flourishing  school  till  1855, 
when  the  building  was  entirely  consumed,  most  of 
the  students  losing  their  belongings. 

Not  discouraged,  he  soon  set  about  rebuilding, 
borrowing  quite  a  sum  from  an  eastern  capitalist, 
and  built  a  large  four-story  brick  building.  He 
carried  on  the  school  for  several  years,  but  it  did 
not  succeed  financially  and  he  was  forced  to  aban- 
don it. 

A  school  was  later  kept  there  for  a  few  years 
by  Prof.  Loomis  and  wife,  both  excellent  teach- 
ers. After  he  left  it  remained  idle  for  several 
years,  when  a  Rev.  Derr  and  his  family  started  a 


school  there,  which  was  quite  successful  for  a 
time,  but  the  reverend  gentleman,  not  being  up 
to  his  reputation  and  becoming  mixed  in  some 
shady  transactions,  the  school  was  closed  and  Mr. 
Derr  went  away,  leaving  many  to  mourn  over  his 
departure.  It  was  never  tried  to  revive  the  school 
and  a  few  years  ago  the  building  was  taken  down 
and  the  brick  used  for  other  purposes. 

In  1854  a  charter  was  secured  for  the  North 
Illinois  University,  to  be  located  at  the  city  of 
Henry  and  a  fine  brick  building  was  erected  at  a 
cost  of  about  $25,000  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city. 
The  building  was  under  the  auspices  of  the  Pro- 
testant Methodist  church  and  was  intended  to  be- 
come a  first  class  educational  institution.  It  flour- 
ished for  awhile,  but  jealousies  sprang  up  between 
the  professors  and  the  hard  times  of  1857  and 
1858  coming  on,  the  school  languished.  Necessary 
funds  were  hard  to  get  and  the  school  was  closed. 
There  were  a  few  later  attempts  to  revive  it,  but 
they  all  failed.  The  building  remained  idle  for 
some  years,  when  it  was  bought  by  the  city  and 
used  for  the  high  school  department  of  the  public 
school.  It  was  used  for  this  purpose  till  the  pres- 
ent school  house  was  built,  when  the  building  and 
grounds  were  sold  and  the  building  taken  down 
and  carted  away.  Henry  now  has  no  school  but 
the  Catholic  and  the  public  school,  which  is  one 
of  the  very  best.  Its  graduates  are  well  qualified 
to  enter  upon  life's  duties  or  equally  well  fitted  to 
enter  colleges  or  universities  if  they  wish  the 
higher  education. 

Henry  is  as  pretty  a  little  city  as  can  be  found 
anywhere.  It  has  an  efficient  system  of  water- 
works, owned  by  the  city,  and  a  superior  electric 
light  plant,  owned  by  private  parties,  the  streets 
being  lighted  by  2,000-candle  power  arc  lights  and 
the  stores  and  residences  by  incandescent  arc  and 
bulb  lights.  It  has  a  city  hall,  an  artesian  well, 
giving  two  kinds  of  water,  a  park  with  cement 
walks  eight  feet  wide  running  diagonally  through 
it,  equipped  with  bandstand  and  many  permanent 
seats.  It  also  has  over  eighty  blocks  of  cement 
sidewalk,  reaching  to  nearly  every  part  of  the 
city.  The  residences,  some  of  which  are  very  fine 
ones,  are  all,  even  the  most  lowly,  kept  in  good 
repair  and  nicely  painted;  the  yards,  lawns  and 
streets  are  kept  clean  and  everything  looks  com- 
fortable, cozy  and  homelike. 

Henry,  from  its  earliest  days,'  has  always  been  a 
great  trading  point,  drawing  trade  from  a  circle 
of  twenty  miles  or  more,  and  today,  though  towns 


PAST   AND   PEESENT   OF   MAESHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


have  sprung  up  in  every  direction,  it  is  still  cele- 
brated for  the  amount  of  trading  done  here,  and 
no  other  place  in  the  county  can  show  anything 
like  the  stores  or  extent  and  variety  of  stocks  to 
equal  the  Henry  stores,  one  store  here  employing 
twenty  clerks  and  then  often  cannot  wait  on  their 
customers. 

Henry  is  well  supplied  with  fraternal  societies. 
An  Odd  Fellows'  lodge  was  instituted  in  1850, 
being  No.  63  in  the  state  of  Illinois.  They  own 
the  building  on  the  corner  of  East  Park  row  and 
Third  street.  It  has  a  storeroom  below  and  the 
hall  is  above. 

A  Masonic  lodge  was  instituted  in  1851  and  is 
No.  119.  It  is  in  a  flourishing  condition  and 
owns  its  hall,  which  is  over  the  clothing  depart- 
ment of  the  Hutchins  Lincoln  store  and  is  elab- 
orately fitted  up  and  furnished. 

About  1895  the  Knights  of  Pythias  and  Mod- 
ern Woodmen  established  lodges  here,  and  in  later 
years  have  been  established  several  other  mutual 
insurance  societies,  among  them  the  Western 
Catholic  Union.  There  is  also  Eastern  Star  and 
Eebekah  lodges,  a  Women's  Club,  a  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic  post  and  a  Women's  Eelief  Corps ; 
in  fact,  Henry  has  about  everything  a  well  organ- 
ized town  should  have. 

In  our  history  of  Henry  we  should  not  omit 
mention  of  the  Farmers'  and  Mechanics'  County 
Fair,  which  was  located  in  Henry  after  a  spirited 
competition  with  Lacon  as  to  which  would  raise 
the  most  money  for  it.  Henry  raised  $3,600,  La- 
con  falling  about  $500  short. 

The  grounds  of  the  fair  were  located  just  west 
of  the  pity  in  1858,  the  necessary  buildings  erected 
and  the  fair  inaugurated.  For  several  years  it 
was  a  great  success,  but  after  a  few  years  the  re- 
ceipts diminished  and  after  running  for  several 
years  the  holding  of  fairs  was  abandoned. 

Some  ten  or  twelve  years  ago  the  grounds  were 
leased  by  a  company  which  laid  out  a  racing  track, 
repaired  the  building  and  for  several  years  held 
very  successful  racing  meetings. 

Before  leaving  Henry  and  its  institutions  we 
should  not  omit  the  newspapers,  of  which  there 
are  two,  published  weekly,  and  they  rank  well  up 
among  country  newspapers. 

Each  is  a  six  column  quarto,  printed  all  at 
home  in  the  well  equipped  printing  offices,  which 
print  not  only  the  papers,  but  do  beside  a  large 
amount  of  job  work  each  year,  being  well  equipped 
to  do  almost  anything  in  the  printing  line. 


The  first  paper  in  Henry  was  published  by  Bob- 
ert  Euggles,  in  December,  1852,  and  went  under 
the  name  of  the  Henry  Courier.  Mr.  Buggies  pub- 
lished the  Courier  till  July  1,  1862,  when  it  was 
sold  to  J.  D.  &  C.  S.  Woodward. 

In  1863  the  Marshall  County  Democrat  was 
started  by  C.  E.  Fisk,  but  was  later  sold  to  F. 
M.  Mills,  but  after  continuing  the  paper  through 
a  political  campaign,  finding  the  patronage  was 
not  sufficient  to  sustain  it,  discontinued  the  pub- 
lication and  later  sold  the  material  of  the  office 
to  S.  S.  Burdick,  who  in  April,  1865,  began  the 
publication  of  the  Marshall  County  Telegraph. 
In  the  fall  of  that  same  year  George  Burt  bought 
a  half  interest  in  the  paper.  The  next  spring 
Burdick  &  Burt  bought  the  interest  of  C.  S. 
Woodward  in  the  Courier  and  consolidated  the  two 
papers,  calling  the  new  paper  the  Marshall  County 
Republican.  Burdick  soon  sold  out  his  interest  to 
the  other  partners,  who,  together,  ran  the  paper 
till  1869,  when  George  Burt  bought  from  Wood- 
ward his  interest  and  has  since  owned  and  pub- 
lished the  paper  under  the  name  of  the  Henry 
Republican.  It  is,  as  its  name  indicates,  repub- 
lican in  politics.  A  few  years  ago  Mr.  Burt  asso- 
ciated with  himself  his  son,  George  A.,  and  the 
firm  name  is  George  Burt  &  Son. 

In  1885  three  brothers  by  the  name  of  O'Ban- 
ion  instituted  a  paper  they  called  the  Henry 
Times.  After  publishing  it  for  three  years  they 
sold  it  to  J.  S.  Burt,  who  since  that  time  has  been 
the  owner  and  publisher.  About  six  years  ago  he 
associated  his  son  with  him  and  the  paper  is  now 
published  by  J.  S.  Burt  &  Son.  The  Times  is 
democratic  in  politics. 

Both  offices  are  equipped  with  large  cylinder 
presses  with  folders  attached,  which  are  run  by 
gasoline  power,  and  are  finely  equipped  with 
smaller  presses,  all  the  necessary  type,  etc.,  while 
the  Republican  office  also  has  a  linotype  typeset- 
ting machine. 

Both  offices  print  the  entire  paper.  They  are 
well  patronized  both  by  subscribers  and  advertis- 
ers and  are  an  honor  to  the  town.  Like  everything 
else  in  Henry,  they  are  first  class. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

WHITEFIELD    TOWNSHIP. 

Whitefield  township  lies  directly  west  of  Henry 
township.     Its  legal  designation  is  Town  13  N\, 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF     MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


R.  9  E.  of  the  4  P.  M.,  and  was  named  in  honor 
of  its  first  supervisor,  John  B.  White.  It  is  most- 
ly composed  of  extremely  fine  fanning  lands,  on 
what  is  known  as  the  High  Prairie,  and  forms  a 
part  of  the  celebrated  military  tract. 

The  country  in  the  extreme  eastern  part  of  the 
township  consists  of  a  system  of  rather  bold  bluffs 
that  are  underlaid  with  coal,  which  crops  out  in 
_  many  places,  and  large  quantities  of  it  are  taken 
out  by  drifting  into  the  sides  of  the  hills.  But 
the  much  greater  part  consists  of  fine  rolling 
prairie  lands,  very  fertile. 

The  town  is  bounded  along  its  northern  and 
eastern  boundaries  by  Crow  creek,  which  with 
flight  deviations,  follows  the  entire  north  and 
east  boundary,  turning  abruptly  at  the  northeast 
corner.  The  bluffs  which  are  really  the  bank  of 
the  river,  the  Henry  prairie  being  a  kind  of  second 
bottom,  were  heavily  timbered  and  the  ravines 
with  which  they  are  intersected,  in  the  early  days 
gave  protection  to  a  gang  of  freebooters  as  well 
as  being  the  home  of  many  deer  and  wild  tiirkeys. 

The  first  settlers  are  supposed  to  be  two  broth- 
ers by  the  name  of  Reeves,  who  were  living  in 
Putnam  county  but  came  down  and  located  a 
claim  on  Crow  creek  which  lay  partly  in  the  prai- 
rie and  partly  in  the  timbered  bluff.  They  re- 
mained but  a  short  time  and  turned  the  claim 
over  to  their  brother  George,  who  did  not  come 
to  live  here  till  several  years  later  and  who  be- 
came quite  notorious  as  will  be  mentioned  further 
on. 

The  first  real  settler  in  the  township  was  War- 
ford  Bonham.  Mr.  Bonham,  generally  known  as 
Father  Bonham,  had  a  large  family,  some 
of  whom  were  married.  Mr.  Bonham  had  come 
from  Ohio  in  1833  and  stopped  in  Tazewell  coun- 
ty. In  the  winter  of  1834  and  1835  he  and  his 
sons-in-law,  James  Tanqnary  and  John  Haskins, 
coming  across  the  river  looking  for  locations,  came 
upon  the  spot  selected  by  Mr.  Bonham.  It  was 
a  beautiful  little  plain  lying  at  the  foot  of  the 
bluff  with  a  gradual  slope  to  the  creek,  contain- 
ing about  one  hundred  acres  in  the  extreme  south- 
east corner  of  the  township.  The  two  sons-in-law 
found  claims,  on  land  not  yet  in  market,  a 
mile  or  so  south  of  their  father-in-law's,  but  ly- 
ing in  what  is  now  Steuben  township.  They  built 
cabins  on  their  several  claims  and  in  the  spring 
went  down  and  brought  up  their  families.  All 
three  of  them  remained  on  their  claims  till  a 
good  old  age  and  died  there. 


A  year  or  two  later  George  Bonham  made  a 
claim  a  little  further  up  the  creek  from  his  father, 
and  Jerial,  another  son,  a  claim  west,  extending 
up  on  the  bluffs. 

In  1838  George  Reeves  came  on  the  claim  his 
brothers  had  taken  some  years  before,  and  Wm. 
Rowe,  the  same  year  or  a  year  later,  settled  still 
further  up  under  the  bluffs,  with  a  fine  piece  of 
bottom  laud  between  him  and  the  creek. 

Between  the  years  1838  and  1845  a  number 
of  settlements  were  made  in  Whitefield.  Richard 
Hunt,  Abijah  Lyon,  Major  Elias  Thompson, 
Joseph  Burr  Bradley,  Sampson  Rowe,  Chauncey 
Barnes,  Samuel  Coleman  and  David  Fanning  had 
located  just  at  the  edge  of  the  bluff,  while  Hiram 
Kellogg  had  located  on  the  creek.  The  beautiful 
prairie  land  that  formed  about  three-fourths  of 
the  township  had  as  yet  no  settlers  on  it.  It  was 
thought  to  be  too  far  from  wood  and  water. 

About  1840  a  man  named  Hale  built  a  sod 
house  well  out  in  the  prairie,  but  lived  in  it  but 
a  short  time.  This  afterward  fell  into  the  hands 
of  Lucas  and  Charles  Martin,  brothers-in-law  of 
Chauncey  Barnes.  They  put  up  a  good  log  house 
and  it  was  occupied  for  a  year  or  two  by  Charles, 
who  was  married,  Lucas  living  with  him,  when 
they  sold  out  and  went  to  Iowa. 

From  1846  the  township  began  to  fill  more 
rapidly.  In  the  more  eastern  part  of  the  township 
came  George  Burt,  and  Horace  Spencer  came  in 
1846.  Joseph  Robertson  built  a  little  farther 
out  on  the  prairie  and  William  Underwood  came 
there  a  year  or  two  later.  At  an  early  date,  prob- 
ably not  far  from  1840,  a  family  by  the  name  of 
Mallory  settled  in  the  extreme  northeastern  part 
of  the  township. 

Along  on  the  northern  line  about  1840  a  num- 
ber settled,  Timothy  Atwood,  George  Bi  dwell, 
the  Heustes  family,  Swifts  and  others.  About 
1850  a  number  of  families  came  from  West  Vir- 
ginia and  bought  farms  in 'the  western  part  of 
Whitcfield  and  eastern  Saratoga.  Joseph  Ray, 
Adam  and  James  Faris,  Joseph  Buchanan,  Eddy 
Stewart  and  Mr.  Gaston,  Zephaniah  Bell,  a 
family  by  the  name  of  Henderson,  Joseph  Morri- 
son, William  Beeks  and  others.  These  people  were 
all  Presbyterians  and  as  soon  as  they  became  fair- 
ly settled  in  their  new  home  they  set  about  organ- 
izing a  society,  and  in  1857  built  a  house  to  wor- 
ship in.  It  was  of  brick,  and  while  not  large  it 
accommodated  them  very  well.  About  this  time 
came  the  Bursons,  Nighswangers,  John  Taylor, 


•10 


PAST   AND   PBESENT   OF   MAESHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


the  Platters,  Harvey  Allen  and  others,  who  were 
Christians  or  Campbellites.  They  also  organized 
a  society  and  built  a  frame  church  a  mile  south 
and  a  mile  east,  in  which  they  held  services  for 
several  years.  Just  a  mile  east  of  the  Christian 
church,  on  the  farm  of  Edward  Burson,  the  Bap- 
tists built  a  neat  little  church.  But  many  of  the 
members  of  these  congregations  moving  west  and 
others  dying  the  societies  dwindled  fall  there 
was  no  more  support  for  a  pastor  and  at  last 
the  meetings  were  entirely  abandoned,  the  build- 
ings sold  and  either  pulled  down  or  moved  off 
and  now  not  a  vestige  marks  the  spot  where  either 
of  the  three  churches  stood.  Neither  is  there  a 
person  living  there  who  used  to  attend  them  nor 
hardly  a  descendant  of  the  families. 

About  1862  members  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal church  formed  a  society  and  built  what  is 
known  as  the  Whitefield  Center  church.  Services 
are  maintained  regularly  and  it  is  in  a  flourishing 
condition.  There  is  a  cemetery  attached  which 
is  looked  after  and  is  kept  in  good  order.  The 
cemeteries  attached  to  the  other  churches  have 
been  abandoned  and  most  of  the  bodies  taken  up 
and  reburied,  most  of  them  in  the  M.  E.  ceme- 
tery or  Center,  as  it  is  called. 

We  are  not  certain  when  the  first  school  house 
was  built  in  Whitefield,  but  it  is-  true  that  schools 
were  begun  there  at  a  very  early  date.  About 
1847  or  1848  a  school  was  taught  in  an  abandoned 
cabin  just  east  of  George  Burt's  farm  by  Miss 
Clarissa  Thompson,  a  daughter  of  Major  Elias 
Thompson.  About  1850  the  inhabitants  around 
Sugar  Grove  petitioned  to  be  set  of?  as  a  school 
district,  which  was  done.  It  was  called  District 
No.  1  and  the  next  year  a  school  house  was  built  on 
a  hill  just  west  of  the  grove.  Another  school  house 
was  built  not  long  after  near  Major  Thompson's 
place.  It  was,  however,  a  typical  log  cabin  and 
quite  small,  but  with  an  enormous  fireplace  and 
chimney.  It  was  afterward  replaced  with  a  neat 
frame  biiilding.  Quite  a  number  of  influential 
families  moved  into  the  Sugar  Grove  neighbor- 
hood about  1855.  James  and  Smith  P.  Hill,  John 
T.  Smith,  Harrison  Gregory  and  others,  and  in 
1867,  when  the  Grove  school  was  rebuilt,  the 
site  was  moved  one  half  mile  west  of  the  old 
location.  Later,  as  the  prairie  filled  with  settlers, 
school  houses  were  built  in  other  places,  one  at 
Burson's,  one  at  Dunlap's,  one  near  Merrett's,  one 
at  the  northwest  corner  of  the  township,  one 
near  Henry  Ham's,  called  the  Eedtown,  and  one 


on  Section  16,  called  Center.  This  for  many 
years  served  as  a  town  hall  till  about  ten  years 
ago,  the  township  built  a  very  nice  and  convenient 
town  hall. 

Whitefield  had  a  sensation  in  1845.  It  became 
a  certainty  that  for  some  time  a  gang  of  thieves 
had  been  operating  through  this  section  of 
country,  and  it  began  to  be  suspected  that  George 
Beeves  was  making  a  harboring  place  for  the , 
gang.  Mr.  Beeves'  family  consisted  of  himself 
and  wife,  four  sons  and  a  daughter,  a  very  pretty 
and  accomplished  girl,  the  sons  just  coming  into 
manhood. 

Mr.  Beeves  himself  was  liked  by  every  one. 
He  was  a  good  neighbor,  always  willing  to  assist, 
just  in  all  his  dealings  and  in  every  way  quiet 
and  gentlemanly  in  his  behavior.  But  his  sons 
were  more  than  suspected  of  being  engaged  in 
petty  pilfering  about  the  neighborhood.  Another 
thing  that  gave  rise  to  suspicion  was  that  Mr. 
Beeves  had  several  cabins  and  outhouses,  that 
could  be  used  for  sleeping  rooms  about  the  place, 
most  of  them  back  in  the  bushes  put  of  sight 
from  the  road  or  house.  Another  thing  was  that 
he  often  had  well  dressed  visitors  come  and  stay 
there  some  times  only  for  a  day  or  so  and  some- 
times for  weeks  together.  These  gentlemen  did 
not  appear  to  have  any  business,  a  very  suspicious 
circumstance  at  that  time. 

Mr.  Beeves'  place  was  admirably  adapted  for 
the  purpose  it  was  supposed  to  be  used  for — hid- 
ing stolen  horses.  His  cabin  was  in  the  mouth 
of  a  large  ravine  through  which  ran  a  small  creek ; 
high  bluffs  ran  from  it  to  the  north  and  south 
which  were  seamed  with  smaller  ravines  and  the 
whole  covered  with  thick  brush,  plum  thickets,  etc. 
It  was  an  ideal  place  for  the  purpose  and  a  better 
one  could  not  have  been  selected,  while  north  and 
south  the  Crow  creek  bottoms  near  by  were  cov- 
ered with  a  rank  growth  of  grass,  from  eight  to 
ten  feet  long,  and  a  man  on  horseback  could  not 
be  seen  ten  feet  away. 

While  there  was  not  much  horse  stealing  or 
heavy  robbery  done  in  this  immediate  neighbor- 
hood, word  came  from  other  places  of  numerous 
cases  and  where  the  parties  were  captured  they 
were  either  bailed  out  and  not  heard  of  again  or 
made  out  to  get  clear  by  the  aid  of  confederates. 

Cameron  Beeves,  the  oldest  son,  had  been  caught 
in  one  or  two  robberies,  and  was  even  then  in 
hiding,  having  escaped  from  the  officers  after 
the  robbery  of  a  store  in  Hennepin.  The  whole 


PAST    AXH    IMiKSKXT    OF    MAl.'SHAI.L    A.\l>    1TTNAM    COTXTIKS. 


country  was  roused  by  the  numerous  robberies 
and  it  was  determined  to  squelch  the  Reeves  gang. 
A  committee  was  appointed  to  notify  Mr.  Reeves 
to  meet  them  the  next  day  at  Council  Grove,  a 
small  grove  about  three  miles  southwest  of  Henry 
and  a  mile  or  so  east  of  the  Reeves  place.  It  is 
said  to  have  been  a  place  where  the  Indians  at 
times  held  councils. 

It  will  give  some  idea  of  the  excitement  at  the 
time  when  it  is  known  that,  notwithstanding  the 
scattered  inhabitants,  three  hundred  men  were 
gathered  at  the  grove,  coming  from  Princeton, 
Tiskilwa,  Peoria  and  all  around  for  thirty  or  forty 
miles.  They  came  on  horseback  and  almost  every 
man  carried  his  rifle,  as  was  the  custom.  The 
old  man  was  very  quiet  about  the  matter,  saying 
he  was  innocent  of  wrong  doing  and  expressed  his 
willingness  to  meet  with  the  committee;  but  his 
wife  stormed  like  a  tiger  robbed  of  her  young. 
The  next  day,  prompt  to  the  time  specified,  Reeves 
came  riding  up  to  where  the  people  were  as- 
sembled. The  meeting  was  organized  by  appoint- 
ing Hall  S.  Gregory  chairman.  Dr.  Swanzy,  a 
fiery  Irish  doctor  from  Tiskilwa,  who  bore  an  ex- 
cellent reputation  as  a  physician,  made  a  speech 
and  after  recounting  the  many  crimes  that  had 
been  committed  urged  the  extermination  of  Reeves 
and  the  entire  gang.  His  speech  was  received 
with  approval  by  many  in  the  crowd  and  Mr. 
Reeves  would  have  been  shot  to  pieces  had  not 
the  chairman  shielded  him  with  his  own  body. 
Dr.  Boal,  of  Lacon,  replied  .in  a  more  temperate 
speech,  advising  moderation  in  dealing  with  Mr. 
Reeves,  giving  him  time  to  settle  up  his  business 
and  leave  the  country,  but  when  several  wished 
to  know  if  the  doctor  would  go  security  for  their 
good  behavior  he  declined,  and  was  told  to  "sit 
down." 

Mr.  Reeves  plead  his  own  case  and  appealed  to 
those  who  knew  him  if  they  had  ever  found  any- 
thing wrong  or  dishonest  in  him.  After  the  talk 
of  Mr.  Reeves,  which  had  mollified  the  crowd 
somewhat,  Dr.  Temple,  of  Chillicothe,  spoke,  ad- 
vising a  middle  course  and  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  of  twelve  to  take  Mr.  Reeves  and  his 
family  in  charge  and  see  that  they  were  sent  out 
of  the  country.  A  majority  of  those  present  were 
in  favor  of  this  and  the  crowd,  led  by  the  com- 
mittee, and  accompanied  by  Reeves  went  to  his 
house.  Purchasers  were  found  for  the  stock,  and 
the  household  goods  loaded  upon  wagons,  and 
then  fire  was  applied  to  the  cabin  and  soon  noth- 


ing remained  of  it  but  a  pile  of  ashes.  The  fam- 
ily was  then  escorted  to  the  river  bank  and  kept 
under  guard  till  the  arrival  of  a  steamboat  from, 
above,  when  they  were  put  aboard  and  warned 
never  to  return.  It  was  thought  by  some  that 
the  old  lady  did  return  several  months  after  to 
secure  some  hidden  treasure,  but  it  may  be  only 
a  story. 

The  lesson  then  received  appears  to  have  been 
a  salutary  one.  The  family  went  into  the  country 
that  is  now  Omaha.  Sophronia,  the  daughter, 
married  A.  D.  Jones,  the  founder  of  Omaha,  and 
its  first  postmaster.  They  were  wealthy  and  re- 
spected and  Mrs.  Jones  moved  in  the  first  society. 
Cameron,  the  oldest  son,  was  elected  the  first  sher- 
iff of  the  county  and  it  is  said  made  a  faithful 
and  efficient  officer.  The  other  sons  became  well 
to  do  and  raised  respectable  families,  except  the 
youngest,  who  ruined  himself  by  drink  and  died 
of  dissipation. 

Whitefield  is  the  only  township  in  Marshall 
county  west  of  the  river  that  bears  the  distinc- 
tion, though  it  is  not  an  enviable  one,  of  having 
a  wilful  murder  committed  within  its  borders. 

March  18,  1854,  George  Bonham,  having  de- 
termined to  move  to  Chicago,  was  holding  a  sale. 
A  number  of  men  sent  a  boy  to  Henry  for  a  jug 
of  whiskey,  then  costing  twenty-five  cents  a  gal- 
lon. The  whiskey  was  brought  and  drank  and 
the  iisual  effects  followed.  John  Organ  and  an- 
other man  got  into  a  quarrel.  William  Organ, 
his  brother,  who  was  perfectly  sober,  tried  to 
persuade  him  to  go  home,  when  James  Shinn  came 
up  behind  him  and  plunged  a  large  clasp  knife 
into  his  side.  Organ  died  in  a  few  minutes.  The 
murder,  so  far  as  Shinn  was  concerned,  was  en- 
tirely unprovoked.  He  was  captured  and  after 
a  long  and  costly  trial  was  sentenced  to  the  peni- 
tentiary for  three  and  a  half  years,  the  sentence 
giving  universal  dissatisfaction. 

Whitefield  is  a  township  of  farms.  Almost 
every  acre  is  tillable  and  the  land  after  being 
farmed  for  a  half  century  is  still  producing  large 
crops  of  corn  and  oats.  Unlike  any  other  town- 
ship in  the  county  it  is  not  traversed  by  a  rail- 
road nor  has  it  a  town  in  it.  There  is  a  place 
they  call  Whitefield  corners  where  there  is  a 
store  or  two,  a  blacksmith  shop,  a  church,  a  resi- 
dent doctor  and  several  residences,  but  it  is  not 
in  Whitefield  or  even  in  Marshall  county.  It  is 
all  over  the  line  in  Bureau  county,  except  the 
school  house. 


['AST    AM)    IMJKSKNT    OK    MARSHALL    AM.)    1MTNA.M    COTXTIES. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

SARATOGA    TOWNSHIP. 

Saratoga  township  is  located  in  the  northwest 
corner  of  Marshall  county  and  on  the  government 
maps  is  Town  13  N.,  R  8,  E.  of  the  4th  P.  M. 
It  is  almost  entirely  a  level  prairie  except  a  strip 
along  its  northern  border,  which  is  rolling  and 
somewhat  broken.  Saratoga,  although  it  contains 
some  of  the  finest  land  in  the  county,  consequently 
the  finest  anywhere,  was  one  of  the  last  to  be 
settled  in  the  county.  In  1850,  the  year  of  town- 
ship organization,  a  man  by  the  name  of  J.  A. 
J.  Smith  came  up  from  Peoria  county  and  put 
up  a  house  on  the  land  now  occupied  by  Joseph 
Harrington.  There  were  no  settlers  in  Whitefield 
at  the  time'  between  his  place  and  the  strip  of 
bluffs  along  which  the  inhabitants  of  Whitefield 
were  located,  and  they  thought  he  was  a  very 
foolish  man,  as  they  did  not  think  he  could  live 
there,  which  shows  how  little  was  really  known 
of  the  prairies  in  those  days. 

However  Mr.  Smith  did  manage  to  exist  there 
and  was  so  well  pleased  with  his  location  that 
when,  in  the  fall,  he  went  down  to  his  old  home 
in  Peoria  county  he  was  so  enthusiastic  over  it 
that  the  next  spring  there  was  quite  an  influx  of 
settlers  came  up  from  there. 

Among  them  were  Jonas  and  Samuel  Divilbiss, 
Archibald  and  Hugh  McVicker,  Mason  and  Henry 
Seclye,  and  a  little  later  came  many  others,  John 
C.  Townsend,  Ira  Torrey,  Peter  Smith,  the  Lytles 
and  others. 

Some  time  before  Smith  settled  a  man  by  the 
'  name  of  Stout  had  a  cattle  ranch  on  section  16. 
It  was  far  removed  from  anybody  and  it  was 
thought  Mr.  Stout  had  settled  there  for  a  pur- 
pose. He  was  a  buyer  of  cattle  and  it  was  al- 
leged that  when  driving  cattle  through  the  settle- 
ments he  was  not  careful  in  separating  the  cattle 
along  the  road  from  his  own  herd  but  would  drive 
all  along  together.  When  cattle  were  found  with 
him  he  was  very  profuse  in  his  apologies  and 
asserted  his  ignorance.  Many  cattle  were  missed 
from  time  to  time  and  so  much  feeling  was  cre- 
ated that  he  abandoned  it  and  moved  up  near 
Bureau.  The  writer,  then  a  boy  about  fourteen, 
accompanied  a  Mr.  Richardson,  an  elderly  Eng- 
lish gentleman,  out  there  to  look  for  a  fine  year- 
ling he  had  lost.  It  was  about  seven  miles  right 
across  the  prairie.  We  went  on  horseback  and 
we  thought  it  an  awful  long  ride. 

When    we   arrived   there    Mr.    Stout   was   very 


polite,  did  not  think  an  animal  answering  the 
description  was  there ;  in  fact  was  sure  of  it,  etc. 
It  appears  the  calf  had  been  raised  by  hand  and 
the  two  old  people  had  made  a  pet  of  it.  When 
Mr.  Richardson  pointed  out  the  animal,  which  was 
a  fine  year-old  calf,  Mr.  Stout  was  sure  that  was 
not  Mr.  Richardson's  animal,  could  not  possibly 
be;  but  when  Mr.  Richardson  called  "Rosie," 
"Rosie,"  the  calf  raised  its  head,  stood  for  a 
moment  or  two  and  then  came  trotting  up  to  him, 
there  was  no  longer  any  question  as  to  the  owner- 
ship of  the  animal,  and  Mr.  Stout  was  one  of 
the  most  crestfallen  men  it  has  been  my  lot  to  see. 

It  had  been  supposed  in  the  early  days  that 
the  most  of  the  land  in  Saratoga  was  too  low 
and  wet  for  successful  cultivation  and  in  fact 
there  was,  a  little  west  of  the  center,  a  lake  or 
pond  covering  nearly  a  section,  the  land  bordering 
on  it  producing  a  large  slough  grass  and  blue  stem 
as  high  as  a  man's  head  or  higher. 

It  was  a  great  place  for  game,  the  lake  taking 
the  name  of  Goose  lake  from  the  number  of  wild 
geese  that  alighted  in  it.  It  was  also  a  great  place 
for  deer  to  hide,  and  parties  of  men  would  go 
with  horses  through  the  tall  grass  and  drive  out 
the  deer  which  they  would  shoot  as  they  ran  out. 

After  Saratoga  began  to  be  settled  others  came 
pouring  in  and  in  1857  the  township  was  organ- 
ized under  the  township  organization  law  and  waa 
given  the  name  Saratoga,  said  to  have  been  sug- 
gested by  George  Scholes  and  others  from  the 
famous  watering  place  of  that  name.  John  C. 
Townsend  was  elected  the  first  supervisor.  By 
1860  nearly  every  available  farm  was  taken  up 
and  cultivated,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  the 
land  proving  to  be  extremely  fertile,  though  ter- 
ribly muddy  in  the  spring,  the  roads  being  almost, 
if  not  quite,  impassable ;  but  the  immense  crops 
of  corn  and  oats  in  the  fall  amply  repaid  them 
for  the  temporary  inconvenience.  About  1879 
the  owners  of  the  land  on  which  the  lake  was 
situated  employed  an  engineer  to  see  if  it  was 
feasible  to  drain  it.  He  found  there  was  sufficient 
fall  so  that  it  could  be  drained  at  a  reasonable 
expense,  and  the  next  year  a  ditch  was  dug  and 
the  water  turned  into  Hickory  creek,  which  is  a 
part  of  Crow  creek,  the  one  that  flows  between 
Henry  and  Whitefield  townships  and  empties  into 
the  Illinois  river  a  few  miles  below  Henry. 

As  a  rather  curious  circumstance  the  lake  is  on 
the  highest  land  in  Saratoga  township.  It  is  fed 
by  springs  and  near  it  is  the  source  of  several 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


48 


small  streams,  which  uniting  form  in  one  direc- 
tion the  Crow  creek  which  flows  west  of  Henry, 
and  in  the  other  the  larger  Senachwine  creek 
which  empties  into  the  Illinois  just  above  Chilli- 
cothe. 

Now  where  the  water  once  stood  the  year 
round  are  found  some  of  the  most  prolific  corn- 
fields in  the  county. 

One  of  the  earliest  settlers  in  Saratoga  was  an 
Irishman  by  the  name  of  Grady  who  settled  near 
a  small  grove  in  the  southwest  corner  of  the 
township  called  Camping  Grove,  from  the  fact 
of  its  being  the  only  grove  near  there  and  it  was 
a  sort  of  landmark  as  well  as  a  camping  place. 
It  may  have  been  this  fact  that  prompted  the  wily 
Irishman  to  this  location,  for  he  built  a  large 
house  for  the  times,  and  kept  travelers  whenever 
called  upon.  He  was  a  jolly,  good  natured  fellow 
and  quite  popular.  It  may  have  been  this  fact 
that  prompted  quite  a  number  of  his  countrymen 
to  settle  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  township 
as  they  did.  Quite  a  little  town  sprang  up — at 
least  there  was  a  store,  a  blacksmith  shop,  a  post- 
office,  and  it  became  a  general  resort  for  the 
farmers  around  of  an  evening. 

About  1870  the  Irish  Catholics  built  a  very  nice 
church  large  enough  for  their  purposes.  It  had 
quite  a  congregation  and  was  supplied  part  of 
the  time  by  a  priest  from  Henry  and  part  of  the 
time  one  from  Lacon.  The  church  was  located 
about  one  half  mile  east  of  Camping  Grove. 

There  is  also  a  Methodist  Episcopal  church  near 
the  center  of  the  township,  but  we  have  no  data  as 
to  when  it  was  built.  It  has  been  there  for  sev- 
eral years  and  is  in  a  flourishing  condition.  There 
is  also  a  very  neat  town  hall  which  has  been  built 
for  several  years ;  in  fact,  we  think  it  was  the  first 
country  town  hall  built  on  the  west  side  of  the 
river  in  the  county. 

In  1902  the  North-Western  Railroad  built  n 
branch  from  their  main  line  to  Peoria,  running 
a  little  east  of  the  west  line  of  the  township  and 
upon  it  located  two  stations  in  Saratoga.  One 
was  established  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the 
township  and  named  Broad  moor.  It  is  only  a 
station  as  yet.  although  considerable  grain  and 
live  stock  are  shipped  from  there.  There  are  two 
stores,  an  elevator  and  a  blacksmith  shop.  The 
other  in  the  southwest  corner  takes  the  old  name 
of  Camp  Grove.  The  Catholics  of  the  neighbor- 
hood have  built  a  new  church  of  considerable  pre- 
tentions  to  size  and  elegance  and  have  abandoned 


the  old  one.  There  are  several  stores,  a  fine  school 
house,  two  banks  and  two  or  three  hundred  in- 
habitants. A  newspaper  was  established  about 
two  years  ago  called  the  Camp  Grove  News,  edited 
by  George  Moulton,  but  the  patronage  was  not 
sufficient  for  its  support  and  though  quite  a  newsy 
little  paper  the  publisher,  after  running  it  a  year, 
felt  obliged  to  discontinue  it. 

Saratoga  is  well  supplied  with  school  houses, 
having,  ten,  in  which  school  is  kept  from  eight 
to  ten  months  in  the  year.  They  pay  very  good 
wages  and  have  good  schools,  but  some  of  them  are 
small.  The  government  set  aside  the  sixteenth 
section  in  every  township  for  school  purposes,  but 
most  of  the  townships  sold  at  an  early  day, 
realizing  but  very  little  from  them,  most  of  them 
going  at  government  price — $1.25  per  acre.  Sara- 
toga, however,  held  her  school  lands  for  awhile 
and  they  brought  them  $8.00  and  $10.00  per 
acre,  which  gives-  them  a  fund  that  helps  out  with 
their  schools  to  some  extent. 

Saratoga  has  thirty-six  full  sections,  every  foot 
of  which  is  highly  fertile  and  can  be  cultivated. 
It  has  no  waste  land  and  in  that  respect  is  prob- 
ably the  best  township  in  the  county,  possibly  ex- 
cepting Bennington.  The  farmers,  as  might  be 
expected,  are  highly  prosperous,  have  fine  resi- 
dences and  large  barns.  They  give  their  attention 
largely  to  raising  corn  and  feeding  hogs.  Their 
lives  are  quiet  and  they  are  a  happy,  contented 
people. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

LA   PRAIRIE  TOWNSHIP. 

La  Prairie  township  occupies  the  southwest 
corner  of  Marshall  county.  It  is  Town  12  N., 
R.  8  E.  of  the  4th  P.  M.,  and  is  one  of  the  very 
best  townships  in  the  county,  being  all  a  fine  roll- 
ing prairie,  well  watered  by  numerous  small  runs 
or  doughs.  All  of  it  is  in  a  high  state  of  cul- 
tivation, more  of  the  men  who  own  the  farms 
living  on  them  than  in  any  other  township  in  the 
county,  and  as  a  consequence  the  land  and  build- 
ings are  in  better  condition  and  better  kept  up. 

At  the  time  of  the  township  organization  the 
name  Fairfield  was  given,  but  as  this  name  was 
already  in  use  the  present  name  of  La  Prairie, 
which  had  been  suggested  as  a  second  choice,  was 
given  it.  It  is  very  pretty  and  appropriate. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF    MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


The  township  forms  part  of  the  Military  Tract, 
a  large  tract  of  land  laid  off  by  the  government 
and  given  to  the  soldiers  of  1812,  each  a  quarter 
section.  Very  few  of  the  soldiers  settled  upon 
them,  many  of  the  claims  were  bought  for  a  few 
dollars,  many  sold  for  taxes,  and  many  were 
settled  upon  by  persons  who  had  no  title.  Much 
confusion  and  litigation  resulted  and  permanent 
settlement  and  improvements  were  much  delayed. 

The  first  settler  in  La  Prairie  was  William 
Coulson,  who  came  lip  from  Peoria  in  1832  and 
settled  in  the  southeast  part  of  the  township  on 
the  road  leading  from  Peoria  to  Galena  in  Sep- 
tember, 1832.  He  built  a  rather  large  double  log 
cabin  and  kept  a  hotel  for  the  entertainment  of 
such  as  passed  that  way.  In  1838  he  built  a 
much  larger  house  about  a  half  mile  further  up 
the  road,  keeping  a  hotel  as  before.  This  place 
was  bought  by  the  brothers,  Archibald  and  Robert 
Eiddle,  the  pioneers  of  the  several  Scotch  fami- 
lies that  later  settled  in  the  township  and  have 
done  so  much  to  make  La  Prairie  "flourish  like 
the  greenbay  tree  and  blossom  like  the  rose." 

The  next  settler  was  Solomon  Brewer,  who 
settled  one  mile  south  of  Corilson  on  section  25 
in  1834.  Brewer  moved  to  Iowa  in  1844.  The 
third  settler  was  James  Kenyon,  an  Englishman 
who  settled  on  section  26  in  August,  1836.  The 
government  land  offce  at  that  time  was  in  Quincy 
and  when  Mr.  Kenyon  came  to  the  place  he  was 
so  much  pleased  with  it  that  after  coming  he  and 
his  family  camped  under  a  tree,  and  he  left  early 
next  morning  for  Quincy  to  enter  the  land.  He 
became  a  prosperous  farmer  and  in  1847  moved  to 
Peoria. 

In  the  southeast  corner  of  the  township  were 
some  settlements  made  about  1833.  Mr.  Elisha 
Stowell  settled  on  section  33,  about  two  miles 
east  of  Lawn  Eidge.  James  Caldwell  entered  a 
part  of  section  25  in  1836  but  did  not  come  to 
reside  on  it  till  1838.  Some  ten  families-  came 
from  Ohio  and  settled  in  Halleck  township,  ad- 
joining La  Prairie  in  Peoria  county,  in  1832  or 
thereabouts  and  Erastus  Root,  who  was  with  them, 
bought  the  principal  part  of  his  farm  in  La 
Prairie  township,  but  his  home  was  in  Peoria 
county. 

These  were  about  all  the  settlers  up  to  1845, 
but  after  that  the  country  began  to  settle  very 
fast.  Charles  Stone  came  in  1845  and  closely 
following  him  were  Joshua  Powell  and  "Deacon" 
Smith,  Rev.  Mr.  Ordway  in  1846,  and  the  Kurds 


the  same  year,  and  the  next  year  came  Wm.  Ste- 
venson, the  Stowells,  the  Vincents,  Jos.  Calder, 
Ransom  Caldwell  and  Jacob  Booth. 

In  1848  to  1850  Elisha  and  Amos  Leigh  and 
Joel  and  William  Atwood  with  his  sons,  Andrew, 
William  and  James.  In  the  northern  part  of  the 
township,  Stephen  Wilmot,  Levi  Holmes  and 
James  Doran  located  in  1847;  Alden  Hull  in 
1845. 

In  the  Scotch  neighborhood  James  Davidson, 
Robert  Pringle,  James  Leigh  and  others  located 
from  1845  to  1853. 

About  the  year  1845  the  first  church  in  La 
Prairie  was  organized,  the  first  services  being  held 
in  a  barn  belonging  to  Samuel  McCoy,  on  the 
first  Sunday  in  June,  1844,  and  meetings  were 
held  from  time  to  time  in  cabins  or  barns  as 
ministers  would  be  sent  them,  till  in  1849  Rev. 
Nathaniel  C.  Weed  came  into  the  neighborhood 
and  for  twelve  years  was  the  pastor.  The  meetings 
at  that  time  were  held  in  the  Hull  school-house 
and  about  this  time  assumed  the  name  of  the 
Fairfield  congregation  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
church,  a  name  we  think  it  still  bears. 

At  the  time  Father  Weed  organized  the  church 
the  membership  consisted  of  Thomas  Henry  and 
Janet  Scott,  William  and  Wilhelmina  Smith, 
John  and  Jennie  Wylie,  John  and  Jeannie  David- 
son, George  and  Helen  Hastings  and  Janet  Rid- 
dle, with  John  Ross  and  George  Hastings  as  rul- 
ing elders.  Rev.  Weed  preached  twelve  years  for 
the  society  and  surrendered  his  charge  in  April, 
1864.  Rev.  Weed  was  an  old  fashioned  preacher 
who  believed  in  long  sermons,  preaching  for  two 
and  sometimes  three  hours. 

A  peculiarity  of  the  United  Presbyterians  is, 
or  was  at  the  time  he  was  preaching,  that  they 
thought  it  profanation  to  sing  anything  but  the 
Psalms,  and  as  it  was  sometimes  difficult  to  get 
a  perfect  meter  in  paraphrasing  the  sentences 
there  were  times  when  the  music  was  hardly  in- 
spiring. Father  Weed  was  a  very  good  man  and 
the  church  flourished  under  his  administration. 
In  the  twelve  years  of  his  ministry  eighty-eight 
were  added  to  the  society,  thirty-three  on  profes- 
sion of  faith.  During  the  last  year  of  his  pastor- 
ate a  very  neat  church  was  built.  It  was  finished 
in  September,  1863,  and  the  first  service  held  in 
it  the  first  Sunday  in  October,  when  it  was  turned 
over  to  the  society  free  from  debt. 

Through  the  good  work  of  Dr.  Wilmot,  Ebe- 
nezer  Stowell  and  Nathaniel  Smith,  who  were 


PAST    AND    PBESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


exerting  themselves  to  form  a  Congregational  so- 
ciety in  the  lower  part  of  La  Prairie  on  what  is 
generally  known  as  Blue  Ridge,  a  society  was 
organized  January  16,  1846,  by  Rev.  L.  N.  Par- 
ker, of  Galesburg. 

The  stern  and  courageous  nature  of  these  pio- 
neers of  La  Prairie  in  their  stand  for  what  they 
believed  was  right  and  justice  and  which  is  a 
marked  characteristic  of  their  descendants  to  this 
day,  shown  by  their  adding  to  the  usual  Articles 
of  Faith  the  following  preamble:  "Whereas, 
amid  the  light  now  shining,  the  manufacture,  use 
and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors,  as  well  as  the 
holding  of  slaves  or  apologizing  for  slavery  by 
enacting  pro-slavery  laws  are  sins  against  God  and 
these  covenant  vows,  etc." 

At  this  time  it  must  be  remembered  both  the 
slavery  and  liquor  questions  were  in  a  very  dif- 
ferent phase  from  what  they  are  now.  An  abo- 
litionist then  was  considered  but  little  if  any 
better  than  a  horse  thief,  while  liquors  wore  found 
in  every  house  and  not  to  offer  a  friend  or  neigh- 
bor when  he  called  on  you  something  to  drink 
was  considered  almost  an  insult,  so  that  it  re- 
quired a  good  amount  of  courage  to  take  such  a 
stand  and  put  themselves  on  record  for  doing  it. 
But  no  member  was  admitted  without  subscribing 
to  it  and  it  is  said  no  one  refused  to  join  be- 
cause of  it. 

The  society  grew  and  flourished  and  in  1856  a 
very  neat  little  church  was  built  which  was  badly 
wrecked  in  a  wind  storm  two' years  later,  but  was 
repaired  and  served  the  purposes  of  the  congre- 
gation till  1876,  when  a  new  church,  one  of  the 
finest  in  the  county,  was  built. 

Near  the  center  of  the  township  stands  a  very 
neat  church  which  was  built  by  the  Methodists. 
The  society  was  first  organized  and  a  class  in- 
stituted in  1850  by  Rev.  Samuel  Smith,  and 
Thomas  Huff  was  appointed  class  leader,  but  his 
health  failing  he  was  succeeded  by  Amos  F.  Leigh. 
The  original  class  consisted  of  Amos  F.  Leigh, 
Thomas  Huff  and  wife,  Mrs.  Hay,  Mrs.  William 
Hart,  William  Hancock  and  wife,  and  Nancy 
Hull.  In  1859  the  church  was  built  at  a  cost 
of  $1,825,  the  Leighs  contributing  about  one-half 
of  the  cost.  When  the  new  church  was  built,  in 
the  winter  of  1860,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Smith  held 
a  season  of  revival  meetings  of  such  power  that 
over  one  hundred  converts  were  added  to  the 
membership,  the  church  was  dedicated  in  1861 
by  Elder  Ritchie. 


In  1830  a  stage  line  was  established  from 
Peoria  to  Galena  which  passed  through  La  Prairie. 
A  man  by  the  name  of  John  P.  Winters  had  the 
contract  for  carrying  the  mails.  The  stages  were 
light,  two  horse  wagons  in  the  summer  and  a  sled 
in  the  winter.  The  road  ran  from  Peoria  to 
Northampton  and  then  to  Boyds  Grove,  but  after 
Coulson  built  his  cabins,  as  mentioned  above  in 
1832,  the  stage  line  made  that  a  stopping  place. 
This  stage  line  was  kept  up  till  about  1840, 
when  the  towns  along  the  river  having  obtained 
considered  importance  it  was  changed  to  the  west 
side  of  the  river  and  four-horse  coaches  were  used. 
When  the  railroad  was  built  in  185-4  the  stage 
lost  its  usefulness  and  the  route  was  discontinued. 

The  only  town  worthy  of  the  name  in  La  Prairie 
is  Lawn  Ridge,  situated  in  the  extreme  south- 
west corner  of  the  township,  the  western  bound- 
ary being  only  eighty  rods  from  the  Stark  county 
line  and  the  southern  on  the  Peoria  county  line, 
and  in  fact  the  town  juts  over  somewhat  into 
Peoria  county.  It  takes  its  name  from  the  "di- 
vide" between  the  Illinois  and  Spoon  rivers,  a 
slight  rise  of  land  that  slopes  each  way  to  the  east 
and  west  and  extends  the  whole  length  of  the 
township,  and  extends  down  into  Peoria  county, 
where  it  is  known  as  the  "Blue  Ridge."  Farther 
south  it  is  of  a  hilly  order  and  covered  more  or 
less-  with  timber,  but  in  Marshall  county  it  is 
prairie  and  much  more  gradual  in  its  slopes  and 
in  the  early  days  conveyed  the  idea  of  a  well  kept 
lawn.  It  is  now  covered  with  farms  and  has 
lost  some  of  its  early  characteristics. 

The  town  of  Lawn  Ridge  never  was  platted. 
Land  was  plenty  when  it  was  laid  out  and  the  lot* 
are  described  by  metes  and  bounds  and  not  by  lots 
and  blocks.  It  is  a  very  pretty  place,  the  street? 
running  north  and  south,  east  and  west,  crossing 
at  right  angles.  Although  it  was  originally  open 
prairie,  it  is  now  finely  shaded  with  noble  trees, 
which  the  inhabitants  have  set  out.  It  is  sup- 
plied with  water  by  wells,  plenty  of  good  water 
having  been  obtained  in  the  early  days  by  digging 
from  twenty  to  thirty  feet.  As  the  town  is  off 
from  any  watercourse  or  railroad  it  has  no  com- 
mercial advantages,  but  became  a  kind  of  central 
point  for  the  farmers-  and  appears  to  have  grown 
more  than  most  "country  corners."  In  1880  there 
were  a  postoffice,  a  general  store,  a  grocery,  two 
drug  stores,  a  harness  shop,  three  blacksmith  shops, 
two  wagon  shops,  a  barber  shop,  two  hotels,  etc., 
and  between  one  and  two  hundred  inhabitants,  so 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


that  it  can  be  seen  that  at  that  early  day  it  was 
pretty  well  patronized  by  the  surrounding  farmers. 

Of  late  years  there  has  come  a  change  in  the 
manufacturing  of  nearly  everything  and  many  of 
the  shops  that  once  resounded  to  the  hammers 
and  other  tools  of  the  mechanic  have  passed  out 
of  existence.  A  railroad  runs-  within  a  scant 
mile  of  Lawn  Ridge  and  the  little  town  of  Speer 
is  there,  Camp  Grove  and  other  towns  have  sprung 
up  near  it  and  are  dividing  the  business  with  it. 

In  1864  a  number  of  the  citizens  and  farmers 
of  the  neighborhood  asked  for  a  charter  for  a 
Masonic  lodge,  which  was  granted  to  them  Oc- 
tober 5,  1864.  The  lodge  has  nourished  and  they 
have  a  neat  and  serviceable  lodge  room  over  one 
of  the  stores. 

There  is  also  a  hall  large  enough  to  serve  their 
purpose,  two  churches,  a  Union  Presbyterian  and 
Methodist,  and  a  fine  school-house,  35x70  feet, 
in  which  is  maintained  a  graded  school.  Every- 
thing is  in  good  shape,  both  public  and  private 
buildings,  and  the  villagers  take  pride  in  keep- 
ing them  so. 

On  section  12,  near  the  northern  part  of  the 
township,  flourished  on  paper,  a  town  that  went 
by  the  euphonious  name  of  Chambersburg,  but  it 
has  been,  within  a  few  years,  ploughed  up  and 
is  now  a  very  prolific  cornfield. 

Near  the  center  of  the  township  stands  a  little 
cluster  of  buildings  which  go  by  the  name  of 
La  Prairie  center.  Located  there  is  a  store,  a 
blacksmith  shop,  the  town  hall  and  till  lately  a 
postoffice,  but  since  the  rural  mail  routes  have 
been  installed  the  postoffice  is  discontinued. 

Of  the  farming  townships  of  Marshall  county, 
in  the  productiveness  of  the  farms,  the  beauty 
and  comfort  expressed  by  the  many  fine  homes, 
the  herds  of  fine  sleek  cattle  and  fat  hogs  and 
the  stalwart  character  and  well-to-do  appearance 
of  the  inhabitants  taken  as  a  whole  La  Prairie 
stands  foremost  of  the  townships  of  Marshall 
county. 

As  an  evidence  of  the  intelligence  and  upright- 
ness of  the  people  of  La  Prairie  the  township  con- 
tains five  churches  and  nine  school-houses. 

Of  course  such  men  as  settled  La  Prairie  and 
made  it  an  article  of  their  religious  faith  that 
human  slavery  was  against  God  and  the  teachings 
of  the  Bible,  would  not  sit  idly  by  if  their  help 
was  needed  and  they  were  ready  to  prove  by  their 
works  that  the  faith  they  had  proclaimed  was  not 
idle  talk  and  in  the  old  slavery  days  a  station  of 


the  underground  railroad,  as  it  was  called,  by 
which  runaway  slaves  were  helped  on  their  way, 
was  in  La  Prairie  and  many  a  poor  fugitive  was 
hid,  fed  and  forwarded  on  his  way  to  Canada. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

STEUBEN   TOWNSHIP. 

Steuben  township  is  called  on  the  government 
maps  Town  12  N.,  R.  9,  E.  of  the  4  P.  M.  It 
lies  along  the  western  bank  of  the  Illinois  river 
and  contains  twenty-seven  full  sections  and  six 
fractional  ones,  but  only  a  few  acres  are  cut  off 
from  sections  1  and  23,  while  but  small  bits  of 
sections  24  and  35  are  out  of  water.  For  nearly 
a  mile  along  the  river  the  land  is  swampy,  full  of 
small  lakes  and  nearly  all  practically  •  worthless 
except  for  the  scanty  timber  that  grows  upon  it, 
being  subject  to  overflow.  From  the  low  lands 
the  land  rises  in  bold  bluffs,  covered  with  timber 
and  valuable  on  that  account,  to  the  height  of 
seventy-five  or  one  hundred  feet,  the  hills  being 
cut  by  ravines.  These  bluffs  or  timber  lands  ex- 
tend back  from  one  to  two  miles,  when  prairie 
land  is  reached. 

Ranging  from  a  half  mite  to  a  full  mile  from 
its  western  border,  Senachwine  creek  runs  the  full 
length  of  the  township  and  as  that  too  has  its 
bottom  and  bluffs,  though  not  nearly  as  much  so 
as  the  river,  a  large  part  of  Steuben  township  is 
very  rolling,  though  there  are  some  farms  as  good 
and  as  profitable  as  in  any  of  the  townships,  for 
the  numerous  small  streams  furnish  plenty  of 
water  and  the  land,  too  rolling  for  other  purposes, 
furnishes  excellent  pasture  land  and  nowhere  is 
finer  stock  and  fatter  hogs  raised  than  in  Steu- 
ben. But  while  it  is  true  that  the  bluffs  along 
the  river  are  not  well  suited  to  farming  they  are 
rich  in  other  things  which  more  than  offset  the 
advantage  that  other  townships  have  over  it  in 
that  respect,  for  in  the  bluff  is  found  a  very  fair 
quality  of  bituminous  coal  which  crops,  out  at 
the  side  of  the  bluffs  and  is  easily  mined  with 
little  or  no  preliminary  expense.  This  coal  has 
been  mined  in  this  way  for  more  than  half  a 
century  and  thousands  of  tons  have  been  taken 
out  and  sold  to  the  neighboring  farmers  and  for 
factory  use.  It  has  excellent  heating  qualities 
but  leaves  considerable  cinders  and  ashes.  About 
twenty  years  ago  a  shaft  was  sunk  down  to  the 
third  vein,  as  it  is  called,  and  the  product  is  the 
equal  of  other  Illinois  coal. 


PAST   AND   PEESENT    OF   MAESHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Besides  the  coal  which  is  there  in  inexhaustible 
quantities  the  bluffs  produce  a  fine  limestone  and 
a  quarry  was  opened  and  kiln  built  some  fifty  or 
sixty  years  ago  by  a  family  by  the  name  of  Kob- 
inson,  who  burned  lime  and  sold  it  to  the  sur- 
rounding country,  but  they  did  not  carry  it  on 
on  a  very  large  scale,  though  they  had  a  demand 
more  than  they  could  supply,  and  after  the  rail- 
road was  built  they  abandoned  the  lime  burning 
and  turned  their  attention  to  farming  in  the 
summer  and  taking  out  coal  in  the  winter.  Be- 
side the  coal  under  the  ground  the  top  soil  of  the 
bluff  is  a  fine  clay  suitable  for  either  brick  or 
tile.  About  1855  Colonel  McClannahan  built  a 
tile  factory  and  put  in  the  necessary  machinery, 
and  for  a  year  or  two  did  a  good  business,  but  the 
hard  times  of  1857  coming  on  the  business  fell 
off  and  he  abandoned  it  and  it  was  not,  we  be- 
lieve, ever  revived. 

Of  late  years  since  the  .demand  for  cement  has 
become  so  great,  we  understand  that  large  quan- 
tities of  the  necessary  materials  are  found  there, 
and  there  was  considerable  talk  at  one  time  of 
a  company  being  organized  to  manufacture  it. 

At  the  foot  of  the  highest  bluff,  and  with 
the  yields  of  all  the  valuable  products  of  Mother 
Earth  that  we  have  named,  nestles  the  beautiful 
little  village  of  Sparland,  partly  on  level  land 
at  the  bottom  of  the  hill,  and  partly  on  the  slope 
of  the  hill,  the  stores  and  other  business  occu- 
pying most  of  the  level  land,,  the  residences  with 
beautiful  lawns  and  blooming  gardens  rising  one 
above  another  on  the  bold  slope  of  the  hill  till 
the  highest  towers  two  hundred  feet  above  the 
lowlands  and  all  of  them  have  most  magnificent 
views  toward  the  east. 

About  a  mile  to  the  east  flows  the  Illinois,  low 
flat  lands  separating  it  from  the  town.  While  the 
land  is  not  as  a  general  thing  swampy  it  is  sub- 
ject to  overflow  and  boats  are  sometimes  landed 
close  to  town,  that  at  normal  times  would  be 
stopped  a  mile  away.  The  Peoria  branch  of  the 
Chicago,  Bock  Island  &  Pacific  Eailroad  runs 
through  the  town  just  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  and 
is  their  principal  means  of  communication.  It 
is  also  the  place  from  which  the  Lacon  people 
begin  most  of  their  journeys,  it  being  connected 
with  Lacon  by  a  good  dirt  road  built  above  high 
water,  except  in  extraordinary  raises,  and  the 
Lacon  bridge.  A  line  of  stages  or  busses  from 
Lacon  meets  every  train  in  the  day  time  and  will 
make  those  at  night  if  called  upon.  Sparland 


has  also  for  many  years  done  a  large  business  in 
buying  and  shipping  grain  and  livestock,  espe- 
cially hogs,  which  a  few  years  ago  they  handled 
in  large  quantities.  It  was  the  shipping  point  of 
all  of  Steuben,  most  of  La  Prairie  and  a  good 
part  of  Saratoga  and  Whitefield.  The  principal 
industry,  we  might  almost  say  the  only  one,  is 
mining  coal. 

There  is  a  regular  mine  from  which  the  coal 
is  taken  from  what  is  called  the  third  vein,  being 
two  and  three  hundred  feet  under  the  surface. 
The  mine,  or  shaft  as  it  is  called,  gives  employ- 
ment to  about  one  hundred  men.  There  are 
many  other  mines  of  the  drift  order.  Some  of 
these  employ  several  men  and  some  only  one  or 
two.  The  coal  from  the  shaft  is  much  superior 
to  the  drift  coal,  not  containing  near  the  amount 
of  ashes  and  cinders.  But  the  drift  coal  burns 
freely,  gives  out  heat  equal  to  the  other  and  is  a 
valuable  fuel.  The  town  supports  a  well  stocked 
general  store,  a  dry  goods  and  clothing  store,  two 
grocery  stores,  a  hardware  and  drug  store,  a  hotel 
and  two  restaurants,  two  or  three  blacksmith 
shops,  a  wagon  shop,  a  postoffice  and  fancy  goods 
store,  a  tailor  shop,  etc. 

The  village  was  laid  out  in  1855  by  a  family 
by  the  name  of  Sparr.  At  first  it  consisted  of 
only  two  ranges  of  blocks  lying  between  the  rail- 
road and  bluff;  several  additions  have  since  been 
added,  but  the  name  Sparland  has  remained. 

From  the  first  the  village  flourished  and  at  the 
time  of  the  war  was  one  of  the  most  enterprising 
places  in  the  country,  the  coal  beds  being  thought 
to  be  mines  of  wealth,  and  they  became  somewhat 
excited.  Several  of  the  more  enterprising  men 
formed  a  company  for  the  purpose  of  taking  the 
coal  from  the  drift  banks  in  large  quantities, 
shipping  it  to  Chicago  and  selling  it.  Land  was 
purchased  at  a  high  price  in  Chicago  for  a  coal 
yard  and  a  large  amount  of  coal  was  shipped 
there,  but  after  a  year's  trial  it  was  found  that 
the  coal  could  not  compete  with  the  Streator 
shaft  coal,  which  then  sold  at  the  same  price,  and 
the  project  was  abandoned  with  considerable  loss 
to  those  who  had  promoted  it. 

Two  and  a  half  miles  below  Sparland,  about  the 
same  time  a  company  came  and  made  preparations 
to  mine  coal  upon  a  large  scale.  They  built  quite 
a  number  of  houses  and  made  preparations  to, 
and  did  for  awhile,  employ  from  two  hundred  to 
two  hundred  and  fifty  men.  They  named  the 
place  Grnntville  and  expected  to  found  a  large, 


48 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


thriving  town  there.  But  after  expending  thou- 
sands of  dollars  they  were  forced  to  abandon  it, 
as  they  could  not  sell  the  coal.  The  houses  were 
left  till  they  went  to  decay,  several  blew  down 
and  all  have  gone  to  destruction. 

A  company  from  Rock  Island  a  few  years  later 
also  made  extensive  preparations  for  mining  coal 
'Vwo  miles  above  Sparland  but  found  the  same 
'trouble  and  were  forced  to  abandon  it. 

Although  the  drift  coal  has  not  proved  a  suc- 
cess from  a  commercial  standpoint,  thousands  of 
tons  of  it  have  been  consumed  by  the  people  of 
the  neighborhood,  and  it  has  given  employment 
to  hundreds  of  men  all  along  the  bluff.  The 
shaft,  or  mine,  coal  of  Sparland  is  equal  to  any 
of  the  Illinois  coal  and  stands  high  in  the  market. 

Although  these  coal  ventures  were  disastrous 
to  those  that  were  promoting  them  they  were  a 
grand  thing  for  Sparland.  They  employed  many 
men  to  whom  large  sums-  of  money  were  paid  and 
that  money  was  mostly  spent  in  Sparland. 

This  made  extremely  good  times  in  Sparland 
and  the  town  grew  rapidly  and  everything  that  was 
started  met  with  prosperity.  Then  the  Fassbender 
Brothers  came  in,  had  a  large  general  store,  a  lum- 
ber yard  and  bought  grain  and  at  last  built  a  dis- 
tillery and  it  looked  as  if  Sparland  was  soon  go- 
ing to  be  the  metropolis  of  the  county.  Then 
the  failure  of  the  coal  projects  and  later  trouble 
came  about  the  distillery.  It  was  during  the  time 
of  the  whiskey  frauds  that  made  so  much  excite- 
ment during  the  presidency  of  General  Grant 
when  many  of  the  smaller  distilleries  that  had 
started  up  all  over  the  country  were  forced  to 
close  down,  the  Sparland  distillery  with  others, 
and  a  disastrous  fire  in  the  business  section  of 
the  village  about  this  time  gave  it  a  blow  from 
which  it  never  fully  recovered,  or  at  least  did 
not  regain  its  former  prestige. 

Since,  Sparland  has  been  growing  steadily  but 
slowly  but  it  has  that  within  the  bosom  of  its 
mother  earth  that  in  all  probability  will  again 
put  it  on  the  road  to  prosperity. 

During  the  flush  time  in  Sparland  they  built 
a  school-house  that  at  the  time  and  for  a  long 
time  after  was  the  finest  in  the  county.  It  was 
their  pride,  and  well  it  might  be,  and  they  have 
a  school  which  they  also  have  reason  to  be  proud 
of.  They  employ  three  teachers,  beside  the  super- 
intendent, who  has  been  there  for  the  past  ten 
years.  They  graduate  from  three  to  five  each 
year  who  rank  well  up  to  the  larger  schools. 


While  they  were  all  away  from  the  building  one 
day  in  the  spring  of  1904  the  building,  in  some 
way  never  satisfactorily  explained,  took  fire  and 
was  destroyed  as  much  as  a  brick  building  could 
be,  as  they  have  no  way  to  fight  fire.  It  was  quite 
a  blow  to  the  village  but  they  soon  rallied  and 
with  true  western  enterprise  set  about  rebuilding 
it,  and  it  was  but  a  few  months  before  the  site, 
and  there  is  not  a  finer  one  for  many  miles  around, 
was  graced  with  another  fine  structure  which  well 
replaced  the  old  one.  It  is  not  quite  so  large, 
quite  so  imposing,  but  it  is  more  convenient, 
more  up-to-date.  They  also  have  a  school,  smaller 
to  be  sure,  but  fully  equal  in  curriculum  and 
completeness  of  study,  to  those  of  their  larger 
sisters  in  the  county. 

Two  fine  churches,  a  Methodist  and  Baptist, 
send  their  spires  heavenward  from  the  hilkide, 
which  are  crowded  with  worshipers  on  the  Sab- 
bath and  eloquent  preachers  break  to  the  congre- 
gations the  bread  of  life  and  grand  choirs  lead 
the  people  in  melodious  songs  of  praise. 

Here  at  the  foot  of  the  hiU  is  the  Steuben  town 
hall,  a  very  neat  wooden  building  covered  with 
steel  made  and  painted  in  imitation  of  brick, 
in  which  elections  and  town  assemblies  are  held 
and  which  is  also  used  for  entertainments  of 
various  kinds. 

Such  is  Sparland  which,  from  the  wealth  na- 
ture has  hid  away  in  her  high  hills  may  some  day 
outrank  any  of  her  sister  cities  in  the  county. 

The  first  known  resident  of  Steuben  township 
was  Franklin  Ward  Graves,  who  came  there  in 
1831,  bought  of  the  Indians  the  land  where  Spar- 
land  now  stands  and  built  a  cabin  at  the  foot  of 
the  hill.  Mr.  Graves  lived  here  till  1846,  when 
he  sold  his  claim  to  George  Sparr  and  with  his 
wife  and  family  of  nine  children  and  two  sons- 
in-law,  started  for  Oregon.  Undertaking  to  cross 
the  mountains  on  a  new  trail  they  lost  their  way 
and  the  company  of  ninety  persons  were  overtaken 
by  winter,  and  after  one  of  the  most  heartrending 
experiences  ever  recorded  in  which  only  forty- 
eight  survived,  finally  were  rescued.  Of  the 
Graves  family  of  thirteen  persons  only  six  sur- 
vived, five  of  whom  were  women,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Graves  and  both  the'  sons-in-law  perishing  mis- 
erably. The  next  known  settler  was  John  Ridge- 
way,  who  came  in  the  fall  of  1832,  settling  where 
Grantville  was  located,  Jeremiah  Cooper  and 
family  coming  about  the  same  time.  George  Red- 
dick  came  in  1833,  S.  E.  Thomson  and  George 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


B.  Drake  came  in  1834,  Joseph  Thompson  with 
his  sons,  Asa  and  Ellis,  came  in  1834.  In  1835 
Francis  B.  Drake  settled  at  what  has  since  been 
known  as  Drake's  Grove.  Mrs.  Mary  Watkins, 
with  her  sons,  Jekial  and  David,  came  in  1835. 

David  W.  Bates  and  son,  L.  M.  Bates,  came  in 
1837,  and  the  place  now  known  as  the  county 
poor  farm  was  settled  upon  by  Benjamin  Allen 
in  1837. 

There  were  quite  a  number  of  settlers  settled  on 
the  Peoria  and  Galena  road  which  was  laid  out 
in  1835.  Timothy  Atwood  settled  there  in  1835 
and  Thomas  Miner  in  1838,  and  Allen  Hunter  in 
1837.  Other  settlers  came  in  and  settled  along 
the  road  and  it  became  known  by  the  name  of 
"Yankee  Street,"  while  another  road  along  un- 
der the  bluff  became  another  favorite  place  of 
settlement  and  was  called  "Hardscrabble."  Many 
settlers  came  in  between  1835  and  1845.  John 
Webster,  Russell  Frisbee,  Joel  Fosdick,  Levi  Fos- 
dick,  George  Mead,  Amasa  Garrett,  the  Hoskins 
and  Tanquary  families,  Samuel  McLaughlin  and 
many  others. 

As  early  as  1837  a  school-house  was  built  on 
the  Thomson's  land.  It  was  built  of  logs,  16x18, 
with  two  windows,  each  of  six  panes  of  8x10  glass 
and  a  large  stone  fireplace.  The  floors  and 
benches  were  of  split  logs  or  puncheons,  the  first 
school  being  taught  in  the  summer  of  1839. 
In  1853  this  was  replaced  by  a  very  neat  brick 
built  farther  west  upon  the  road.  For  many  years 
this  building  was  used  as  a  church  by  a  band  of 
worshipers  of  the  Methodist  persuasion  and  the 
neighborhood  went  by  the  name  of  "Bethel." 
Some  fifteen  years  ago  a  new  church  was  built 
about  a  mile  farther  west  to  accommodate  a  larg- 
er number  of  the  congregation  which  now  com- 
prises about  one  hundred  families.  There  is  also 
a  Baptist  church  on  Yankee  street  which  is  well 
kept  up  and  which  has  a  large  membership. 

Probably  we  can  not  close  the  history  of  Steu- 
ben  township  better  than  by  a  brief  relation  of 
two  mysterious  disappearances  of  men  in  the 
prime  of  life  and  no  clue  was  ever  found  as  to 
their  fate. 

In  the  fall  of  1861  Michael  Wyley,  a  farmer  in 
the  western  part  of  Steiiben  township,  went  to 
Sparland.  He  was  of  a  convivial  disposition  and 
somewhat  addicted  to  drinking.  He  was  seen  on 
the  road  returning  home  between  nine  and  ten 
o'clock  in  the  evening  somewhat  intoxicated,  and 
that  was  the  last  ever  seen  of  him.  He  had 


been  married  about  a  year  before  to  a  widow  of 
the  neighborhood  who  was  of  a  rather  shrewish 
nature,  but  Wyley  was  a  large,  strong  man,  weigh- 
ing probably  180  pounds  while  she  was  quite  a 
small  woman,  possibly  weighing  110  pounds  or 
so.  After  Wyley  was  missed  search  was  made 
but  nothing  could  be  found.  It  was  suspected 
his  wife  might  have  killed  him  while  in  a  drunk- 
en sleep,  but  what  she  had  done  with  the  body 
was  a  poser.  Her  story  was  that  Mike  had  come 
home,  said  he  had  a  telegram  to  come  to  St. 
Louis,  where  he  had  a  brother,  had  changed  his 
clothes  and  went  out  saying  that  he  was  going 
to  meet  the  early  train.  While  she  was  strongly 
suspected  of  the  killing  there  was  no  proof  of  his 
being  dead  and  nothing  was  done  about  it.  Sev- 
eral years  afterward  it  is  said  some  bones  were 
found  in  the  bluffs  about  four  miles  below  Spar- 
land,  which  it  is  said  "were  identified  as  the  re- 
mains of  Mike  Wyley,"  though  a  thorough  search 
of  the  entire  country  had  been  made  at  the  time 
of  his  disappearance  without  revealing  a  single 
suspicious  circumstance. 

The  disappearance  of  Washington  Orr  a  year 
or  two  later  raised  a  great  excitement.  Mr.  Orr 
was  a  farmer  owning  a  large  farm  one  mile  and 
a  half  south  of  the  county  farm.  He  was  a 
member  of  one  of  the  most  prominent  families 
of  the  county  and  a  brother-in-law  of  Amasa 
Garrett,  the  foremost  man  of  Steuben  township. 
One  afternoon  he  went  to  Sparland  and  about  five 
o'clock  was  seen  to  start  for  home  carrying  a 
gallon  can  of  kerosene  oil.  That  was  the  last  seen 
of  him  by  anyone  who  would  tell,  and  what  be- 
came of  him  remains  a  mystery  to  this  day.  He 
was  married  and  had  a  wife  and  two  daughters, 
girls  of  about  twelve  and  fourteen  years  of  age 
at  that  time.  The  widow  and  daughters  lived  on 
the  place  for  six  or  seven  years  and  then  moved 
to  Iowa  we  believe,  and  the  place  was  sold  to  a 
man  by  the  name  of  John  Hunt.  If  they  knew 
what  became  of  the  husband  and  father  they 
made  no  sign  and  not  the  slightest  hint  of  what 
became  of  Washington  Orr  has  ever  transpired. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

HIGHLAND   TOWNSHIP. 

Richland  is  a  full  township  of  thirty-six  sec- 
tions, laying  between  Lacon  on  the  west  and  Belle 
Plain  township  on  the  east,  its  government  desig- 


PAST    AM)    LMiKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


nation  being  township  29  N.,  2  W.,  3d  P.  M. 
The  township  is  traversed  through  its  southern 
part  by  Crow  creek  and  a  number  of  branches 
which  empty  into  it  and  the  entire  southern  half 
of  the  township  is  much  cut  up  with  hills  and 
hollows,  at  one  time  covered  with  timber,  which  in 
later  years  has  been  to  a  great  extent  cut  out,  the 
land  cleared  of  brush  and  stumps  and  placed 
under  cultivation.  The  northern  part  of  the  town- 
ship consists  of  a  beautiful  fertile  prairie  which  in 
early  days  was  called  "Round  Prairie."  The  com- 
bination of  timber,  water  and  prairie  furnished 
by  the  peculiar  lay  of  the  land  along  the  edge  of 
Eound  Prairie  held  out  great  inducements  to  set- 
tlers and  we  find  them  seeking  homes  here  in  an 
early  day. 

The  first  visitor  to  this  section  was  John  Strawn, 
who  later  became  a  colonel  in  the  Black  Hawk 
war.  He  came  prospecting  in  1828  and  brought 
his  family  and  made  a  permanent  settlement  about 
three  miles  east  of  Lacon  in  1829.  The  next  to 
make  their  homes  in  what  was  then  a  wilderness, 
so  far  as  white  men  were  concerned,  were  Robert 
Barnes  and  his  brother-in-law,  James  Dever,  who 
came  in  the  fall  of  1829.  They  got  out  the  logs 
for  a  cabin  and  on  November  18,  1830,  they  raised 
it,  put  on  the  roof  and  slept  in  it  that  night. 
Next  day  they  put  up  a  stick  chimney  and  laid 
the  puncheon  floor.  The  chimney,  however,  had 
only  been  finished  to  the  roof  when  a  snow  storm 
coming  on  prevented  their  finishing  it.  They  had 
been  in  the  country  a  year  and  during  the  year 
several  families  had  settled  farther  into  the  woods 
and  from  this  time  on  the  country  settled  up  rap- 
idly. H.  B.  Barnes  came  in  1834,  as  did  Samuel 
M.  Kilgore.  John  Dever  came  in  1833  and  lo- 
cated near  his  brother  James.  Robert  Iliff  and 
Joseph  Burt  located  about  the  same  time  and 
John  Williams  and  Allen  Gray  came  in  1834,  as 
did  Archibald  Johnson.  Benjamin  Fort  also 
come  in  1834  and  located  near  the  Devers,  who 
were  brothers  of  his  wife.  He  was  the  father  of 
Greenbury  L.  Fort,  for  many  years  congressman 
from  this  district,  and  grandfather  of  Robert  L. 
Fort  of  later  memory.  Abraham  Keedy  came  in 
1834  and  Hoel  Doddy  about  the  same  time.  The 
Remleys,  father  and  son,  Woodford  Fisher,  and 
William  Spangler  came  in  1835,  as  did  James 
Work  and  Andrew  Jackson,  so  that  by  1840  the 
township  was  pretty  thickly  settled,  more  so,  in 
fact,  than  any  other  part  of  Marshall  county, 
and,  what  was  more,  most  of  the  settlers  raised 


large  families,  eight,  nine  and  ten  children  being 
about  the  usual  size  of  the  family. 

Although  schools  had  been  kept  in  Richland 
since  1837  the  first  school  census  was  taken  in 
1840  and  it  gave  135  children  of  school  age.  In 
1843  the  number  had  increased  to  227  and  in 
1851  to  342. 

The  first  preaching  in  the  township  was  by 
Rev.  William  Royal,  a  Methodist,  preacher,  in  the 
cabin  of  Mrs.  Bland,  in  1831.  The  next  year 
Rev.  Jesse  Hall,  the  pastor  on  the  Pekin  circuit, 
preached  occasionally  at  the  cabin  of  Mr.  James 
Dever,  on  the  prairie,  and  also  in  that  of  Timothy 
Owens,  on  the  creek,  and  the  next  year  the  Rev. 
Zadoc  Hall,  who  followed  him  kept  the  appoint- 
ments and  organized  a  class  of  which  Robert 
Barnes  was  chosen  leader — a  position  he  held  for 
many  years. 

About  this  time  Mr.  James  Dever  organized 
the  first  Sunday  school  in  Marshall  county.  The 
meetings  were  held  in  the  double  cabin  of  James 
Dever  until,  in  1844,  a  school  house  was  built  near 
Timothy  Owens'  place  and  they  were  held  in  that 
till  the  building  of  .Phelps  chapel,  in  1853.  Phelps 
chapel  was  dedicated  by  Rev.  J.  W.  Flowers  and 
named,  at  the  suggestion  of  Rev.  Zadoc  Hall,  the 
pastor,  "Phelps  chapel,"  after  Ashael  E.  Phelps. 

One  of  the  principal  forts,  as  it  was  the  larg- 
est built  at  the  time  of  the  Black  Hawk  war,  was 
in  this  neighborhood.  Rumors  of  massacres  by 
the  Indians  were  coming  in  every  day,  though 
when  traced  up  were  found  to  be  false,  yet  they 
kept  the  few  inhabitants,  especially  the  women 
and  children,  in  a  constant  state  of  alarm  and  the 
husbands  and  fathers  shared  their  fears.  One 
day,  after  a  hearty  scare,  all  the  men  in  the  neigh- 
borhood started  in  to  build  a  stockade  that  would 
at  least  afford  some  protection.  The  stockade  was 
built  around  the  cabin  of  Mr.  Dever  and  was  de- 
signed by  Robert  Bird,  Sr.,  the  only  man  who  had 
ever  seen  a  stockade  or  blockhouse.  To  this  place 
all  came  at  night — men,  women  and  children. 
About  one  acre  was  enclosed  by  the  stockade. 
There  was,  however,  but  few  men  around  the  fort, 
except  at  night,  the  greater  part  of  them  had 
gone  on  duty  as  rangers  to  meet  the  Indians,  and 
during  the  day  the  greater  part  of  those  left  were 
at  work  upon  their  farms,  so  that  the  women  had 
to  depend  largely  upon  themselves ;  but  they  were 
brave  and  though  they  received  two  or  three 
scares  kept  up  their  courage  nobly  to  the  end. 
Fortunately  the  Indians  committed  no  depreda- 


PAST    AM)    1'KKSKNT    OF    .MARSHALL   AM)    IMTNAM 


51 


tions  east  of  the  river  and  as  there  was  no  one 
living  west  of  the  river  Marshall  county  was  not 
molested  by  them. 

About  1850  an  atrocious  murder  roused  the  peo- 
ple of  Kichland.  A  man  by  the  name  of  William 
McNeil  had  come  into  the  township  about 
1830,  married  and  settled  there  upon  a  farm 
about  five  miles  northeast  of  Lacon,  and  was  foully 
murdered  while  sleeping  by  being  shot  through  the 
window. 

His  first  wife  had  died  and  he  had  married 
again  a  widow  of  high  temper  and  strong  will, 
who  had  several  children.  The  bringing  of  the 
two  families  of  children  together  caused  many 
bitter  quarrels  and  the  wife  proposed  to  divide 
the  property  and  separate,  but  to  this  he  was  bit- 
terly opposed.  One  morning  he  was  found  dead 
in  his  bed.  He  had  been  shot  through  a  window 
about  three  feet  from  where  he  lay  and  two  balls 
had  entered  his  head,  killing  him  instantly.  It 
was  later  discovered  that  the  weapon  used  was  a 
musket  he  had  himself  carried  when  a  soldier. 
It  was  of  the  old  flintlock  pattern  and,  part  of 
the  lock  being  gone,  had  been  touched  off  with  a 
coal  of  fire.  A  curious  circumstance  connected 
with  the  incident  was  that  the  weapon  that  it  was 
certain  the  crime  was  committed  with  could  not 
be  found  till  John  Jason,  a  near  neighbor, 
dreamed  it  was  hid  in  a  certain  place  between  the 
outer  wall  and  plastering  in  the  house,  and,  going 
to  the  place  of  the  dream,  found  it. 

Mrs.  McNeil  was  suspected  of  the  crime  and 
several  circumstances  pointed  strongly  to  her  as 
the  criminal.  She  was  arrested,  but  when  brought 
to  trial  she  was  defended  by  Burns  &  Bangs,  two 
brilliant  lawyers  of  Lacon,  and  the  jury  brought 
in  a  verdict  of  "not  guilty." 

A  rather  good  story  is  told  of  John  Strawn,  the 
pioneer  settler  of  Marshall  county,  and  his  brother, 
Jacob  Strawn,  who  lived  near  Jacksonville  and  a 
few  years  ago  was  considered  the  largest  cattle 
raiser  and  dealer  in  Illinois.  Both  the  brothers 
were  "sharp  dealers"  and  would  take  advantage 
if  they  could  in  a  trade,  but  otherwise  were  strict- 
ly honest.  When  the  lands  came  into  market  John 
Strawn  wanted  to  "enter"  his  lands,  but  had  little 
money,  though  he  had  several  fine  horses  to  dis- 
pose of,  so  he  concluded  to  see  Jacob  on  his  way 
to  Springfield  and  sell  the  horses  to  him,  as  he 
knew  he  would  want  them.  During  the  evening 
"Jake"  found  out  just  how  much  John  was  short 
and  when  the  sale  came  up  in  the  morning  that 


was  all  he  would  offer  for  them,  though  they  were 
worth  considerable  more.  John  demurred  at  the 
price,  but  it  was  all  his  brother  would  give  and  as 
he  wanted  the  land  he  took  it,  though  with  rather 
bad  grace. 

One  season  was  an  extremely  cold  and 
backward  one  and  but  little  good  corn  was  raised. 
John  had  about  forty  acres  of  good  corn  and  about 
a  hundred  more  that  was  not.  Jacob,  as  crops 
in  his  vicinity  were  very  poor,  wrote  to  John  ask- 
ing how  they  were  with  him.  John  wrote  back 
that  he  had  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  good 
corn  and  for  him  to  come  up  and  see  it  for  him- 
self, and  when  he  came  took  him  out  and  showed 
him  the  good  corn  and  led  him  around  in  such  a 
way  that  they  kept  coming  into  the  good  corn 
without  seeing  the  poor  and  Jacob  supposed  it 
was  all  the  same  quality  through  the  field,  so  he 
bought  the  field  at  a  good  round  price  for  good 
corn  and  later  sent  up  a  herd  of  cattle  under  a 
trusty  man.  The  forty  acres  were  soon  consumed 
and  then  the  cattle  began  to  grow  poor  and  the 
man  wrote  to  Mr.  Strawn  about  it.  He  at  once 
saw  that  he  had  been  tricked  and  began  to  up- 
braid his  brother.  John  admitted  the  sharp  prac- 
tice, but  said :  "It's  all  right,  brother ;  it's  all  right. 
We  are  even  now  and  after  this  we'll  trade  fair." 

Although  John  Strawn  was  the  first  settler  in 
this  county,  his  son  Enoch,  a  boy  seven  years  old 
when  his  father  came,  died  this  summer  (1906). 
What  a  wonderful  transformation  has  taken  place 
in  the  county  during  the  lifetime  of  a  single  per- 
son. 

Although  Eichland  is  more  diversified  with  hills 
and  hollows,  even  the  prairie  being  quite  rolling, 
it  must  not  be  supposed  it  is  the  poorest  township 
in  the  county,  far  from  it.  It  is  doubtful  if  an- 
other township  contains  so  many  finely  cultivated 
farms,  so  many  spacious  and  beautiful  farmers' 
homes,  and  so  many  capacious  barns  and  other 
signs  of  prosperity  as  Eichland. 

Through  the  southern  part  of  the  township  runs 
the  Santa  Fe  railroad  and  at  a  station  a  little 
town  called  Wilburn  has  been  built.  It  consists 
of  one  or  two  stores,  a  postoffice,  a  blacksmith 
shop  and  repair  shop  and  a  few  houses,  but  is 
much  used  by  the  farmers  as  a  shipping  point  for 
grain  and  stock. 

Not  far  from  the  track  of  the  railroad  the 
Standard  Oil  Company  has  laid  a  pipe  line  the 
past  year,  to  carry  oil  from  the  Kansas  oil  fields 
to  their  refineries  in  Whiting,  Indiana.  They  have 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


also  established  a  pumping  station  in  the  town- 
ship and  are  erecting  buildings  and  installing 
machinery  to  the  amount  of  forty  or  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars,  so  that  the  taxes  assessed  against  it 
will  materially  lessen  the  taxation  of  the  farmers. 
The  village  of  Washburn  lays  partly  in  the  town- 
ship, giving  the  residents  of  the  southeastern  por- 
tion of  Richland  the  privilege  of  their  excellent 
school,  and  also  the  clnirch  privileges.  For  the 
rest  of  the  township  two  churches  and  six  school 
houses  give  ample  educational  and  religious  privi- 
leges. A  fine  town  hall  stands  near  the  center 
of  the  township. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

BELLE    PLAIN    TOWNSHIP. 

Belle  Plain  township  lies  directly  east  of  Rich- 
land  township,  its  government  designation  being 
township  29,  1  W.  of  the  3d  P.  M.  It  contains 
thirty-six,  full  sections.  It  is  mostly  prairie 
but  the  source  of  Crow  creek  being  near  its  north- 
eastern border  and  consequently  traversing  its  en- 
tire width  and  the  numerous  small  branches  which 
act  as  feeders  for  it  make  the  land  somewhat 
broken  and  rolling,  but  it  is  very  fertile  and  some 
of  the  finest  farms  in  the  county  are  in  Belle 
Plain  township.  The  Santa  Fe  railroad  follows 
the  valley  of  Crow  creek  and  so  passes  nearly 
diagonally  through  the  township,  entering  from 
the  west  on  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  19 
and  passing  out  on  the  east  in  northeast  quarter 
of  section  12.  The  Washington  branch  of  the 
Chicago  &  Alton  also  traverses  nearly  the  entire 
length  of  the  township  north  and  south,  entering 
on  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  31  and  pass- 
ing out  on  the  northwest  quarter  of  section  4. 
On  the  northwest  quarter  of  the  northwest  quar- 
ter of  section  16  is  the  village  of  La  Rose,  located 
on  the  Chicago  &  Alton  railroad,  and  is  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  north  of  the  Santa  Fe 
railroad,  which  maintains  a  station  just  south  of 
La  Rose.  La  Rose,  or,  as  it  was  then  called, 
Montrose,  was  laid  out  in  September,  1870.  It 
has  never  had  a  boom,  but  has  had  a  healthy  and 
steady  growth.  It  contains  quite  a  number  of 
fine  residences  and  several  stores,  shops,  etc.  as 
well  as  a  bank,  mill,  elevator,  a  fine  graded  school, 
a  postoffice  and  churches,  all  the  usual  buildings 
in  a  thriving  and  flourishing  village. 


It  is  quite  a  shipping  point  for  the  farmers  and 
large  quantities  of  grain  and  stock  are  bought  and 
shipped  from  there.  The  farms  and  country  sur- 
rounding it  are  fully  equal  to  any  in  the  county. 

The  first  church  in  the  village  was  built  in 
1872,  at  a  cost  of  $1,500,  and  the  next  year  a 
parsonage  costing  $1,100  was  built.  The  church 
was  dedicated  June  14,  1872,  by  Rev.  Johnson. 

The  village  is  also  graced  by  a  very  neat  town 
hall,  built  by  the  township  and  used  for  township 
purposes.  Of  the  other  churches  there  is  a  Lu- 
theran church,  which  has  a  large  congregation 
drawn  from  the  Swedish  residents,  of  which  there 
are  many  in  the  vicinity.  They  support  a  resi- 
dent minister,  have  a  fine  parsonage,  and  cemetery 
attached  to  the  church. 

Situated  on  section  35  in  the  southeast  corner 
of  the  township  is  a  little  village  laid  out  in  1856 
named  Pattonsburg,  named  after  the  proprietor. 
It  contains  a  store,  postoffice,  blacksmith  shop 
and  a  good  school  house.  Near  it  are  also  two 
churches,  a  Baptist  church,  built  in  1858,  about  a 
half-mile  west  of  the  town.  It  is  a  house  of  good 
size,  with  not  much  in  the  way  of  ornament,  but 
is  neat  and  comfortable. 

As  early  as  1839  preachers  of  the  Methodist 
persuasion  began  to  hold  meetings  in  and  around 
Pattonsburg.  At  first  the  services  were  held  in 
the  school  house  in  winter  and  in  barns  in  the 
summer  until  1859,  when  a  small  building  was 
put  up  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  north  of  the  vil- 
lage. This  was  burned  down  in  the  winter  of 
1867.  When  the  church  was  rebuilt  it  was  erected 
in  the  village.  It  is  a  very  neat  building,  capable 
of  seating  comfortably  about  three  hundred  per- 
sons, has  comfortable  pews,  a  good  organ  and 
the  entire  furnishing  is  neat  and  tasty.  There  is 
also  a  well  kept  cemetery  near  the  village. 

About  two  miles  east  of  Pattonsburg,  is  or  was, 
for  it  has  now  mostly  disappeared,  a  small  grove 
in  which  the  first  settler  in  Belle  Plain,  James 
Martin,  built  a  cabin  in  1829.  He  was  soon 
followed  by  others,  for  Samuel  Hawkins  came  in 
1830,  Thomas  Bennington  in  1831,  Jerry  Black, 
Pierce  Perry  and  Joseph  and  Robert  Bennington 
in  1832,  Daniel  Hollenback  in  1833,  Nathan  Pat- 
ton  in  1834  and  John  Willson,  Forsythe  Hatton, 
James  Clemens,  David  Hester  and  William  Hen- 
dricks  a  year  or  two  later,  and  then  came  others, 
so  that  in  the  neighborhood  of  Crow  creek,  so 
early  as  1840,  there  was  quite  a  strong  settlement. 

In   1830  the  settlers  around  the  grave  built  a 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


68 


school  house  where  their  children  were  taught  the 
rudiments  of  education.  It  was  about  the  first 
thought  of  the  early  pioneers  of  Illinois  after 
getting  fairly  settled  in  their  homes,  to  provide 
means  for  the  education  of  their  children.  There 
was  no  public  fund  in  those  days  to  draw  from 
— money  was  very  scarce  and  they  had  but  little 
to  get  it  with  even  at  that,  but  they  put  up  build- 
ings, crude  and  rude,  to  be  sure,  but  as  good  as 
most  of  them  were  living  in  themselves.  The  fam- 
ilies were  widely  scattered  and  often  the  children 
were  obliged  to  go  two  or  three  miles  and  some- 
times more  to  attend  them. 

Next  to  their  anxiety  for  school  houses  they 
felt  the  necessity  of  churches  and  though  the  school 
house  was  made  to  do  for  a  house  of  worship  for 
awhile  a  few  years  later  they  would  build  in  their 
midst  a  neat,  commodious  church. 

While  it  might  not  be  just  right  to  pronounce 
Belle  Plain  township  the  best  in  the  county,  one 
thing  is  certain,  no  other  township  surpasses  it 
in  the  fertility  of  its  soil  or  in  the  quality  and 
quantity  of  its  productions. 

It  is  probably,  taken  as  a  whole,  the  most  beau- 
tiful and  pleasing  to  the  eye,  having  neither  the 
flat,  plane-like  surface  of  the  pure  prairie  nor  the 
bold  hills  of  the  river  bluffs,  but  a  surface  com- 
posed of  gentle  undulations,  full  of  small  brooks 
and  groves,  though  the  latter  are  fast  being  eradi- 
cated to  improve  the  pasturage. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

ROBERTS   TOWNSHIP. 

Roberts  township  is  named  after  its  first  set- 
tler, Jesse  Roberts,  who  divides  the  honor  of  be- 
ing the  pioneer  settler  of  Marshall  county  with 
Colonel  John  Strawn,  both  coming  in  the  same 
year— 1828. 

It  lays  directly  north  of  Belle  Plain  and  its 
government  designation  is  township  30  N.,  1 
west  of  the  3d  P.  M.  The  township  contains 
thirty-six  full  sections,  or  23,040  acres  of  land. 
The  southern  portion  of  it  is  prairie,  but  through 
the  northern  portion  which  is  traversed  by  Sandy 
creek,  the  country  is  more  rolling,  in  some  places 
quite  rough  and  covered  with  timber. 

The  entire  township  is  well  watered,  numerous 
branches  or  small  streams  traversing  every  part 
of  it  and  over  a  great  part  of  it  was  a  fine  growth 
of  timber  while  patches  of  prairie  lay  between 


the  numerous  runs.  It  was  an  ideal  home  for 
the  early  settlers,  for  there  they  found  that  which 
they  desired  most,  all  in  close  connection — wood, 
water,  and  easily  cultivated  land. 

The  first  settlers,  Jesse  and  Livingston  Rob- 
erts, came  here,  as  we  have  said,  in  1828.  They 
were  followed  in  1829  by  Dr.  J.  Gaylord,  Abel 
Eastabrook  and  Horace  Gaylord.  The  year  1830 
saw  their  numbers  increased  by  Enoch  Dent, 
George  Morton,  G.  H.  Shaw  and  William  Cowan. 
In  1831  came  Samuel  Redmond  and  Eli  Red- 
mond. In  1832,  David  Myers,  Charles  S.  Ed- 
wards, David  Stoteler,  Samuel  Beckwith,  William 
McMillan,  Jerry  Hartenbower  and  John  Myers. 
After  1835  the  township  settled  more  rapidly  and 
by  1840  was  quite  thickly  settled,  more  so  than 
any  other  township  in  the  county,  and  some  of  the 
names  have  been  among  the  most  illustrious  the 
county  has  produced. 

Passing  through  the  township  from  east  to 
west  is  the  western  division  of  the  Chicago  & 
Alton  railroad.  It  enters  at  the  center  of  section 
25  and  thence  due  east  through  the  centers  of 
sections  26,  27,  28,  29  and  30. 

In  the  center  of  section  28  a  branch,  or  what 
is  really  a  part  of  the  main  line,  runs  nearly  due 
south  and  goes  to  Peoria,  while  the  part  of  the 
line  running  west  from  the  junction  is  used  as  a 
branch  road  to  Lacon. 

At  the  junction  on  section  28  is  located  the 
flourishing  village  of  Varna,  which  was  laid  out 
in  September,  1870.  The  first  building  to  be 
used  as  a  store,  was  put  up  that  fall  by  J.  R. 
Brotherhood  and  as  soon  as  the  store  was  built 
he  put  up  a  residence  for  himself  that  same  fall. 
Quite  a  number  followed  his  example  and  by  the 
next  fall  a  goodly  little  village  had  sprung  up, 
with  the  usual  stores,  shops,  etc.,  that  go  to  make 
up  a  thriving  village.  Since  then  the  village 
has  been  slowly  but  surely  growing.  It  now  con- 
tains several  stores,  smith  and  wagon  shops,  lum- 
ber yard,  two  grain  elevators  two  drug  stores, 
hardware,  carriage  stores,  two  hotels,  dealer  in 
agricultural  implements,  doctors,  etc.,  everything 
usually  found  in  a  well  organized  and  flourish- 
ing village. 

Besides  these,  there  is  a  fine  building  where 
a  graded  school  is  maintained,  equal  in  its  effi- 
ciency to  any  in  the  county. 

The  school  house  is  a  frame  structure,  erected  in 
1870  by  the  school  district,  which  accomodates 
about,  one  hundred  pupils,  who  are  cared  for  by  a 


'64, 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


principal  and  three  assistants,  the  school  house 
being  well  adapted  for  using  the  graded  system  of 
teaching.  Besides  the  fine  school  building  there 
are  four  very  creditable  churches,  German  Luth- 
eran, Swedish  Lutheran,  German  Methodist  Epis- 
copal and  Methodist  churches. 

About  1864  or  1865  colonies  of  Swedes  began 
settling  in  the  neighborhood  of  Varna  and  by  1866 
began  to  hold  public  worship  in  their  own  faith. 
About  1873  or  1874  a  very  eloquent  Swedish 
preacher  held  a  revival  which  was  attended  with  a 
good  deal  of  success  and  a  society  was  organized 
and  in  1874  a  church  building  twenty-five  by 
seventy-two  feet  with  an  eighteen-foot  ceiling 
was  built  and  later  neatly  furnished  with  an 
organ,  comfortable  seats,  etc.,  the  cost  being  about 
$4,500,  all  raised  by  subscription.  The  member- 
ship is  about  250.  The  society  conducts  an  excel- 
lent Sunday-school. 

The  German  Lutheran  society  is  much  smaller. 
They  have,  though,  a  neat  church  somewhat  small- 
er than  the  other,  costing  about  $2,300.  It  has 
a  steeple  and  bell  and  a  small  organ  and  is  com- 
fortably seated  and  kept  in  good  condition. 

The  other  churches  with  their  societies  are  not 
as  large  but  all  are  kept  in  good  repair  and  are 
comfortable  meeting  houses. 

Besides  the  school  in  Varna,  Roberts  township 
has  five  school  houses  in  which  are  kept  good 
schools  about  nine  months  in  the  year. 

During  the  flush  times  of  1835  and  1836  there 
was  a  mania  for  laying  out  towns  in  this  then  new 
country.  Money  was  plentiful  and  land  more 
plentiful  still  and  many  eastern  companies  laid 
out  towns — on  paper — and  expected  to  make  for- 
tunes. Nearly,  if  not  quite  every  township  in 
Marshall  county  had  one  and  some  several  of  these 
paper  towns  laid  out,  but  few  of  them  ever 
amounted  to  anything  and  since  all  have  been 
turned  into  cornfields. 

A  little  history  of  Lyons,  which  met  a  fate 
typical  of  all  of  them,  may  be  interesting. 

In  1836  an  eastern  company  residing  in  New 
York  laid  out  a  town  near  where  Varna  now 
stands,  they  called  Lyons.  They  also  entered 
within  a  radius  of  six  or  seven  miles  forty-six 
sections  of  land  and  assessed  upon  each  quarter 
section  twenty-five  dollars  to  form  a  fund  to  build 
a  house  upon  the  land  for  a  resident  agent  and  for 
surveying,  etc.  The  house  was  built  with  a 
hewn  frame  covered  with  hardwood  lumber,  the 
land  laid  off  according  to  the  plat  by  a  surveyor. 


and  the  agent  moved  into  the  house.  The  agent 
must  have  been  pretty  lonesome,  for  his  nearest 
neighbors  lived  up  on  Sandy  creek  at  the  north, 
on  Shaw's  point  on  the  south  and  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Columbia  or  Lacon  on  the  west,  and 
no  other  house  was  ever  built  there.  The  hard 
times  of  1837  coming  on  nothing  more  was  done, 
the  plat  was  never  recorded  nor  were  the  streets 
and  alleys  ever  dedicated  to  the  public.  The  land 
was  sold  as  acre  property  about  1847  and  later, 
but  no  settler  except  William  Green  who  went 
into  the  agent's  house,  ever  settled  upon  the  town 
lots,  and  by  the  time  it  was  sold  the  original  com- 
pany had  passed  out  of  existence.  These  paper 
towns  were  started  as  a  mere  matter  of  specula- 
tion. There  was  nothing  to  maintain  them  as 
towns  and  the  only  existence  most  of  them  had 
was  in  the  flaming  prospectuses  and  lurid  descrip- 
tions that  were  written  up  by  the  promoters  to 
induce  people  to  buy  the  lots.  Maps  and  litho- 
graphic prints  showing  location  of  factories, 
churches,  parks,  etc.,  were  made  and  shown  and 
hundreds  of  lots  were  sold  in  the  east  on  the 
say-so  of  the  smooth  tongued  agents,  b'ut  not  a 
house,  unless  built  by  the  promoters,  were  ever 
built  on  the  paper  towns.  But  a  very  few  of  the 
plats  were  surveyed  and  still  fewer  of  them  ever 
recorded.  It  was  the  greatest  season  of  specula- 
tion in  the  unknown  the  country  ever  experienced. 

Other  towns  in  this  county  which  never  ex- 
isted except  on  paper  are  Dorchester,  about  a  mile 
below  Henry  on  the  river;  Bristol,  about  a  mile 
above  Lacon ;  Auburn,  about  half  a  mile  north  of 
Washburn;  Centreville,  twelve  miles  west  of  Hen- 
ry in  the  center  of  Saratoga  township ;  Troy  City, 
about  eight  miles  west  of  Lacon  in  La  Prairie 
township ;  Chambersburg,  seven  miles  west  of 
Lacon  and  two  miles  north  of  Troy  City.  All 
these  towns  were  brought  into  being  in  1836. 
Not  one  of  them  ever  had  any  inhabitants.  Not 
only  this  section  but  the  whole  state  was  covered 
with  these  town  sites. 

Those  who  live  now  in  Roberts  township  with 
the  thriving  towns,  its  churches  and  school  houses, 
its  telephones  and  rural  mail  delivery,  and  its 
neighbors  every  half  mile  or  less,  can  not  form 
much  idea  of  what  it  was  to  live  here  in  the  '30s. 
At  that  time  there  was  no  store  at  which  anything 
could  be  bought,  nor  was  there  anything  that  could 
be  sold  to  bring  any  money.  Neither  were  there 
any  neighbors  \vhoro  you  could  run  over  and 
borrow  what  was  needed.  The  first  settlers  were 


PAST    AXD    PRKSEXT    OF    MARSHALL    ANJ)    1TTXAM    COUNTIES. 


absolutely  alone.  There  were  no  mills  and  their 
food  consisted  largely  of  corn,  pounded  as  fine 
as  they  could  pound  it,  mixed  with  water,  often 
without  salt,  which  was  very  expensive,  and  that 
baked  on  a  board  before  the  fire.  This  with  what 
wild  game,  which  fortunately  was  plenty,  varied 
in  the  summer  with  a  few  vegetables,  was  their 
diet. 

Xor  were  their  homes  any  better  adapted  to 
their  wants,  a  log  cabin,  generally  14x16,  with  a 
roof  made  of  "clapboards"  split  from  a  tree.  A 
log  was  cut  about  four  feet  long  and  then  split  in 
sections  about  five  inches  wide  and  then  again 
split  to  the  thickness  of  about  a  half-inch.  When 
the  cabin  was  built,  after  getting  up  about  seven 
feet,  shorter  logs  were  used  at  the  ends  forming 
a  gable  and  the  clapboards  fastened  on,  sometimes 
with  wooden  pins,  for  nails  were  scarce.  Bough 
doors  were  made  but  there  was  no  glass-  for  win- 
dows and  consequently  no  windows.  The  door 
was  left  open  for  light.  Often  there  was  no  floor 
but  the  earth  and  the  clapboard  roof  was  not  al- 
ways of  the  tightest  and  it  can  be  imagined  what 
kind  of.  a  place  it  was  after  a  rain  or  snow  which, 
with  a  driving  wind,  was  generally  worse  than 
rain. 

Up  to  1835  there  were  no  markets-  in  the  state 
for  anything  but  furs,  and  the  skins  of  wild  ani- 
mals which  could  be  bartered  for  a  few  staple 
groceries  and  powder  and  lead,  and  sometimes  a 
little  money,  and  the  only  place  in  this  section 
where  that  could  be  done  was  Hennepin. 

Up  to  the  building  of  the  canal  there  was  no 
market  for  grain  nearer  than  Chicago  and  then 
only  for  wheat,  which  brought  from  twenty-five 
to  thirty  cents  a  biishel. 

The  experience  of  Livingston  Eoberts,  one  of 
the  earliest  and  best  known  settlers  in  Eoberts 
township,  is  a  case  in  point.  About  1830  Mr. 
Roberts  went  to  Chicago  with  a  load  of  oats.  His 
"outfit"  was  three  yoke  of  oxen,  a  "prairie  schoon- 
er" wagon,  blanket,  axe,  camp  kettle  and  flint  and 
steel  for  making  fire  and  gun.  The  first  night  he 
camped  on  the  Vermillion  river.  He  had  seen  no 
settlers  or  other  sign  of  improvement.  The  next 
day  he  reached  Ottawa,  which  at  that  time  con- 
tained three  log  cabins,  where  he  camped  the  sec- 
ond night.  The  next  day  he  made  Holderman's 
grove  where  he  found  a  single  settler.  The  fourth 
night  out  he  camped  by  a  big  spring  near  the 
present  village  of  Plattville  and  the  fifth  night 
camped  on  the  banks  of  the  Du  Page,  and  on  the 


sixth  night  camped  on  the  Summit.  The  only 
signs  of  civilization  were  two  cabins  in  the  fringe 
of  timber.  The  next  day  he  drove  into  Chicago, 
but  the  city  which  today  contains  over  two  million 
inhabitants,  seventy-five  years  ago  consisted  of  two 
frame  dwellings  and  one  store,  the  barracks,  where 
a  company  of  soldiers  were  stationed,  and  a  little 
cluster  of  huts  occupied  by  a  few  French  and  half 
breeds.  He  was  unable  to  sell  his  oats  in  Chi- 
cago but  found  a  man  a  few  miles  up  the  north 
branch  and  disposed  of  them  to  him,  taking  a 
greyhound  as  part  pay. 

Mr.  Roberts  followed  "teaming,"  which  for  sev- 
eral years  was  quite  a  business,  between  Chicago 
and  the  towns  that  were  springing  up  all  over 
the  state,  it  being  about  the  only  way  goods  could 
be  procured.  They  would  take  a  load  of  grain  on 
the  up  trip  and  load  back  with  groceries,  such 
as  were  in  demand  at  that  time,  though  hundreds 
of  the  things  now  sold  in  grocery  stores  were 
unknown  at  that  time.  Salt  was  one  of  the  most 
common  necessaries  at  that  time.  It  was  heavy 
and  bulky  to  haul  but  they  had  to  have  it.  It 
cost  from  $1.00  to  $1.25  a  barrel  in  Chicago,  but 
the  expensive  hauling  brought  up  the  cost  at  its 
destination  to  prices  ranging  from  $6.00  to  $7.00, 
and  the  prices  of  other  things  were  raised  in  pro- 
portion, and  it  may  readily  be  supposed  that  the 
people  were  not  extravagant  in  buying,  as  the 
prices  of  everything  they  had  to  sell  were  extreme- 
ly low.  Good  horses,  $30  and  $40;  cows,  $10  and 
$12;  oats  and  corn,  10  cents  a  bushel;  butter,  5 
cents;  eggs,  %y2  in  trade,  while  wild  game  could 
not  be  sold  at  all.  A  "saddle"  of  a  large  deer— 
the  two  hind  quarters — was  well  sold  if  it  brought 
50  cents.  Because  this  history  of  the  privations 
of  the  early  settlers  has  been  sketched  in  the  his- 
tory of  Roberts  township  it  must  not  be  supposed 
they  alone  suffered  them.  They  were  the  common 
lot  of  all  the  earliest  settlers  and  all  those  who 
came  into  this  county  before  1845  were  compelled 
to  put  up  with  them  to  a  greater  or  less  extent. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

EVANS   TOWNSHIP. 


Evans  township  is  sitiiated  directly  east  of 
Roberts  and  is  the  northeast  township  of  the 
county.  Its  government  designation  is  Town  30 
N.,  R.  1,  E.  of  the  3d  P.  M. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


It  has  thirty-six  full  sections  and  every  acre 
of  it  is  susceptible  of  high  cultivation  and  it  is 
in  fact  one  of  the  best  townships  in  the  county. 
Sandvicreek,  which  flows  entirely  across  the  ex- 
treme northern  part  of  Marshall  county,  through 
Roberts  and  Hopewell  townships  and  empties  into 
the  Illinois  river  opposite  Henry,  has  its  begin- 
ning in  the  extreme  northeastern  part  of  Evans 
township,  in  fact  in  the  northeast  quarter  of 
section  one  and  flows  through  about  a  mile  south 
of  the  north  line  of  the  township,  which  is  also 
the  county  line.  Consequently  the  land  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  township  is  somewhat  roll- 
ing and  was  somewhat  timbered.  It  is  well 
drained  and  exceedingly  fertile  and  was  an  ideal 
country  to  those  who  early  sought  for  homes  in 
this  western  country.  And  we  find  that  when 
these  lands  were  surveyed  by  the  government  in 
1834  it  was  the  most  thickly  settled  section  in 
Marshall  county. 

Up  to  1835  the  settlers  had  no  legal  claim  what- 
ever to  the  lands  they  settled  upon.  They  were 
not  surveyed  till  1834  and  it  was  not  till  the 
next  session  of  congress  in  1835  they  were  put 
on  the  market  and  could  be  bought.  After  that 
they  could  be  "entered"  for  $1.25  an  acre  and 
the  "pre-emption"  was  also  passed  the  same  year, 
which  gave  an  actual  settler  upon  a  piece  of  land 
a  first  chance  of  entry,  though  if  he  did  not  avail 
himself  of  it  any  one  could  enter  it  from  under 
him.  Even  in  those  early  days  there  were  land 
speculators  that  were  ready  to  snap  up  land,  espe- 
cially in  the  settlements,  when  they  could  get  a 
chance,  but  there  was  a  kind  of  unwritten  law  or 
tacit  agreement  among  the  settlers  to  protect  each 
other  in  what  they  considered  their  rights,  and 
speculators  were  given  to  understand  it  would 
not  be  healthy  to  undertake  to  jump  claims,  and 
while  the  settlers  had  been  much  alarmed  there 
was  very  little  trouble  in  this  section  from  that 
source,  and  all  that  were  able  to  secured  their 
lands  and  those  that  were  not  able  sold  their 
claims  to  others  better  supplied  with  wealth. 
When  the  lands  were  surveyed  another  trouble 
arose  which  promised  to  create  a  good  deal  of  fric- 
tion. It  was  found  that  the  government  lines 
did  not  correspond  with  the  lines  the  settlers  had 
laid  out  for  themselves. 

To  remedy  this  they  did  the  very  best  thing 
they  could  do.  A  public  meeting  was  held  Aug- 
ust 7,  1837,  and  after  a  calm  discussion  of  the 
matter  a  resolution  was  adopted  "that  each  settler 


should  have  the  land  he  had  selected"  and  Thomas 
Judd,  Joshua  Evans  and  James  Caldwell  were 
appointed  a  committee  to  fix  upon  a  method  to 
bring  about  that  result.  They  reported  on  August 
26  that  the  original  claims  should  be  respected 
and  that  each  settler  should  deed  the  others,  the 
parts  that  lapped  over,  and  this  was  accordingly 
done,  and  though  it  caused  almost  innumerable 
conveyances,  no  disputes  arose  and  that  is  the 
reason  there  are  some  very  odd  shaped  pieces  of 
land  in  Evans  township. 

In  the  spring  of  1830  Joshua  Evans  hired  a 
cabin  built  on  the  north  side  of  Sandy,  giving  a 
rather  valuable  mare  for  it.  During  that  summer 
came  James  Reynolds,  Thomas  Dixon,  John  S. 
Hunt,  John  Darnell,  Lemuel  Gaylord,  John  Grif- 
fith, Stewart  Ward  and  Kirby  and  Jeremiah  Har- 
tenbower. 

The  next  season,  1831,  Justus,  Ira,  Barton  and 
Abram  Jones,  Thomas  Judd,  Mr.  Ransberger,  Mr. 
Simpson  and  Abram  Darnell  settled  in  the  same 
neighborhood. 

In  1832  the  Black  Hawk  war  was  on,  which 
stopped  immigration  for  awhile,  as  the  most  fear- 
ful stories  of  Indian  massacres  were  rife  all  over 
the  land. 

The  settlers  determined  to  build  a  fort  to  pro- 
tect themselves  and  families,  and  the  next  day 
they  all  met  with  spades,  axes  and  guns,  and  in  a 
couple  of  days  had  their  fort  built.  They  dug  a 
deep  trench  and,  using  split  logs,  made  a  stockade 
ten  feet  high  around  a  patch  of  ground  large 
enough  to  hold  comfortably  over  a  hundred  peo- 
ple, which  was  perforated  on  all  sides  with  loop- 
holes to  shoot  through.  Inside  of  this  a  well  was 
dug,  so  that  they  would  have  plenty  of  water. 
Inside  of  this  about  twenty  families  gathered. 
Fortunately,  they  were  not  called  upon  to  defend 
it  and  in  a  few  weeks  word  came  that  peace  was 
restored  and  the  settlers  returned  to  their  homes. 

The  first  election  in  Marshall  county  was  one 
held  in  "Sandy  Precinct"  on  March  30,  1833. 
The  township  at  that  time  was  under  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  La  Salle  county. 

The  officers  to  be  elected  were  two  justices  of  the 
peace  and  two  constables.  There  were  fifteen  votes 
cast,  and  Justus  Jones  and  Richard  Hunt  were 
elected  justices,  and  Barton  Jones  and  George 
Martin  constables. 

In  1843  townships  29  and  30,  lying  directly 
east  of  the  third  principal  meridian,  now  Evans 
and  Bennington,  took  a  vote  as  to  whether  they 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


should  be  attached  to  Marshall  county.  They  had 
never  been  a  part  of  Putnam  county,  as  Marshall 
was,  and  by  unanimous  vote  decided  to  do  so,  the 
principal  reason  being  they  were  so  far  from  the 
county  seat,  then  as  now,  Ottawa.  It  might  be  the 
want  of  companionship  had  something  to  do  with 
it,  for  while  there  were  respectable  settlements  in 
Roberts  and  Belle  Plain  townships  on  the  west, 
there  was  not  a  single  settler  in  the  two  town- 
ships on  the  east.  One  of  the  wants  severely  felt 
in  a  new  settlement  is  the  want  of  lumber.  As 
we  have  already  said,  the  roofs  were  covered  with 
clapboards;  the  floors,  where  there  were  any,  were 
made  of  puncheons.  Puncheons  were  made  by 
splitting  a  log  into  halves  and  then  with  an  ax 
hewing  them  as  straight  and  smooth  as  possible. 
They  were  laid  into  a  floor  by  laying  down  poles 
and  with  the  ax  chipping  till  they  would  lay  as  flat 
and  even  as  it  might  be.  Some  made  fairly  good, 
smooth  floors  of  them,  others  not  so  good.  Much 
of  the  furniture  was  also  made  by  the  early 
pioneers  with  ax  and  auger,  which,  with  a  froe,  an 
instrument  used  for  riving  clapboards,  generally 
comprised  the  "kit"  of  tools.  Sometimes  a  man 
was  lucky  enough  to  own  a  hand  saw  and  a  draw- 
ing knife,  and  men  would  go  five  and  six  miles  and 
sometimes  farther  to  borrow  them. 

We  have  said  a  good  deal  of  the  furniture 
was  made  with  the  ax  and  auger;  for  instance,  a 
man  wanted  a  bedstead,  he  would  take  his  auger 
and  bore  into  the  logs  of  the  side  of  his  house,  one 
at  the  head  and  one  at  the  foot  of  the  bed,  the 
height  he  wanted  the  bed,  then  cut  two  poles,  one 
the  length  of  the  width  of  the  bed  and  one  for 
the  length  he  wanted ;  cut  a  stick  for  a  leg,  boring 
holes  the  right  height  to  receive  his  poles  and 
then  all  he  had  to  do  was  to  drive  his  poles  into 
the  leg  and  insert  the  other  ends  into  the  holes 
in  the  log  and  the  bedstead  was  finished.  Sticks 
and  brush  could  be  laid  over  it,  or  a  bed  cord,  if 
he  was  fortunate  enough  to  have  one,  could  be 
put  on.  It  was  crude  and  rough,  no  doubt,  but 
the  sleep  got  on  it  was  as  sound  and  sweet  as 
on  the  most  expensive  of  modern  bedsteads.  For 
chairs  and  tables  a  piece  of  puncheon,  with  legs 
driven  in,  would  serve,  while  a  buttery  could  be 
made  by  inserting  a  few  pins  in  the  logs  and  put- 
ting up  a  few  clapboards  for  shelves.  It  is  an  old 
saying  "that  necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention," 
and  the  circumstances  in  which  the  pioneers  found 
themselves  sharpened  their  wits. 

The  distress  for  the  want  of  lumber  continued 


till  1838,  when  Joshua  Evans  put  up  a  sawmill  on 
Sandy,  near  where  the  Methodist  church  now 
stands,  and  the  same  year  John  S.  Hunt  put  up 
one  farther  down  the  creek.  John  Evans,  a  very 
ingenious  man,  had  put  up  a  turning  lathe,  from 
which  he  furnished  table  and  chair  legs,  etc.,  and 
he  also  made  splint  bottomed  chairs  that  were 
serviceable  and  lasting. 

While  the  northern  part  of  Evans  township  is 
quite  rolling  and  somewhat  heavily  timbered,  the 
southern  part  is  a  beautiful  prairie,  an  insignifi- 
cant creek  or  run  traverses  its  western  part  and 
numerous  draws,  or  what  were  sloughs  in  the 
early  days,  are  found  there,  but  the  land  mostly 
may  be  said  to  be  smooth  prairie.  The  large 
prairies  were  considered  in  the  early  days  as  little 
better  than  swamps,  and  it  must  be  said  that  in 
a  wet  time  they  were  pretty  muddy  and  it  was 
hard  work  for  a  team  to  draw  an  empty  wagon 
through  them ;  for  that  reason  they  were  shunned 
by  the  early  settlers,  who  made  their  homes  where 
the  land  was  more  rolling  and  where  they  were 
handy  to  timber,  and  it  was  not  till  1845  that  any 
one  was  bold  enough  to  build  out  on  the  open 
prairie.  In  that  year  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Alexander  built  out  a  mile  or  more  from  the 
timber  line  and  it  was  several  years  before  he 
had  any  near  neighbors.  Mr.  Alexander  hrought 
with  him  a  herd  of  thoroughbred  short  horn  cat- 
tle, the  first  introduction  of  this  excellent  breed 
of  cattle  for  which  Marshall  county  has  become 
so  famous  in  the  past  few  years.  But  the  lands 
that  were  supposed  to  be  almost  worthless  proved 
to  be  superior  to  all  others.  Other  settlers  rapidly 
came  in  and  systems  of  drainage  were  established. 
Hundreds  of  dollars  were  spent  for  tile  drains, 
and  now  the  most  valuable  lands  to  be  found  any- 
where are  in  what  was  the  once  despised  prairie. 

Evans  township  is  traversed  by  two  railroads; 
the  Illinois  Central  extends  the  most  of  the  way 
along  its  eastern  border  and  the  Chicago  &  Alton 
through  the  center  of  the  southern  half.  At  the 
crossing  of  the  two  roads  is  situated  Wenona,  now 
one  of  the  most  flourishing  towns  or  rather  cities 
in  the  county. 

When  the  Illinois  Central  railroad  was  laid  out 
in  1852,  the  place  where  Wenona  stands  was  se- 
lected as  a  station.  It  was  then  in  the  midst  of 
an  immense  prairie,  with  not  a  settler  or  house 
within  miles  of  it.  The  first  house  was  a  shanty 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  workmen  and  was 
built  in  1852.  The  next  year  the  road  was  com- 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


pleted  from  La  Salle  and  a  depot  and  freight 
house  was  built,  also  a  fair  sized  dwelling  house 
for  the  agent  and  a  postoffice  established,  and  the 
station  agent,  G.  W.  Goodell  was  appointed  post- 
master. A  store  was  started  and  a  few  persons 
built  there. 

In  May,  1855,  the  town  was  laid  off  and  at  that 
time  there  were  nine  houses  and  about  fifty  in- 
habitants. For  a  few  years  it  did  not  grow  much. 
It  was  not  at  that  time  a  very  inviting  place. 
Situated  in  a  treeless  plain,  the  ground  low  and  in 
a  wet  time  the  roads  and  streets  almost  impassable, 
it  did  not  hold  out  many  inducements  for  persons 
to  come  there. 

But  as  the  railroad  brought  settlers  to  take 
up  the  neighboring  farms  the  town  began  to 
fill  up  and  it  became  a  shipping  point  for  all  the 
country  round. 

In  1857  a  village  government  was  organized 
and  a  system  of  improvements  was  begun,  and 
from  1859,  when  the  town  was  incorporated,  it 
grew  rapidly ;  stores  were  built  and  stocks  brought 
in,  shops  were  established,  and  a  fine  trade  began 
to  grow  up  with  the  surrounding  country,  which 
was  rapidly  filled  up. 

A  great  change  has  come  over  Wenona  from 
the  bare,  treeless  place  it  was  in  its  early  days. 
It  is  now  one  of  the  handsomest  towns  in  the 
county.  It  is  laid  out  with  regularity  on  both 
sides  of  the  railroad,  the  principal  part  of  the  city 
being  west  of  it.  As  the  railroad  runs  at  a  small 
angle,  about  fifteen  degrees  west  of  north,  the 
streets  are  laid  to  correspond  with  it,  the  north 
and  south  streets  running  parallel  to  the  railroad 
and  the  east  and  west  streets  crossing  at  right 
angles.  Tile  drains  have  been  put  in,  that  have, 
to  a  great  extent,  overcome  the  mud  they  had  to 
contend  with  in  the  beginning. 

The  treeless  condition  of  earlier  years  has  also 
passed  away  and  no  city  in  the  county  can  boast 
of  more  shade  trees  or  finer  ones  than  Wenona.  As 
you  approach  it,  it  has  the  appearance  of  being  set 
in  a  forest.  Much  of  the  transformation  of 
Wenona  from  a  treeless  prairie  town  to  a  city  of 
beautiful  shade  trees  is  due  to  the  aesthetic  tastes 
and  indomitable  energy  of  the  Hon.  John  0.  Dent, 
a  son  of  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  on  Sandy,  and 
who  had,  before  the  town  was  thought  of,  entered 
the  land  adjoining  the  town,  if  he  did  not  enter  the 
land  the  town  stands  on.  Almost  from  the  very 
starting  of  the  town  Mr.  Dent  saw  the  need  of 
shade  trees,  and  procuring  bushels  of  the  seeds  of 


the  deciduous  trees  that  grow  in  this  section,  the 
principal  ones  being  maple,  hackberry,  elm,  box 
elder,  buckeye  and  locust,  he  started  a  nursery. 
After  Mr.  Dent  got  his  trees  to  growing  he  labored 
hard  and  long  with  the  inhabitants  to  set  them 
out.  He  charged  a  nominal  price  for  them,  but 
where  a  man  would  not  take  them  otherwise,  he 
gave  them,  and  he  also  donated  them  to  churches 
and  other  public  places  and  superintended  the  set- 
ting of  them  out. 

In  1871  a  company  was  organized  in  which  Mr. 
Dent  was  one  of  the  principal  advisers  and  pro- 
moters to  start  the  movement  for  a  fair.  A  meet- 
ing was  called  April  22,  1871,  at  which  the  fol- 
lowing resolution  was  unanimously  adopted: 
"Resolved,  That  the  Evans  Farmers'  Club  will 
heartily  co-operate  with  the  people  of  Wenona 
and  surrounding  townships  to  aid  in  getting  up 
a  Union  Township  Fair,  to  be  held  in  Wenona 
the  fall  of  1871." 

Several  practical  men  of  Wenona,  John  0.  Dent 
being  one,  outlined  the  following  plan,  which  was 
carried  out  and  placed  the  Wenona  Union  Fair 
upon  a  permanent  basis  and  made  it  a  splendid 
success. 

The  society  was  to  issue  shares  of  twenty-five 
dollars  each,  no  man  to  hold  more  thon  one 
share,  and  each  one  to  obligate  himself  to  pay  in 
such  amount  as  might  be  needed.  The  society  was 
to  purchase  fifty  acres  of  land,  near  Wenona,  fence 
it  and  make  the  necessary  improvements. 

A  constitution  embodying  these  features  was 
adopted  and  the  necessary  officers  elected.  A 
subscription  list  showed  two  hundred  and  twenty 
names  and  five  thousand  five  hundred  dollars 
collected,  sufficient  at  that  time  to  buy  the  neces- 
sary land  and  make  the  necessary  improvements. 
The  fifty-five  acres  were  bought  and  a  good  fence 
and  substantial  buildings  erected,  also  a  fine  racing 
track  made  during  the  summer,  and  October  3d  to 
6th,  inclusive,  was  set  for  the  coming  fair.  A  pros- 
pectus and  a  premium  list  with  twenty  thousand 
dollars  in  prizes  were  sent  out  and  the  fair  was 
a  huge  success.  Nor  did  it,  by  any  means,  stop 
there.  Grand  fairs,  both  in  the  number  of  ex- 
hibits and  attendance,  were  held  year  after  year 
for  many  years,  but  the  promoters,  men  who  had 
been  instrumental  in  getting  it  up  and  maintain- 
ing it,  dropping  off,  interest  dwindled  down,  it 
ceased  to  pay,  and  the  lands  have  been  sold  and  no 
fairs  had  been  held  there  for  many  years  till  1901, 
when  Evans  grange  concluded  to  hold  a  fair,  and 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


have  had  one  annually  since,  but  they  hardly  came 
up  to  the  old  Wenona  Union  Pairs. 

At  one  of  the  Union  fairs,  in  1872,  the  Big 
Bend  Veteran  Reunion  Association  was  formed 
and  every  year  since  then  there  has  been  a  re- 
union of  the  old  soldiers  in  some  of  the  nearby 
towns  under  its  auspices. 

But  Wenona  does  not  depend  upon  the  fanners' 
trade,  although  it  is  ,a  big  one,  for  her  pros- 
perity. About  1865  some  enterprising  men  pros- 
pected there  for  coal  and  found  a  fine  vein  of  ex- 
cellent coal  at  a  convenient  depth  for  working, 
and  a  shaft  was  sunk,  at  which  an  average  of  two 
hundred  men  are  employed.  There  is  also  a  zinc 
smelter  near  the  coal  shaft  that  employs  some  fifty 
or  sixty  men,  which  has  been  established  about  ten 
years.  The  pay-roll,  as  may  be  supposed,  from 
these  two  important  industries  is  no  insignificant 
factor  in  the  prosperity  of  Wenona  and  make  it 
one  of  the  most  flourishing  and  prosperous  towns 
in  the  county. 

On  section  28,  of  Evans  township,  is  a  railroad 
station  on  the  Chicago  &  Alton,  which  has  taken 
the  name  of  Evans  station.  It  is  quite  a  shipping 
point  for  grain  and  stock,  and  there  is  also  a 
store  and  blacksmith  shop ;  there  was  a  post- 
office,  which  has  been  discontinued  since  the  ad- 
vent of  the  rural  mail  delivery.  •  It  did  not  im- 
prove, according  to  the  expectations  of  its  found- 
ers, and  remains  about  as  it  was  in  the  beginning, 
a  point  for  shipping  and  not  much  else.  Its  most 
prominent  characteristic  is  that'  it  is  claimed  to  be 
the  highest  point  between  the  Illinois  and  Wa- 
bash  rivers.  Whether  this  is  so  or  not,  it  is  stated 
that  on  a  clear  day  a  good  pair  of  eyes  can  see 
the  towns  of  Wenona,  Minonk,  Rutland,  Pattons- 
burg,  Varna,  Lostant  and  the  spires  of  the 
churches  at  Mt.  Palatine. 

There  are  several  churches  in  Evans  township, 
most  of  them  being  located  in  Wenona,  though 
there  is  a  flourishing  Methodist  society  and  church 
at  the  head  of  Sandy,  established  there  in  the 
early  days,  and  services  were  held  there  and  at 
Wenona,  but  in  1865  a  Methodist  church  was  es- 
tablished in  Wenona,  and  the  two  were  separated. 
Both  have  good  congregations  and  maintain  good 
Sunday  schools  and  each  supports  its  own 
preacher. 

A  Presbyterian  society  was  organized  by  the 
Presbyterians  in  1852,  before  Wenona  was  laid 
out,  which  they  called  the  Hebron  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Marshall  County.  In  1856  the  railroad 


company  donated  the  society  a  lot  in  the  town, 
upon  which  they  erected  a  very  neat  church. 

There  is  also  a  Catholic  church,  St.  Mary's, 
built  about  1866.  A  very  neat  and  substantial 
building,  comfortably  seated  and  handsomely  fur- 
nished. The  society  at  the  time  the  church  was 
built  was  quite  weak,  but  of  late  years  there  has 
been  many  accessions  and  it  now  numbers  about 
400  communicants. 

Wenona  has  a  fine  graded  public  school,  which 
employs,  besides  the  principal,  seven  teachers  in 
the  different  departments.  They  have  a  fine 
school  building,  which  was  partially  destroyed  by 
fire  a  few  years  ago,  but  was  immediately  re- 
placed by  a  much  better  one.  In  1858  a  building 
was  erected  for  an  academy,  one  of  its  laws  being, 
"it  shall  forever  be  free  from  sectarian  control." 
It  has  been  quite  flourishing,  but  as  it  is  located  in 
La  Salle  county,  it  hardly  forms  a  part  of  Marshall 
county's  history,  though  partly  built  and  sustained 
by  Marshall  county  people. 

There  is  a  very  good  weekly  paper  published  in 
Wenona  by  the  name  of  the  Wenona  Index.  Sev- 
eral others  have  started  since  1865,  when  it  wae 
started,  but  did  not  appear  to  meet  with  much 
success  and  were  discontinued. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

BENNINGTON   TOWNSHIP. 

This  township,  the  youngest  of  the  Marshall 
county  townships,  is  geographically  described  as 
Town  29  N,  R.  1,  E.  of  the  3d  P.  M.  It  is 
situated  in  the  southeast  corner  of  Marshall  coun- 
ty and  contains  thirty-six  full  sections  of  land, 
and  although  the  youngest  of  the  townships,  it  is 
not  the  least  important. 

When  the  Illinois  Central  railroad  was  laid  in 
1852  there  was  not  a  permanent  settler  in  the 
township,  it  being  mostly  a  nearly  level  prairie, 
filled  with  small  depressions  which  contained 
water  most  of  the  season  and  were  connected  by 
small  waterways  that  were  called  "sloughs,"  the 
land  being  at  that  time  not  considered  fit  for 
farming  purposes,  except  for  the  grazing  of  cat- 
tle and  for  such  hay  as  was  needed. 

When  the  railroad  was  laid  off  a  station  was 
established  upon  it  in  La  Salle  county,  just  at 
the  line  in  Bennington  township.  It  originally 
lay  entirely  in  La  Salle  county,  but  later  a  small 
addition  to  it  was  laid  out  in  Marshall  county. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


The  settlement  of  Rutland  properly  belongs  to 
the  history  of  La  Salle  county,  but  a*  it  had  much 
to  do  with  the  early  settlement  of  Bennington 
township  a  brief  mention  may  be  made  of  it  here. 
In  March,  1855,  a  company  was  formed  in  Rut- 
land, Vermont,  styled  the  "Vermont  Emigration 
Association."  The  object  was  stated  to  be  "for 
the  purpose  of  settling  a  section  of  country  in 
the  west,  where  social,  religious  and  civil  privi- 
leges may  be  enjoyed."  A  committee  was  ap- 
pointed "to  proceed  to  the  west,  to  select  a  site 
for  a  village  in  the  midst  of  government  lands, 
where  each  member  may  obtain  a  quarter  section 
or  more  of  land  at  the  minimum  price." 

They  went  out  to  Iowa  and  other  parts  of  the 
west,  but  finally  reported  in  favor  of  Rutland. 
The  association  agreed  to  the  location  and  twenty- 
two  thousand  acres  of  land  were  purchased  in  the 
vicinity. 

The  village  was  laid  out  in  November,  1855,  and 
was  named  by  the  settlers  New  Rutland,  after 
their  old  home.  The  "New"  has  since  been 
dropped  and  the  postoffice  and  town  have  since 
gone  by  the  name  of  Rutland. 

Prom  the  settlement  at  Rutland  a  few  settlers 
settled  in  the  eastern  part  of  Bennington  and  a  few 
adventurous  ones  struck  out  into  the  western  part 
about  the  same  time. 

It  was  soon  found  that  the  land  was  not  only 
susceptible  of  cultivation,  but  that  it  was  ex- 
tremely fertile,  and  the  crops  raised  were  much 
better  than  those  in  the  timbered  land,  and  it  was 
but  a  very  short  time  before  the  land  was  all  taken 
up  and  farm  houses  sprung  up  in  every  direction. 
But  a  serious  problem  arose,  and  that  was  how  to 
fence  the  farms.  In  the  timber  was  plenty  of 
stuff  for  rails,  but  the  hauling  of  them  eight  or 
ten  miles  was  too  much  to  be  undertaken,  and  to 
fence  with  lumber  too  expensive  for  the  condition 
of  their  finances. 

About  this  time  the  legislature  passed  an  act 
giving  the  township  the  privilege  of  deciding  by 
a  vote  whether  cattle  and  hogs  should  be  per- 
mitted to  run  at  large.  At  the  next  spring  elec- 
tion Bennington  submitted  the  question  to  the 
people  and  the  vote  was  nearly  an  unanimous 
"No,"  and  that  township  was  the  first  in  this  sec- 
tion of  country  to  try  to  raise  crops  without  fences, 
the  cattle  being  either  herded  or  shut  up. 

We  have  said  that  Bennington  was  the  youngest 
of  the  townships,  for  at  the  time  that  township 
organization  was  adopted  by  the  other  townships. 


in  1850,  Bennington  did  not  have  a  settler  in  it, 
and  Saratoga,  a  similar  township,  was  not  much 
better  off.  It  filled  up  sooner,  however,  than  Ben- 
nington, and  was  granted  a  town  organization 
in  September,  1855,  and  Bennington  did  not  be- 
come a  town  until  December,  1856. 

Not  much  more  can  be  said  about  the  early 
settling  of  Bennington.  After  it  began  to  settle, 
in  an  incredibly  short  time  the  land  was  all  taken 
up,  and  as  the  land  could  be  brought  under  culti- 
vation simply  by  plowing,  no  fences  being  needed, 
no  timber  to  clear  off  nor  stumps  to  pull,  it  was 
very  rapidly  brought  under  cultivation,  the  water 
soon  disappeared  from  the  depressions,  the  con- 
necting sloughs  dried  up  and  the  system  of  drain- 
age which  has  been  adopted  make  it  the  best  farm- 
ing land  in  the  county.  At  least  it  is  not  excelled 
by  any. 

But  fine  farms  are  not  all  that  Bennington 
township  can  boast  of.  On  the  Santa  Fe  Railroad, 
which  was  built  through  the  northern  part  of  the 
township  about  fifteen  years  ago,  in  the  corner  of 
the  southeast  quarter  of  section  5,  was  located  a 
station,  and  named  Toluca.  At  first  it  was  only  a 
village,  with  its  one  or  two  stores,  a  blacksmith 
shop,  postoffice,  an  elevator,  lumber  yard  and  the 
usual  concomitants  of  a  farming  village,  till  three 
years  later  Charles  J.  Devlin,  who  had  been  the 
managing  head  of  the  opening  of  the  Spring  Val- 
ley coal  mines,  turned  his  attention  to  Toluca, 
where  a  former  prospecting  had  developed  the  fact 
that  there  practicable  coal  mines  could  be  de- 
veloped. 

Mr.  Devlin,  who  was  a  wonderfully  energetic 
man,  began  the  work  of  sinking  the  shaft  and 
putting  up  the  necessary  buildings.  The  work 
progressed  rapidly,  and  in  a  few  months  coal  was 
brought  to  the  surface,  and  as  fast  as  room  could 
be  made  for  them  men  were  put  in  to  dig  it  out, 
and  since  that  the  mines  have  been  actively  at 
work  and  Toluca  has  grown  from  a  village  of  one 
hundred  or  so  inhabitants  to  a  city  of  between 
five  and  six  thousand,  with  the  churches,  stores, 
two  newspapers  and  other  things  that  are  gen- 
erally found  in  cities  of  the  size  and  style. 

The  foreign  population  is  largely  of  the  better 
class  of  Italians,  although  there  are  enough 
American  residents  to  give  tone  to  the  society 
and  to  maintain  an  excellent  graded  school,  with 
a  principal  and  nine  assistants.  Besides  the 
Americans  and  Italians  there  is  a  sprinkling  of 
Poles,  Lithuanians  and  other  races  employed  in 


PAST    AND    PUKSKNT    OK    MARSHALL    AND    ITTNAM    COT  NTI  KS. 


and  around  the  mines,  the  number  of  men  em- 
ployed averaging  about  800,  the  output  of  the 
mines  in  1905  being  379,974  tons,  valued  at 
$450,104.  of  which  323,469  tons  were  loaded  oa 
cars  for  shipment.  The  price  for  mining — that  is, 
the  price  paid  to  men  as  wages — is  about  seventy- 
five  cents  a  ton,  which  would  make  in  the  gross 
amount  of  wages  paid  in  a  year  $275,000,  or  about 
$23,000  a  month. 

Mr.  Devlin,  who  established  the  Toluca  mines, 
was  a  remarkable  man.  Not  content  with  his 
mines,  he  first  built  a  railroad  from  Toluca,  con- 
necting his  mines  with  the  Illinois  Central  rail- 
road at  Rutland.  He  also  became  largely  inter- 
ested in  coal  properties  in  Kansas,  so  much  so 
that  he  took  up  his  residence  in  Topeka,  Kansas, 
but  still  kept  the  superintendency  of  his  Toluca 
properties,  and  was  largely  interested  in  the 
Spring  Valley  mines.  He  founded  banks  at  To- 
peka, Toluca  and  Spring  Valley,  and,  not  content 
with  his  railroad  connecting  with  the  Illinois 
Central,  he  built  an  extension  to  McNabb,  con- 
necting with  the  I.  I.  I.  at  that  place,  and  named 
it  the  Toluca,  Marquette  and  Northern.  He  also 
built  out  a  branch  from  the  Toluca,  Marquette  and 
Northern  from  Magnolia  to  Henry,  expecting  to 
cross  the  Illinois  river  at  that  place  and  later 
extend  the  line  further  west.  He  had  also  several 
other  railroad  projects  in  view;  in  fact,  was  con- 
templating a  gigantic  scheme  of  railroad  building, 
but  unfortunately,  with  his  plans  unfinished,  he 
received  a  stroke  of  paralysis.  He  rallied  from  the 
physical  effects  in  a  comparatively  short  time,  but 
his  mental  powers  remained  clouded.  It  was  then 
found  that  he  had  kept  practically  no  books,  but 
had  carried  all  the  details  of  his  immense  business 
in  his  head ;  that  no  one  but  himself  knew  any- 
thing about  the  business,  and  his  mind  was  in 
such  condition  that  he  was  unable  to  give  any 
account  of  it. 

While  Mr.  Devlin  was  the  owner  of  property 
worth  millions,  and  all  of  it  good  paying  prop- 
erties, it  was  also  found  he  was  heavily  in  debt, 
and,  further,  had  borrowed  heavily  from  his  banks 
at  Topeka,  Spring  Valley  and  Toluca;  had,  in 
fact,  used  about  all  their  available  assets,  in- 
cluding the  deposits,  in  financing  his  various  ven- 
tures, and  that  his  debts  amounted  to  about 
$3,000,000.  The  first  result  was  the  suspension 
of  the  three  banks  and  the  placing  of  the  prop- 
erties in  the  hands  of  receivers,  who  have  at  last 
straightened  things  out  pretty  well  so  far  as  the 


banks  are  concerned,  but  there  is,  we  understand, 
to  be  some  litigation  over  the  Toluca  mines.  For 
several  years  they  have  gone  under  the  name  of 
the  Devlin  Coal  Company,  but  were  originally 
in  the  name  of  Charles  J.  Devlin,  and  there  is  no 
record  of  the  mines  ever  being  transferred  from 
Devlin  to  the  coal  company.  It  may  be  said  here 
that  Mr.  Devlin  owned  nearly  all  the  stock  of 
the  company,  others  holding  only  enough  so  they 
could  act  as  directors  and  officers.  The  legal 
question  is  whether  a  mortgage  given  by  the  Dev- 
lin Coal  Company  is  good  when  the  property  has 
never  been  transferred  to  them. 

Mr.  Devlin,  after  his  partial  recovery,  took  a 
voyage  to  Europe  to  recuperate,  but  did  not  ap- 
pear to  improve  much.  He  never  fully  recovered, 
and  died  a  short  time  after  his  return  from  the 
European  trip. 

While  Toluca  is  the  largest  of  the  towns  in 
Marshall  county,  containing  a  population  more 
than  three  times  that  of  any  of  the  others,  it 
is  behind  them  in  embellishments  and  improve- 
ments. The  nature  of  the  population  being  large- 
ly miners  are  more  or  less  shifting  all  the  time 
and  do  not  take  the  same  interest  in  their  homes 
and  surroundings  as  .do  those  towns  where  the  in- 
habitants are  more  permanently  settled. 


CHAPTEK  XXL 

MARSHALL   COUNTY   AS   IT   IS. 

Marshall  county  is  one  of  the  smallest  counties 
in  the  state.  It  contains  only  twelve  townships, 
and  some  of  these  are  fractions.  Yet  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  there  is  a  fairer  one  or  one  that  has  more 
natural  resources.  Its  broad  prairies,  always  ready 
to  respond  to  efforts  of  the  husbandman,  unfailing- 
ly produce  large  crops  of  corn,  oats,  wheat  or 
whatever  he  wishes  to  raise  in  overflowing  abun- 
dance. With  an  experience  here  of  over  sixty 
years  we  have  never  known  a  crop  failure.  Besides 
being  unexcelled  as  farming  lands  the  whole 
country  is  underlaid  with  two  or  three  veins  of 
excellent  coal.  The  hills  are  not  only  covered 
with  fine  timber,  but  are  full  of  fine  building 
stone,  limestone  fit  for  a  good  quality  of  lime,  and 
now  that  cement  has  come  so  much  into  use  there 
is  but  little  doubt  that  large  quantities  of  it  could 
be  found  if  properly  searched  for. 

Sand  and  gravel  of  the  finest  quality  are  found 
in  many  places,  and  nature  appears  to  have  taken 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Marshall  county  under  her  wing  and  showered  her 
with  her  most  precious  treasures. 

And  while  nature  has  done  so  much  man  has 
added  to  and  improved  upon  it,  and  it  would  be 
very  hard  to  find  a  piece  of  land  of  the  same  ex- 
tent of  Marshall  county  where  there  are  so  many 
fine  farm  residences  and  improved  surroundings. 
Nor  are  the  cities  behind  the  country.  They  are 
not  so  large  as  some,  it  is  true,  but  they  are 
beautiful,  not  only  in  the  large,  palatial  resi- 
dences, with  their  spacious  lawns  and  well  kept 
grounds,  but  also  the  most  humble  homes  have  an 
air  of  contentment  and  peace,  and  over  all  an  air 
of  comfort  and  home  cheer  that  makes  the  heart 
glad,  and  the  same  care  is  shown  in  keeping  up 
the  house  and  grounds  of  the  smaller  homes  as 
in  the  larger  ones.  It  shows  they  have  a  confi- 
dence and  pride  in  their  little  cities  that  you  will 
not  find  in  the  large  cities.  You  will  travel  far 
and  wide  before  you  find  prettier  or  nicer  little 
cities  than  Marshall  county  can  boast  of. 

Besides  the  corn  and  other  crop  raising  much 
attention  is  paid  stock  raising,  and  Marshall  coun- 
ty can  boast  of  some  of  the  finest  herds  of  thor- 
oughbred stock,  horses,  cattle  and  hogs  there  is 
in  the  state.  In  fact,  both  thoroughbred  cattle 
and  horses  were  introduced  into  this  section  by 
Marshall  county  farmers  in  very  early  days.  The 
county  has  long  been  noted  for  shorthorn  cattle, 
and  there  is  now  a  herd  of  them  here  which  have 
repeatedly  taken  premiums  at  the  state  fairs  and 
at  the  International  Stock  Show  in  Chicago,  that 
is  well  known  throughout  the  United  States  and 
Canada  and  is  famous  for  its  purity  and  the 
beauty  of  its  individuals. 

Although  Marshall  county  is  small,  yet  every 
variety  of  soil  and  contour  that  Illinois  affords  is 
found  here,  the  level  flat  prairie,  with  its  deep 
black  soil,  the  sand  prairie  with  its  light  fertile 
soil,  the  rolling  high  prairie  with  its  clayey,  sticky 
richness,  the  bold  bluff  with  its  timber  and  stone 
and  coal  boldly  cropping  out,  the  swamps  with 
untold  richness  which  is  waiting  for  the  drain,  and 
the  noble  river,  bearing  on  its  bosom  cargoes  of 
corn,  oats  and  wheat  and  noble  steamers  upon 
which  hundreds  of  passengers  daily  pass  up  and 
down,  and  whose  product  of  fish  is  by  no  means 
an  insignificant  item  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
county.  We  think  it  would  be  extremely  difficult 
to  find  a  more  diversified  landscape  or  where  na- 
ture has  bestowed  her  best  gifts  with  a  more  lavish 
hand. 


Marshall  county  is  celebrated  for  the  excellence 
of  her  schools.  Almost  the  first  thing  the  early 
settlers  did  after  providing  for  the  comfort  of 
their  families  was  to  do  something  for  the  educa- 
tion of  their  children,  and  almost  as  soon  as  they 
became  settled  their  first  care  was  to  build  school 
houses  and  provide  means  to  educate  the  children, 
and  the  same  disposition  pertains  to  this  day,  and 
no  one  can  hardly  travel  two  miles  in  any  direction 
but  what  they  will  see  a  very  neat,  comfortable 
building  which  has  "school"  written  all  over  it. 
The  grounds  around  it  will  be  well  cared  for,  by 
far  the  larger  part  of  them  having  fine  shade  trees 
even  when  built  upon  the  open  prairie.  If  you 
go  into  one  you  will  find  it  comfortably  seated 
with  patent  seats  and  desks,  the  vails  decorated 
with  maps  and  charts,  and  all  but  one  of  the 
eighty  schools  of  the  county  have  libraries  of 
greater  or  less  extent,  with  an  encyclopaedia  and 
dictionary  handy  and  plenty  of  blackboard  and 
chalk.  There  are  in  the  county  forty-three  hun- 
dred and  twenty-four  children  of  school  age,  be- 
tween six  and  twenty-one.  Of  these,  thirty-four 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  are  upon  the  rolls  of 
the  different  schools.  To  teach  these  schools  one 
hundred  and  twenty-six  teachers  are  employed, 
twenty-one  males  and  one  hundred  and  five  fe- 
males. Of  the  eighty  schools,  eight  are  graded, 
and  each  requires  several  teachers.  Some  of  the 
male  teachers,  principals,  command  a  wage  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  and  over  a  month. 
Some  of  the  females  are  paid  as  low  as  thirty  dol- 
lars, but  the  average  salary  for  teachers  is  from 
forty  to  fifty  dollars.  The  eight  graded  schools  are 
found  at  present  in  the  cities  and  towns,  but  the 
time  is  not  far  distant  when  each  township  will 
have  its  high  school,  with  means  provided  for 
scholars  living  at  a  distance  to  ride  to  the  school 
house.  A  school  of  this  kind  is  already  estab- 
lished in  the  adjoining  county,  and  it  will  not  be 
long  before  it  is  generally  adopted. 

With  the  same  zeal  that  they  provided  for  sec- 
ular instruction  for  their  children  did  they  look 
out  for  religious  instruction  for  themselves,  and 
no  sooner  was  the  school  house  built,  and  some- 
times before,  they  began  to  hold  religious  services, 
at  .times  in  houses,  but  they  were  quite  small,  and 
at  other  times  in  barns,  where  a  larger  number 
could  be  accommodated.  When  the  school  house 
was  built  the  services  were  held  there.  The  pioneer 
preachers  were  as  a  rule  rough,  uncultured  men, 
often  unable  even  to  read,  but  they  were  earnest 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OP   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


i;;: 


and  sincere  and  often  powerful  preachers.  They 
would  often  go  many  miles  to  fill  an  appointment 
made,  it  might  be,  several  months  ahead,  and 
would  brave  any  weather  or  other  obstacles.  The 
writer  has  in  mind  one  of  these  men  who  lived 
fifteen  miles  away,  who  had  a  standing  appoint- 
ment to  preach  at  a  certain  school  house  every  fifth 
Sunday  in  the  month,  having  other  regular  ap- 
pointments for  all  the  other  Sundays.  He  never 
missed  an  appointment  if  his  health  permitted  him 
to  start. 

To  the  honor  of  the  settlers  be  it  said  that  when 
the  preacher  came  to  his  appointment  he  found 
his  congregation  there  to  meet  him,  and  they 
came  from  far  and  near,  not  to  show  their  fine 
bonnets  and  new  clothes,  for  they  had  none,  but 
to.  listen  reverently  to  the  words  of  the  preacher. 
They  may  have  been  rough  and  uncouth  in  their 
exterior,  but  they  were  honest  and  upright  in 
heart,  and  the  good  qualities  they  transmitted  to 
their  children  have  done  much  to  make  of  the 
people  of  Marshall  county  a  moral,  law  abiding 
people.  It  is  singularly  free  from  rowdyism  and 
crime. 

As  more  settlers  came  in  and  the  school  houses 
became  too  small  for  the  congregations  and  the 
settlers  a  little  more  forehanded  they  began  to 
build  churches,  possibly  not  so  imposing  or  gaudy 
as  some,  but  good,  substantial  buildings,  large 
enough  to  accommodate  all,  and  dedicated  them 
to  the  worship  of  God,  and  it  is  to  the  credit  of 
these  men  that  they  made  provision  for  their  souls' 
welfare  before  they  were  fully  able  to  care  for  the 
body.  They  looked  after  the  essentials,  leaving 
other  matters  to  care  for  themselves. 

This  disposition  to  build  churches  and  gather 
together  for  worship  is  a  distinct  trait  today  of 
the  people  of  Marshall  county,  and  we  doubt  if 
another  county  of  the  same  size,  and  even  some 
much  larger,  can  be  found  that  has  had  more 
churches  built  in  it  than  Marshall  county,  and 
today  they  are  found  everywhere,  every  township 
having  from  one  to  three  or  four  in  the  country 
districts.  No  village  has  less  than  two,  and  of 
the  cities  of  two  thousand  or  so,  Henry  has  seven 
and  Lacon  and  Wenona  about  as  many. 

While  the  people  have  well  looked  after  their 
spiritual  needs  they  have  not  by  any  means  neglect- 
ed the  bodily  comforts.  The  little  twelve  by  four- 
teen log  cabin  has  been  replaced  by  palatial  resi- 
dences, and  the  straw-covered  stable  of  poles  by 
a  capacious  barn  and  sometimes  two  or  three. 


The  houses  are  nicely  built  and  painted,  large, 
roomy  and  comfortable,  and  furnished  with  most 
of  the  modern  conveniences  and  comforts.  Heated 
in  winter  by  furnaces  or  large  hard  coal  burners, 
they  are  kept  comfortable  throughout.  A  tele- 
phone connecting  with  the  outer  world  is  found 
in  nearly  every  house,  and  every  morning  their 
mail  is  delivered  at  the  gate  by  the  rural  mail 
carrier. 

Marshall  county  is  essentially  a  farming  com- 
munity, located  in  one  of  the  finest  farming  sec- 
tions in  the  world.  There  may  be  other  patches 
of  land  more  prolific  at  times,  but  the  farmer  in 
Marshall  county  is  always  assured  of  a  fair  return 
if  he  gives  it  the  needed  attention.  The  numer- 
ous well  filled  barns  and  the  bursting  corn  cribs 
attest  the  bounteous  profusion  of  nature's  gifts  to 
the  thrifty  husbandman. 

While  Marshall  county  is  not  located  exactly 
in  the  "fruit  belt,"  strawberries,  raspberries  and 
blackberries  grow  wild  in  the  woods  and  on  the 
prairies,  and  when  cultivated  produce  immense 
crops  of  excellent  quality.  Apples,  pears,  plums 
and  cherries  all  do  well,  and  in  favorable  seasons, 
which  are  much  more  common  than  unfavorable 
ones,  produce  large  crops  of  fine  fruit.  Peaches 
are  somewhat  uncertain,  a  cold  winter  killing  the 
buds,  but  after  a  mild  winter  like  the  last,  every 
tree  is  loaded  to  its  full  capacity;  in  fact,  all  the 
fruits  of  the  temperate  zone  can  be  raised  here 
with  a  little  care  and  cultivation. 

Another  thing  which  contributes  to  the  pros- 
perity of  the  county  and  has  been  lavishly  supplied 
by  nature  is  the  coal  beds.  There  is  but  little  if 
any  doubt  but  that  the  whole  of  Marshall  county, 
with  the  exception  of  the  small  Henry  prairie, 
about  two  miles  wide  and  five  miles  long,  is  under- 
laid with  several  beds  of  excellent  coal.  Already 
Marshall  county,  small  as  it  is,  ranks  eighteenth 
in  the  coal  producing  counties  of  the  state,  of 
which  there  are  forty-two.  The  output  for  ship- 
ping last  year  (1905)  was  503,776  tons,  valued 
at  $666,686,  from  the  three  mines  of  Toluca,  We- 
nona and  Sparland,  while  the  local  banks  are 
credited  with  seventy-one  hundred  and  ninety-two 
tons,  valued  at  $10,999,  mostly  consumed  in  the 
county.  There  are  no  mines  down  to  the  third 
vein  coal  west  of  the  river  except  at  Sparland,  and 
there  are  grand  possibilities  yet  in  the  large  prai- 
ries that  compose  the  four  townships  on  that  side, 
for  the  coal  lays  there  in  inexhaustible  quantities 
as  the  Creator  laid  it  ages  ago.  It  might  be  sup- 


(il 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


posed  that  the  farms  located  in  the  rich  prairies 
had  a  great  advantage  over  those  whose  farms  ex- 
tended into  the  timber  and  bluffs,  but  not  so. 
There  is  hardly  an  acre  in  Marshall  county  which, 
if  properly  cultivated,  will  not  bring  a  fair  crop 
of  corn,  wheat,  oats  or  other  cereals,  but  the  bluffs 
make  excellent  grazing  grounds,  and  those  living 
there  have  turned  their  attention  to  breeding  and 
raising  cattle  and  hogs,  and  the  signs  of  pros- 
perity around  their  homes  are  fully  equal  to  those 
of  the  denizens  of  the  prairie. 

Before  we  leave  the  sources  of  production  that 
nature  has  bounteously  bestowed  upon  Marshall 
county  we  must  not  omit  the  Illinois  river,  which 
is  one  of  the  greatest  fish  producers  in  the  country. 
The  statistics  tell  us  that  the  Illinois  produces 
more  fish  than  all  the  rest  of  the  tributaries  of  the 
Mississippi  together.  Be  that  as  it  may,  thou- 
sands of  pounds  are  caught  here  and  shipped  to 
New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Boston  every  year, 
and  between  two  and  three  hundred  persons  in  the 
little  city  of  Henry  alone  derive  the  greater  part 
of  their  living  from  the  fish  industry.  During  the 
first  two  weeks  in  June  there  was  shipped  from 
Henry  five  carloads,  over  one  hundred  thousand 
pounds.  These  fish  are  taken  by  professional  fish- 
ermen with  nets  and  seines,  and  consist  of  the 
coarser  fish,  carp  and  buffalo.  No  account  is  taken 
of  the  croppie,  bass,  bullheads  and  other  fish  which 
are  taken  with  hook  and  line  and  will  number  in 
a  season  many  thousands  and  furnish  a  delightful 
change  in  the  cuisine  of  hundreds  of  households. 
The  river  also,  ,with  its  numerous  ponds  and 
bayous,  gives  protection  to  swarms  of  ducks  and 
other  aquatic  birds,  which  furnish  sport  to  the 
hunters  and  many  a  tidbit  for  the  table. 

As  yet  Marshall  county  has  no  factories  except 
the  woolen  mill  at  Lacon  that  was  destroyed  by 
fire  about  four  years  ago  but  was  rebuilt,  larger 
than  before.  They  are  prosperous  and  compete 
successfully  with  the  large  eastern  corporations. 
They  are  crowded  with  orders  and  are  contem- 
plating doubling  the  capacity  of  the  plant  in  the 
near  future,  which  shows  that  factories  can  be 
successfully  conducted  here,  and  there  is  no  ques- 
tion that  it  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  more 
will  be  established  in  the  county,  as  there  are 
plenty  of  fine  sites  and  conditions  are  favorable. 

In  summing  up,  what  more  can  we  say  of  Mar- 
shall county?  We  have  known  it  and  lived  in  it 
over  sixty  years,  and  we  never  knew  it  to  go  back 
on  the  farmer.  We  have  seen  it  change  from  a 


few  small  hamlets  and  scattered  settlers,  when  it 
was  almost  in  its  primitive  state,  nearly  as  wild  as 
when  La  Salle  and  Marquette  first  sailed  down  the 
river  in  their  canoes,  and  have  seen  the  hamlets 
grow  into  cities  and  farms  cover  the  whole  face 
of  the  country.  We  have  seen  the  little  log  cabin 
of  the  settler  first  exchanged  for  a  neat  frame 
house  and  that  in  turn  replaced  by  a  palace.  We 
have  seen  the  land  rise  in  value  from  one  dollar 
and  a  quarter  an  acre  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  and 
two  hundred  dollars  an  acre.  The  changes  have 
been  great  and  wonderful. 

Sixty  years  is  a  long  time  in  the  life  of  a  man, 
but  a  short  time  in  the  history  of  a  country.  This 
great  change  has  come  over  the  county  during  one 
life  tune  of  a  man.  A  member  of  the  family  of 
the  first  settler  of  Marshall  county,  seven  years 
old  at  the  time  the  family  settled  here,  died  last 
June  at  the  age  of  eighty-five  years.  He  found 
the  country  a  wild  wilderness,  inhabited  only  by 
wild  animals  and  the  still  wilder  Indians,  he  left 
it  "as  a  garden,  blossoming  like  the  rose." 

Of  those  that  came  in  the  earlier  days  many  re- 
mained, some  went  away.  Of  those  who  went 
away  a  few  may  have  bettered  their  lot,  but  many 
did  not,  but  of  those  who  remained,  almost  with- 
out exception,  they  found  as  old  age  came  on  they 
could  retire  from  the  strenuous  life  and  spend  the 
closing  years  in  peaceful  ease.  Marshall  county 
has  in  almost  every  instance  rewarded  their  days 
of  toil  with  a  bountiful  surplus  that  makes  their 
last  days  a  peaceful  rest,  free  from  toil  and  care. 

Of  the  future  of  Marshall  county  who  shall  say  ? 
Who  will  have  the  audacity  to  place  a  limit  upon 
its  improvement?  Who  shall  say  "thus  far  and 
no  farther"  ? 

Had  any  one  a  half  century  ago  undertook  to 
describe  it  as  it  really  is  today;  had  he  had  the 
gift  of  second  sight  and  really  seen  it  as  it  is, 
those  to  whom  he  told  it  would  have  considered  it 
wild  vaporings;  they  would  not  have  believed  it 
possible  that  it  could  be.  May  not  the  next  half 
century  make  changes  here  even  more  wonderful 
than  the  past  one? 

We  have  seen  that  her  resources  are  practically 
inexhaustible  and  that  in  fact  they  are  not  half 
developed.  The  farms  under  a  better  and  more 
comprehensive  system  of  cultivation  would  yield 
double,  possibly  treble,  what  they  do  at  present. 
Her  inexhaustible  coal  beds  have  hardly  been 
touched,  even.  Her  gravel,  sand,  lime  and  cement 
beds  have  hardly  been  disturbed.  Production  in 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


65 


the  county  is  just  in  its  infancy ;  it  needs  develop- 
ing in  other  lines  and  almost  as  badly  now  as 
farming  did  at  the  beginning  of  the  past  half 
century. 

We  have  all  these  things  in  unlimited  quanti- 
ties, but  we  have  little  use  for  them,  and  conse- 
quently they  are  undeveloped.  Others,  however, 
do  want  them,  and  when  transportation  facilities 
are  such  that  we  can  move  them,  then  we  can  es- 
tablish communication  with  them  and  they  will  be 
glad  to  get  these  things  and  will  remunerate  us  for 
them.  It  is  true  we  now  have  five  great  railroads 


within  our  borders,  but  they  are  taxed  to  their 
utmost  to  move  the  grain  and  coal  that  is  now 
produced.  We  are  promised  other  roads,  and  con- 
ditions are  such  that  other  railroads  must  come, 
but  it  is  when  the  river  improvement,  now  con- 
templated, when  the  "great  waterway  from  the 
lakes  to  the  gulf"  is  finished,  when  ships  load  with 
the  varied  productions  of  Marshall  county  at  her 
own  wharves  for  all  parts  of  the  world,  then  and 
not  until  then  will  anybody  be  able  to  answer  in- 
telligently the  question,  What  shall  the  future  of 
Marshall  county  be? 


HISTORY  OF  PUTNAM  COUNTY 


BY 


W.  E.  HAWTHORNE 


CHAPTER   I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Men  are  ever  interested  to  know  who  they  are 
and  how  they  came  to  be  where  they  are  and  why 
they  are  what  they  are. 

In  a  brief  account  of  a  very  small  portion  of  a 
great  people  a  casual  reference  to  the  great  whole 
is  sufficient  to  introduce  the  particular  portion 
whose  history  is  to  be  recorded  in  this  volume. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century 
men  along  the  eastern  coast  of  our  great  country 
began  looking  westward  for  room  in  which  to  ex- 
pand.  Explorers  had  traversed  the  great  prairies 
toward  the  setting  sun;  up  and  down  the  water 
courses  that  ramified  like  an  arterial  system  the 
great  valley  between  the  Blue  Ridge  mountains 
to  the  east  and  the  Rockies  to  the  west,  men  had 
steered  their  frail  barques  seeking  a  country 
where  they  might  pitch  their  tents  and  rear  their 
families  unrestrained  by  the  requirements  of 
established  social  customs.  "Out  West"  in  the 
origin  of  the  term  meant  over  the  Alleghany 
mountains,  and  as  civilization  pushed  westward 
people  still  spoke  of  "going  west.''  Ohio  was  "out 
on  the  frontier"  in  the  closing  years  of  the  eight- 
teenth  century.  Michigan  and  Indiana  were  set- 
tled in  advance  of  Ohio.  Then  Illinois  was  the 
Mecca  of  the  pilgrim  westward  bound.  The  lat- 
ter half  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  refer  to  the 
"wild  and  woolly  west"  meant  beyond  the  father 
of  waters,  as  the  Mississippi  river  has  been  called. 


In  the  morning  days  of  the  twentieth  century, 
there  is  no  "out  west"  since  man  has  fixed  his 
habitation  from  ocean  to  ocean  subduing  the 
boundless  prairies  and  causing  them  to  blossom 
like  the  rose. 

In  the  dawn  of  the  past  century  the  territory 
between  Lake  Michigan  on  the  east,  the  Missis- 
sippi river  on  the  west  and  the  Ohio  river  on  the 
south  to  4:21/2°  north  latitude  on  the  north  was 
rapidly  settling  with  a  rugged  yeomanry  ambi- 
tious to  become  an  integral  part  of  the  great  coun- 
try known  as  the  United  States.  In  1818  she 
stood  at  the  door  and  knocked;  was  heard  and 
admitted  and  her  part  in  the  nation's  life  has 
been  such  that  every  citizen  in  the  great  common- 
wealth of  "Illinois"  is  proud  to  declare  his  allegi- 
ance to  the  great  prairie  state. 

It  would  seem  as  we  look  back  upon  the  be- 
ginnings that  our  forefathers  hardly  knew  the 
immensity  of  the  undertaking  that  they  had  on 
their  hands  when  they  began  the  work  of  con- 
structing the  political  sub-divisions  of  a  state 
that  contained  thirty-three  thousand  six  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  square  miles. 

The  principal  settlements  were  through  the 
central  portion  ofHhis  territory  and  in  the  first 
division  into  counties,  the  acreage  allotted  to 
some  of  them  equaled  oriental  principalities  or 
kingdoms.  We  have  some  now  to  our  theme 
proper.  We  shall  presume  that  our  readers  are 
informed  on  the  general  history  of  our  country  at 
large  and  on  that  portion  of  the  state  history 
that  is  of  general  interest.  To  record  some  of 


PAST    AND    PRKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


the  events  and  to  name  the  persons  who  figured 
in  those  events  is  the  prerogative  of  the  historian. 

Each  life,  each  family,  every  community  has 
its  history  peculiar  to  itself.  No  two  are  exactly 
alike;  but  there  are  similarities  and  analogies 
enough  in  each  to  make  it  interesting  to  the 
other  while  differences  make  the  more  fascinat- 
ing reading. 

In  the  original  formation  of  Putnam  county, 
which  honors  General  Isaac  Putnam  of  Revolu- 
tionary fame  in  its  name,  about  one-fourth  of 
the  state  was  embraced  in  its  borders.  The  orig- 
inal Putnam  county  became  such  by  legislative 
enactment  on  January  13,  1825,  and  embraced 
some  sixteen  to  eighteen  of  the  western  counties 
including  Bureau,  La  Salle,  Will  and  Cook.  In 
1831  Putnam  was  again  divided  and  reduced  to 
the  territory  of  the  present  Marshall,  Stark,  Put- 
nam and  Bureau  counties.  In  1837  Bureau 
county  was  established  leaving  Putnam,  Marshall 
and  Stark  as  Putnam  county.  Two  years  later 
Stark  and  Marshall  each  set  up  for  themselves  a 
county  organization  and  "Little  Put,"  shorn  of 
all  her  former  greatness,  remained  but  the  core 
of  the  original  apple.  Many  of  her  children  have 
grown  so  great  that  they  chide  their  mother  that 
she  has  shriveled  to  such  proportion,  not  realiz- 
ing 'that  she  was  simply  shifted  off  the  rough  ex- 
terior, retaining  the  real  source  of  growth  and 
development — the  heart.  For  nearly  seventy 
years  the  boundaries  of  Putnam  county  have  re- 
mained unchanged  though  there  have  been  occa- 
sional agitations  of  the  advisability  of  consolida- 
tion with  an  adjoining  county,  probably  Marshall. 
The  maintenance  of  a  county  government  in  a  dis- 
trict containing  one  hundred  and  seventy  square 
miles  and  part  of  that  river,  bottoms  and  bluffs, 
is  appreciably  greater  than  in  the  larger  counties 
and  yet  so  economically  and  honestly  have  the  af- 
fairs of  Putnam  county  been  administered  that 
the  people  have  never  complained.  Practically 
speaking  "boodle"  and  "graft"  are  unknown 
terms  in  official  life  in  Putnam  county,  an  evi- 
dence of  the  moral  status  of  her  people. 

The  men  who  first  came  to  this  sequestered 
spot  were  in  the  main,  men  of  Christian  charac- 
ter, men  who  believed  that  God  is  everywhere  and 
can  be  honored  on  the  frontier  as  well  as  in  the 
city's  kirk.  So  these  men  came  from  settlements 
of  Ohio,  Michigan  and  the  states  beyond  the  Blue 
Ridge  range.  Few  of  their  descendants  appreci- 


ate the  courage  required  to  face  the  hardships 
and  dangers  of  pioneer  life  in  the  early  days  in 
Illinois. 

Where  now  the  steam  engine  rushes  along  at 
forty  to  ninety  miles  an  hour  or  the  automobile 
makes  twenty  to  thirty  miles  an  hour  our  fath- 
ers were  content  to  make  a  few  miles  per  day 
The  evolution  of  the  years  since  first  the  virgin 
soil  yielded  to  their  crude  share  is  wonderful  to 
contemplate.  We  are  wont  to  be  puffed  up  with 
our  advanced  civilization,  considering  the '  early 
settlers  but  little  above  the  red  man  in  intellect 
and  culture,  but  it  is  they  who  gave  us  the  en- 
durance and  perseveranqe,  who  made  it  possible 
for  us  to  attain  the  degree  of  enlightenment  now 
prevailing  in  the  great  prairie  state. 


CHAPTER  II. 
TOPOGRAPHY. 

Putnam  county  is  beautiful  for  situation,  with 
rolling  prairies  and  wooded  bluff  lands.  Aware 
of  the  richness  of  the  fertility  of  the  Eden  of 
the  Universe,  the  majestic  Illinois  in  its  me- 
anderings  sought  and  passed  through  this  seques- 
tered spot.  Up  and  down  its  waters,  men  whose 
names  have  become  famous  in  all-world  history, 
have  steered  their  barks.  Upon  its  banks  events 
of  historic  importance  have  transpired.  Events 
so  familiar  to  every  student  of  school  history  that 
the  very  children  can  recount  by  the  hour  thrill- 
ing narratives  associated  with  the  Illinois. 

When  Putnam  county  was  first  occupied  by  the 
white  man  he  found  its  prairies  dotted  with 
sloughs  and  swamps,  and  to  traverse  its  borders 
the  traveler  kept  to  the  high  ground.  But  the 
hand  of  man  has  changed  the  face  of  nature. 
The  swampy  land  has  been  tiled  out  and  is  now 
the  most  productive  land  available  for  agricultur- 
al purposes.  There  is  now  no  land  within  the 
county  except  along  the  rivers  and  bluffs  that  is 
not  absolutely  redeemed.  Not  an  acre  is  until- 
lable. 

Each  of  the  four  townships  has  its  creek  or 
creeks.  Fringing  these  little  streams  are  found 
the  timber  lands  of  hard  woods.  All  kinds  of 
oaks,  ash,  walnut,  hickory,  hard  maple,  elm,  cot- 
ton-wood, lynn  and  cedars,  poplars  and  willows. 
In  the  early  days  the  farmer  spent  his  winters  in 
the  timber  cutting  rails  and  hauling  them  to  his 
farm  lands  for  fences.  Can  you  imagine  the 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


71 


necessary  work  to  produce  rails  enough  to  build 
a  mile  of  fence  "10  rails  high  and  staked  and 
ridered"?  This  language  is  Greek  to  modern 
readers.  One  must  see  a  rail  fence  to  appreciate 
it.  The  rail  fence  was  supplanted  by  the  post 
and  board  fence,  still  necessitating  much  labor 
in  the  timber;  this  was  supplanted  by  the  barbed 
wire  and  that  by  the  woven  wire.  Up  to  within 
the  past  decade  or  two  the  universal  fuel  of  the 
entire  community  has  been  wood.  Much  splen- 
did material  has  thus  been  used  up  for  fuel  pur- 
poses. Much  time  has  been  spent  in  accumulat- 
ing a  pile  of  wood  during  the  winter  that  was 
sawed  by  horse  power  in  the  spring  time,  split 
and  ranked  up  for  the  family's  \ise.  A  wood  pile 
is  as  rare  a  sight  now  as  a  rail  fence.  Much  of 
the  timber  land  in  the  county,  has  been  cleared 
off  and  worked  up  into  coal  props,  or  sawed  up 
into  railroad  or  mine  ties,  and  yet  there  is  suffi- 
cient timber  remaining  to  beautify  the  landscape 
and  to  furnish  post  timber  for  farm  lands.  Many 
magnificent  maple  groves  have  been  preserved  for 
the  purpose  of  making  maple  sugar  and  syrup. 

There  is  no  grander  sight  in  all  the  realm  of 
nature  than  the  wooded  bluffs  along  the  Illinois 
when  the  frost  lias  tinged  the  oak  and  maple 
leaves.  The  ride  down  the  river  from  Hennepin 
to  Putnam  presents  a  sight  of  gorgeous  beauty 
and  autumnal  glory  beggaring  description  and 
rivaling  the  scenic  grandeur  of  the  Hudson. 

Beginning  at  the  northeast  corner  of  the  county 
and  touching  the  physical  features,  natural  and 
revised,  adown  the  Illinois  we  find  first  on  the 
highway  leading  to  the  river  from  the  village  of 
Granville  what  is  known  as  the  Spring  Valley 
hill.  A  tortuous  road  winding  around  the  bluffs 
down  into  a  beautiful  canyon  and  out  onto  the 
river  bottoms.  Across  the  river  lies  Spring  Val- 
ley— the  place  whose  name  is  synonymous  with 
coal-strikes  and  labor  eruptions;  a  town  with  a 
very  unenviable  reputation  in  the  past  but  much 
improved  in  latter  days.  At  the  north  end  of 
Hennepin  township  is  a  little  body  of  water 
called  Mud  lake,  a  favorite  resort  for  anglers  and 
picnieers.  Near  this  lake,  on  a  beautiful  level 
plat  studded  with  stalwart  trees  trimmed  high 
under  which  the  luxuriant -grass  produces  a  vel- 
vety carpeting,  on  the  very  edge  of  the  river 
bank,  is  a  picnic  ground  known  as  Benedict's 
Grove,  where  school  and  Sunday-school  children 


frequently  congregate  to  enjoy  the  beauties  of 
nature's  handiwork. 

A  few  miles  down  the  river  we  come  to  Pur- 
viance's  natural  park.  A  preserve  kept  in  its 
wild  and  original  condition  by  Amos  T.  Purvi- 
ance,  a  lover  and  student  of  nature,  whose  name 
is  mentioned  elsewhere  as  a  county  official  for 
many  years. 

Mr.  Purviance's  place  has  become  for  miles 
around  a  favorite  haunt  for  seekers  of  beautiful 
and  natural  scenery. 

A  large  island  divides  the  river  just  at  Henne- 
pin and  about  its  point  plies  back  and  forth,  car- 
rying its  human  freight,  the  famous  Hennepin 
ferry  boat.  Across  the  bottom  lands  from  Hen- 
nepin to  Bureau,  about  four  miles  away,  a  turn- 
pike has  been  thrown  up  but  is  overflown  every 
spring  during  high  water  season,  shutting  oft'  the 
west  side  people  except  by  boat. 

The  rich  bottom  lands  of  the  Illinois  river 
comprise  hundreds  of  acres  in  Putnam  county 
and  are  very  productive,  and  are  extensively  cul- 
tivated, especially  for  corn.  In  the  spring  of  the 
year  the  overflow  covers  the  entire  bottoms  but 
subsides  in  time  for  cultivation.  Occasionally, 
however,  the  fields  are  inundated  after  the  crops 
are  partially  matured  and  then  the  "bottom 
farmer"  finds  himself  out  of  his  season's  work. 
Thousands  of  tons  of  "ram-rod"  hay  are  harvest- 
ed in  the  sloughs  that  are  too  moist  for  cultiva- 
tion. Much  of  the  timber  is  cut  for  props  and 
cord  wood.  Thus  there  is  scarcely  any  territory 
in  the  county  that  is  not  productive. 

A  few  miles  below  Hennepin,  in  Senachwine 
township,  is  a  beautiful  lake  called  Senachwine 
lake.  It  is  about  two  and  a  half  miles  long  and 
a  third  of  a  mile  wide,  and  has  become  a  favorite 
pleasure  resort.  A  beautiful  and  natural  canyon 
leads  from  the  high  land  down  to  the  lake.  At 
the  opening  of  the  canyon  a  large  hotel  has  been 
built.  This  resort  is  known  as  the  "Undercliff." 
In  former  years  it  was  patronized  by  young  peo- 
ple during  the  summer  time  for  fishing  and  boat- 
ing but  at  the  present  time  it  is  a  favorite  resort 
the  year  round  where  people  from  Chicago,  St. 
Louis  and  nearby  cities  secure  a  secluded  spot  for 
rest  and  recuperation. 

So  entranced  have  become  the  people  with  the 
beautiful  and  magnificent  scenery  along 'the  Illi- 
nois that  as  familiar  as  "America"  to  the  school 
children,  has  become  the  State  song,  "Illinois." 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


ILLINOIS. 
4 

By  thy  rivers  gently  flowing, 

Illinois,   Illinois, 
0'<*  thy  prairies  verdant  growing, 

Illiaois,  Illinois, 
Comes  am  echo  on  the  breeze, 
Rustling  through  the  leafy  trees, 
A««i  its  mellow  tones  iare  these, 

Illinois,  Illinois, 

And  its  mellow  tones  are  these, 
Illinois. 

When  you  heard  your  country  calling, 

Illinois,  Illinois, 
Where  the  shot  and  shell  were  falling, 

Illinois,   Illinois, 

When  the  southern  hosts  withdrew, 
Pitting  Gray  against  the  Blue, 
There  were  none  more  brave  than  you, 

Illinois,   Illinois, 

There  were  none  more  brave  than  you, 
Illinois. 

Not  without  thy  wondrous  story, 

Illinois,   Illinois, 
Can  be  writ  the  Nation's  glory, 

Illinois,   Illinois, 
On  the  record  of  thy  years, 
Abr'am  Lincoln's  name  appears, 
Grant  and  Logan,  and  our  tears, 

Illinois,   Illinois, 

Grant  and  Logan,  and  our  tears, 
Illinois. 

The  territory  embraced  in  the  limits  of  Put- 
nam county  would  seem  to  have  been  designed  by 
nature  as  a  magnificent  park.  'From  the  ancient 
bluffs  along  the  river  rising  to  the  eastward  to 
Mt.  Palatine,  reputed  to  be  one  of  the  highest 
points  in  the  state,  to  the  western  limits  of  the 
county  rolling  away  to  the  Mississippi,  is  one 
Edenic  realm. 

Granville  township  is  mostly  billowed  prairie 
lands.  In  the  northern  portion  of  Hennepin 
township  following  the  bend  of  the  river  is  a 
broad  and  level  tract  known  as  Hennepin  Prairie. 
The  soil  is  rich  and  sandy  and  extremely  product^ 
ive.  Below  Hennepin  to  the  south  is  another 
tract  'called  Sand  Prairie  where  the  soil  is  very 


sandy  and  yet  sufficiently  mixed  with  black  soil 
to  make  it  productive. 

Magnolia  township  is  decidedly  the  garden  spot 
of  Central  Illinois  and  here  it  was  that  the  first 
settlements  were  made.  Ox  Bow  Prairie  derived 
its  name  from  the  outline  of  the  timber  that  en- 
closed three  sides  of  the  territory  bearing  that 
name.  "The  Ox  Bow,  in  olden  times,  was  one 
of  the  best  known  localities  in  Illinois  and  in 
priority  of  its  settlement  by  white  people,  takes 
rank  with  the  first  made  between  Peoria  and  the 
Wisconsin  line.  In  early  days  the  Ox  Bow  Prai- 
rie was  as  well  known  as  Galena,  Chicago,  Peoria 
or  any  other  point  in  the  state.  This  section,  by 
reason  of  its  geographical  position,  the  wonderful 
fertility  of  the  soil,  its  fine  drainage,  its  superior 
water  supply,  and  especially  because  it  was  sur- 
rounded by  timber,  seemed  a  very  Garden  of 
Eden  to  the  immigrant  from  the  wooded  coun- 
tries of  the  east.  In  consequence  of  its  peculiar 
location  its  settlement  was  rapid,  and  long  ago  it 
was  so  completely  improved  that  not  a  foot  of  its 
soil  was  left  unoccupied." 

In  Senachwine  township,  back  from  the  bluffs 
stretching  away  toward  the  setting  sun  is  another 
magnificent  prairie  possessing  all  the  beauty  and 
the  excellence  that  are  ascribed  to  the  other  prai- 
ries of  the  county,  and  yet  having  sufficient  dif- 
ferences to  give  it  a  distinctive  character. 

But  why  elaborate,  when  it  is  known  that  this 
little  garden  spot,  important  enough  to  be  called 
a  county,  is  an  integral  part  of  the  great  prairie 
state,  and  -without  her  portion  can  not  be  written 
in  the  history  of  the  commonwealth? 


CHAPTER  III. 

SETTLEMENT. 

In  this  simple  narrative  it  is  not  possible  to 
name  each  individual  s«ttler  as  he  oame  into  the 
county,  suffice  it  to  generalize  and  localize. 

The  very  first  white  man  who  holds  unchal- 
lenged the  distinction  of  being  first  in  any  par- 
ticular thing  is  Adam,  the  progenitor  of  the  hu- 
man race,  and  even  the  man  from  the  Garden 
of  Eden  has  been  called  by  some  fellows  from 
the  zoological  gardens.  It  matters  little  who  is 
first  on  the  ground  in  ;m  enterprise;  the  im- 
portant question  is.  "Who  did  the  work?"  In 
the  pioneer  days  of  Putnam  county  everyhody 


OLD    INDIAN    POST    AT     HENNEPIN,   1817. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MAKSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


worked.  In  the  days  we  sing  "Everybody  works 
but  father,"  which  is  only  true  when,  father  has 
earned  his  surcease  from  labor  by  years  of  brav- 
ing the  storms  of  life  until  the  going  down  of  the 
sun  comes  the  calm  that  he  is  entitled  to  enjoy. 

It  is  as  true  today  as  of  yore  that  "Woman's 
work  is  never  done."  Our  mothers  back  to  Mrs. 
Eve  Adam  were  inveterate  workers  and  not  until 
the  discrepitude  of  years  or  the  inroads  of  dis- 
ease has  sapped  her  vital  energy  does  mother  cease 
her  family  ministrations.  "Mother"  immortal- 
ized herself  by  her  consecrated  devotion  to  her 
maternal  relationships. 

It  matters  little  to  what  rank  or  station  man 
may  climb  in  this  life,  he  instinctively  ascribes 
the  source  of  inspiration  to  mother.  That  same 
element  that  lavishes  itself  on  her  offspring  de- 
velops first  in  her  devotion  and  fidelity  to  him 
whom  she  honors  as  her  lord  and  protector,  the 
father  of  her  child.  Since  first  the  flight  of  years 
began  the  historian  has  made  man  the  whole 
thing  in  life's  doings.  Looking  down  the  vista 
through  six  thousand  years  of  human  existence  in 
which  men  have  played  the  star  acts  in  life's 
drama,  we  are  able  to  discover  that  back  of  it  all 
the  incentives  to  the  noblest,  grandest  accom- 
plishments have  come  through  the  woman  in  the 
case.  Men  are  inclined  to  think  in  these  days 
that  there  is  a  new  being  in  existence,  part  angel, 
part  woman,  some  devil  and  some  man,  and  they 
have  named  this  creature  "The  New  Woman." 
In  the  process  of  evolution  the  spiritual  side  of 
woman's  life  has  developed  so  much  faster  than  she 
could  work  it  out  through  her  sons  that  it  has  be- 
come a  matter  of  necessity  that  she  work  out  a 
portion  of  her  spirit  through  her  daughters,  at 
the  same  time  supplying  all  the  moral  vitality 
that  her  sons  will  appropriate.  Because  she  has 
thrown  herself  into  the  breach  that  bids  fair  to 
wreck  her  home  and  life,  by  some  shallow-pated 
weakling  she  had  been  chided  for  her  presump- 
tion and  assumption. 

All  hail  to  the  mother  who  stands  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  the  father  in  the  efforts  to  make 
their  union  count  for  the  betterment  of  our  civ- 
ilization. Should  misfortune,  Maud  Muller  like, 
cast  her  lot  with  a  man  who  dozes  in  the  chimney 
corner  or  the  grogshops  hard  by,  the  more  the  ne- 
cessity that  she  assert  her  personality  and  be-' 
stow  upon  her  children  the  spirit  of  doing  some- 
thing for  self  and  humanity. 


True  to  the  spirit  of  ascribing  everything  to 
the  fathers,  the  historians  of  this  county  have 
given  us  a  few  names  of  the  pioneer  ladies,  but 
the.  evidence  remains  that  there  were  ladies 
among  the  pioneers  and  to  them  belongs  much 
of  the  glory  for  an  advanced  state  of  social,  civic 
and  religious  life.  Most  of  the  very  first  settlers 
came  up  from  the  older  settlement  down  the  state ; 
in  fact,  the  state  had  been  admitted  to  the  union 
before  anyone  had  really  settled  in  the  county, 
although  a  few  traders,  as  the  early  merchants, 
were  called,  had  located  along  the  river  as  early 
as  1817.  There  remains  about  a  mile  above  Hen- 
nepin  today,  the  ruins  of  an  old  trading  post 
where  Thomas  Hartzell  did  business  in  the  twen- 
ties. 

To  Captain  William  Haws  is  ascribed  the 
credit  of  being  the  first  permanent  settler  in  the 
county. 

He  came  up  from  Springfield  in  the  spring  of 
1821  en  route  to  Galena,  became  enamored  of  the 
country  about  Magnolia  and  decided  to  locate 
there.  He  blazed  his  name  upon  a  tree  and  went 
on  to  Galena,  where  he  remained  till  the  fall  of 
1826,  when  he  returned  and  took  formal  pos- 
session of  his  claim. 

He  built  an  exceedingly  primitive  house  of 
round  poles.  He  split  puncheons  for  the  floor 
and  doors  and  carried  rock  from  the  creek  for 
the  chimney  and  a  former  historian  has  said  that 
not  a  nail  was  used  in  the  construction  of  this 
house,  but  like  the  building  of  Solomon's  temple 
no  sound  of  a  hammer  was  heard,  for  he  had  none. 

He  kept  batch  the  first  winter,  existing  on  the 
result  of  his  skill  as  a  hunter  and  some  corn  he 
had  brought  with  him  from  the  south.  This  first 
cabin  stood  near  the  northern  limits  of  the  vil- 
lage of  Magnolia.  The  following  spring  he  put 
up  a  more  pretentious  cabin  near  the  first  one, 
in  which  he  and  his  family  lived  for  years.  His 
first  crop  of  winter  wheat  yielded  twenty  to  thirty 
bushels  to  the  acre  which  he  threshed  by  tramp- 
ing it  out  and  cleaned  by  hand.  His  corn  crop  he  • 
disposed  of  to  newcomers  at  twenty  and  twenty- 
five  cents  a  bushel.  This  early  pioneer  had  few 
domestic  animals — his  oxen,  a  cow  and  calf  and  a 
few  pigs.  His  hogs  ran  wild  in  the  timber  and 
multiplied  until  they  became  everybody's  prop- 
erty and  were  worth  nothing  until  dressed. 

Naturally  enough  the  newcomers,  as  they  ap- 
proached from  the  south,  were  favorably  im- 


PAST  AND  PRESENT  OF  MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


pressed  with  the  beautiful  country  about  Mr. 
Haws'  claim.  Consequently  the  south  end  of 
the  county  received  the  first  attention.  After  lo- 
cating there  many  of  them  branched  out  on  pros- 
pecting tours  to  other  parts  of  the  county,  and 
eventually  spread  out  along  the  timber  line  from 
Magnolia  to  the  river  on  the  north.  These  early 
people  took  to  the  woods.  Many  of  them  thought 
that  the  prairies  never  would  be  settled.  The 
probable  reason  for  this  was  the  fact  that  the  ma- 
terial for  building,  fences  and  fuel,  and  protec- 
tion from  the  storms.,  afforded  by  the  timber, 
caused  them  to  seek  its  friendly  shelter.  Thus 
we  find  the  little  openings  in  the  timber  lands 
were  the  first  settled. 

From  1826  to  1835-6  we  find  the  county  rapidly 
filling  up  in  all  parts.  The  first  settlers  becoming 
courageous,  disposed  of  their  claims  to  the  new 
arrivals  and  moved  farther  toward  the  frontier. 
In  the  volumes  that  have  been  written  heretofore 
great  lists  of  the  names  of  these  pioneers  have 
appeared  that  cannot  even  be  mentioned  in  a  sim- 
ple narrative,  and  whose  descendants,  many  of 
them,  are  still  the  leading  citizens  of  the  com- 
munity, and  the  matter  has  resolved  itself  into 
such  proportions  that  family  histories  have  been 
written  and  printed. 

We  shall  not  attempt  to  name  the  people  who 
have  made  history  in  Putnam  County  except  in  as 
much  as  their  names  appear  in  connection  with 
the  events  which  we  shall  select  to  show  the  char- 
acter of  such  people. 

In  1831  by  act  of  legislature  a  committee  was 
appointed  to  examine  various  localities  in  the 
county  for  the  purpose  of  locating  the  county 
seat.  The  most  promising  outlook  was  the  village 
of  Hennepin,  which  was  selected  as  the  capital  of 
the  county.  The  first  county  commissioners  un- 
der the  organization  were  Thomas  Gallagher, 
George  Ish  and  John  M.  Gay.  Seventy-five  years 
have  elapsed  since  that  time,  which  has  demon- 
strated the  wisdom  of  the  choice  of  that  commit- 
tee. Hennepin  is  situated  OB  the  east  bank  of  the 
Illinois  river  on  a  high  and  level  bluff,  a  most 
beautiful  natural  situation  for  a  city.  In  the 
early  days  Hennepin  was  a  very  active  and  busy 
city,  the  river  affording  a  means  of  transporta- 
tion to  the  market  at  St,  Louis  and  the  return  of 
the  necessaries  of  life  from  that  point. 

Very  little  money  was  in  circulation.  The  till- 
er of  the  soil  brought  the  product  of  his  labor  to 


Hennepin  and  bartered  it  for  his  family  wants. 
It  is  really  interesting  to  know  how  few  articles, 
that  are  not  home-made,  are  absolutely  necessary 
to  our  comfort  and  existence. 

Mr.  John  Swaney,  who  came  to  the  county  in 
1840,  and  who  still  lives,  told  us  that  wages  were 
very  low  in  those  days.  He  worked  for  Jim  Jones 
a  quarter  of  a  day  and  got  six  and  a  fourth  cents. 
Fifty  cents  a  week  for  hard  work  was  good  pay. 
The  day  began  at  sun-up  and  lasted  till  after  sun- 
down. A  school  teacher  got  $12  or  $13  a  month. 
His  sister  taught  at  Granville  and  rode  back  and 
forth  across  the  prairies  every  night  and  morn- 
ing. She  is  still  living  and  is  eighty-five  years  old. 

Mrs.  Mary  Massie,  who  came  to  the  county 
sixty-seven  years  ago,  tells  us  that  during  the 
war  her  husband  and  brothers  were  in  the  army 
and  she  supported  herself  and  child  by  working 
at  twenty-five  cents  a  day;  that  she  paid  thirty 
cents  for  calico  that  may  be  bought  now  for  three 
cents,  and  seventy-five  cents  a  yard  for  eight  or 
ten-cent  muslin.  Parenthetically,  let  us  suggest 
that  reading  between  the  lines  we  may  note  a  lit- 
tle something  of  what  it  cost  the  wives  and  moth- 
ers of  the  country  to  preserve  the  Union. 

There  were  many  necessities  in  the  development 
of  the  homes  in  this  new  country  that  could  not 
be  gotten  at  Hennepin,  nor  did  Hennepin  become 
a  general  market  until  boats  began  to  ply  the 
river.  The  farmer  would  load  his  grain  and 
start  on  the  long  trip  to  Chicago,  requiring  from 
nine  to  fifteen  days,  taking  with  him  feed  for 
his  horses  and  a  scythe;  he  would  mow  the  grass 
by  the  wayside  and  sleep  under  his  wagon  at 
night,  or  stop  in  the  winter  time  at  the  inns 
along  the  stage  route.  Many  incidents  are  re- 
lated in  which,  by  unavoidable  delays,  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  whole  of  his  produce  would  not  de- 
fray the  expenses  of  the  trip.  For  example,  twelve 
and  one-half  and  thirteen  cents  for  corn  and 
thirty-one  and  thirty-eight  cents  for  wheat.  All 
the  lumber,  shingles,  doors  and  windows  had  to 
be  hauled  from  Chicago.  Boys  went  to  Chicago 
oftener  then  than  boys  do  now. 

Gradually  Hennepin  became  a  great  market, 
remaining  so  until  Lacon  and  Peru,  with  greater 
attractions,  began  to  draw  trade  thitherward. 
Villages  sprang  up  in  various  parts  of  the  county 
with  their  shops,  stores,  schools  and  churches, 
thus  creating  new  centers  around  which  clustered 
the  interests  of  the  communities. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Hennepiii  was  surveyed  in  1831  by  Ira  Ladd  on 
government  land.  The  new  town  was  extensively 
advertised,  by  what  means  we  are  not  advised, 
and  the  first  sale  of  lots  ranged  from  $11.68  to 
$87.86  each.  The  first  lot  was  sold  to  J.  and  W. 
Durley,  who  proceeded  at  once  to  build  on  what  is 
now  the  corner  of  Front  and  Court  streets.  Dun- 
lavy  and  Stewart  built  a  trading  house  at  the 
same  time,  preceding  the  Durleys  a  few  days  in 
commencing  business.  J.  S.  Simpson;  Ira  Ladd, 
who  became  the  first  sheriff  of  the  county,  and  a 
man  named  Gleason  each  built  a  log  cabin  in  the 
fall  of  '31.  Thus  just  three-quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury ago  came  into  existence  the  county  seat.  The 
next  spring  the  first  hotel  was  built,  a  double  log 
cabin.  About  this  time  Thomas  Hartzell  built  a 
store  in  the  new  town  and  transferred  his  stock 
of  merchandise  from  his  log  store  a  mile  above 
the  town  into  Hennepin. 

In  1832  the  Black  Hawk  war  broke  out  and 
Hennepin  was  made  the  rallying  point  of  the 
rangers.  The  settlers  were  poorly  equipped  with 
arms  and  means  of  defense.  Thomas  Hartzell  of- 
fered to  donate  his  old  store  for  a  block  house,  and 
in  forty-eight  hours  the  community  had  trans- 
ferred and  rebuilt  the  same  on  what  is  now 
Front  street.  This  building  was  used  as  a  fort 
during  the  exciting  months  that  followed,  though 
we  are  informed  by  the  older  settlers  that  the 
dusky  warriors  did  not  cross  the  river  at  any  time 
during  the  war.  In  moving  Hartzell's  store  the 
brick  chimney  was  left  standing  where  a  French- 
man and  his  half-breed  wife,  occupying  a  cabin 
nearby,  resorted  for  cooking  purposes.  One  day 
while  thus  engaged  a  high  wind  blew  down  the 
chimney,  killing  the  woman  instantly.  The  exact 
location  of  this  chimney  is  marked  today  by  a 
little  mound  made  by  the  falling  brick  over  which 
has  grown  a  luxuriant  sod. 

The  settlement  of  the  county  is  more  fully  treat- 
ed under  Villages  and  in  the  biographies  of  the 
work.  The  biographical  feature  is  a  brief  record 
of  the  life  of  the  individual,  written  of  him  from 
facts  gathered  from  him  and  others.  Anything 
that  might  seem  out  of  place  in  an  autobiography 
may  be  perfectly  proper  in  a  biography.  The 
items  of  praise  have  been  expression?  of  kindly 
friends  and  neighbors.  Some  subjects  on  hearing 
the  story  of  their  lives  as  herein  written  have  ob- 
jected because  the  writer  said  so  many  good 
things  about  him,  but  so  long  as  the  truth  only 


appears,  let  it  stand;  seldom  do  men  have  too 
many  good  things  said  about  them  while  they  yet 
live. 

"The  evil  men  do  lives  after  them ; 
The  good  is  oft  interred  with  their  bones." 


CHAPTER  IV. 
VILLAGES. 

ALL  THE  ROADS  IN  THE  COUNTY  LEAD  TO  HEN- 
NEPIN. Speaking  of  roads,  there  were  no  high- 
ways at  that  time,  hedged  in  with  fences,  cutting 
right  angles  and  taking  one  through  swamps  and 
around  Robin  Hood's  barn  to  get  any  place,  the 
traveler  simply  fixed  his  eye  on  the  star  of  destiny 
and  moved  in  that  direction  until  he  reached  the 
desired  point. 

Hennepin  is  no  longer  a  market  place  as  in  by- 
gone days.  Railroads  have  brought  shipping 
points  all  about  her  and  she  now  has  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  the  most  exclusive  county  seat  in  the 
state.  She  also  has  other  unique  features  that  give 
her  special  distinction ;  her  streets  are  all  grav- 
eled, she  has  elegant  concrete  walks,  she  has  an 
artesian  water  system,  and  the  river  skirts  her 
limits,  upon  which  plies  the  Hennepin  ferry  boat, 
which  is  as  interesting  to  modern  travelers  as  it 
is  ancient  in  method  of  transportation. 

Some  very  good  stores  supply  the  mercantile 
interests  and  she  now  has  one  of  the  very  best 
hotels  in  her  history,  "The  Cecil."  Being  the 
county  seat  brings  people  to  the  monthly  sessions 
of  the  County  Court,  and  the  semi-annual  sessions 
of  the  Circuit  Court,  and  to  the  political  conven- 
tions and  such  other  gatherings  of  interest  to  the 
whole  county. 

Much  of  the  general  history  of  this  narrative 
clusters  about  Hennepin  and  much  is  said  else- 
where that  properly  belongs  here,  but  the  task 
of  classification  in  a  brief  sketch  is  not  an  easy 
one.  Hennepin  is  still  an  important  factor  in 
county  matters,  but  is  no  longer  the  whole  thing 
as  in  former  days. 


MAGNOLIA. 

Glancing  at  the  map  of  the  Putnam  county  we 
discover  that  a  number  of  little  villages  in  the  good 
old  days  sprang  up  as  community  centers.  Per- 
haps a  brief  sketch  of  each  of  them  may  be  of 
interest.  Hennepin  we  have  already  noted  was 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


'the  important  town  of  the  county.  Perhaps  in 
the  beginning,  Magnolia  was  the  next  important, 
situated  as  it  is  at  the  extreme  southeast  corner 
-of  the  county  near  the  Marshall  County  line,  it 
is  the  oldest-settled  town  in  the  county.  In  the 
fall  of  1826  claims  were  made  within  a  mile, 
north  of  the  site  of  the  village  by  Captain  Win. 
Haws,  James  W.  Willis  and  Stephen  D.  Willis, 
who  are  believed  to  have  been  the  first  to  pene- 
trate that  part  of  the  wilderness  with  the.  inten- 
tion of  settling.  The  next  year  John  Knox  ar- 
rived and  located  at  the  city  of  Magnolia.  The 
first  public  house  was  a  log  structure  and  the 
first  teacher  was  Andrew  Burns.  Thomas  Pat- 
terson was  the  founder  of  the  town  and  it  was 
here  he  builded  and  dedicated  to  science  this  first 
school  building.  The  development  of  the  school 
work  is  noted  under  the  heading  of  Schools. 
Knox's  Tavern  was  the  first  public  house  erected 
in  Magnolia,  A  double  cabin  which  became  a 
depot  on  Finch  and  Walker's  stage  line  and  like 
the  Ramage  House  of  today  became  famous  along 
the  line  for  its  comforts,  its  conveniences  and 
sumptuous  fare.  Among  the  first  merchants  to 
locate  there  were  John  McKisson,  Thomas  Pat- 
terson and  Elijah  Swan.  Magnolia  did  not  have 
a  postoffice  for  some  time  after  its  settlement. 
The  people  had  to  go  to  Roberts'  point  for  their 
mail  as  late  as  1836.  The  first  preacher  who  vis- 
ited the  village  was  Jesse  Walker  in  1828.  He  had 
a  trading  post  at  Ottawa  and  obtained  his  goods 
at  St.  Louis  and  brought  them  here  by  boat.  He 
preached  occasionally  and  was  a  curious,  bluff 
gentleman  rather  shrewd  in  business.  Magnolia 
has  been  the  center  of  much  commercial  activity 
in  its  day.  It  is  here  the  first  county  election 
was  held.  In  1841  and  1842  James  Ramage  con- 
structed the  first  plow  that  would  scour  in  Illinois 
soil.  It  was  he  who  produced  the  Diamond  Plow, 
the  forerunner  of  all  self-scouring  implements  of 
the  plow  kind  and  it  was  in  Magnolia  that  Mr. 
Ramage  carried  on  the  mercantile  business  until 
others  with  greater  facilities  took  away  his  trade. 
It  was  also  in  Magnolia  that  one  of  the  first  reap-, 
ing  machines  was  constructed.  In  1849  Mr. 
William  E.  Parrott  put  up  the  first  reaper  ever 
constructed  in  the  state  of  Illinois.  They  were 
not  the  self-binders  of  the  present  day  but  the  man 
who  first  invented  the  sickle-bar  and  the  place 
where  first  made,  deserve  recognition.  All  glory 
to  Magnolia's  inventive  genius  ! 


In  the  state  atlas  of  1876  Magnolia  furnishes 
a  larger  quota  of  men  who  were  willing  to  pay 
for  personal  recognition  in  that  work  than  any 
other  township  in  the  state.  Not  only  the  village 
itself  but  the  surrounding  country  has  produced 
an  energetic  class  of  citizenship  and  to  the  ad- 
vanced spirituality  of  this  community  is  due 
much  of  the  credit  of  Putnam  county's  rank 
among  the  other  counties  of  the  state.  The  vil- 
lage has  not  grown  much  in  the  last  quarter  of 
a  century.  It  has  now  some  very  nice  stores, 
many  splendid  dwellings;  has  been  fortunate 
enough  to  have  the  Toluca,  Marquette  &  North- 
ern Railroad  pass  through  its  limits,  thus  giving 
it  good  shipping  facilities;  has  a  new  school 
building,  and  while  not  increasing  in  size,  is  alto- 
gether a  unique  and  interesting  community. 


GRANVILLE. 

Perhaps  next  to  Magnolia  in  importance  was 
the  village  of  Granville.  It  was  surveyed  and 
laid  out  in  1836.  The  first  settler  was  a  man 
named  Creswell,  who  built  a  cabin  in  1832.  In 
1834  Thomas  Ware  erected  the  first  frame  struc- 
ture. "Loveliest  village  of  the  plain" — that's 
Granville;  nestling  near  the  primeval  forest,  oc- 
cupying a  commanding  site  affording  a  fine  view 
of  the  surrounding  country,  stretching  away  to 
Magnolia  to  the  south  and  the  sunrise  to  the  east 
No  better  natural  location  for  a  city  can  be 
found.  There  was  nothing  at  Granville  in  the 
beginning  to  develop  a  city.  Simply  a  splendid 
location  with  a  magnificent  agricultural  environ- 
ment. The  fathers  of  the  settlement  laid  its 
foundation  broad  and  deep  on  the  eternal  princi- 
ples of  truth  and  rectitude.  Spirituality  and  in- 
tellectuality were  the  warp  and  woof  of  the  com- 
munity fabric.  The  church  and  school  were  the 
two  factors  in  social  development  that  received 
the  attention  of  great  and  small.  '  Under  the 
headings,  Schools  and  Churches,  we  shall  treat 
the  subject  more  extensively. 

In  early  times  Granville  was  a  hustling  busi- 
ness place  with  a  promising  future.  Its  mer- 
chants were  enterprising  and  carried  large  stocks 
of  goods  ;t  its  artisans  were  competent  and  in- 
dustrious ;  its  ministers  were  eloquent ;  society 
refined ;  newspapers  and  books  circulated  freely 
and  on  all  questions  of  public  interest  people 


PAST    AND    L'UKSKNT    OF    MAI.'Sll ALL   AND    1TTNAM    COUNTIES. 


were  well  informed  and  voted  intelligently.  Farm- 
ers for  twenty  miles  came  to  Granville  to  trade. 
The  construction  of  the  Illinois  Central  Kailroad 
on  the  east  and  the  Kock  Island  on  the  north  cut 
off  her  source  of  patronage  and  the  once  promis- 
ing, thrifty  village  ceased  her  expansion  and  for 
years  remained  but  an  inland  hamlet,  though 
through  it  all  she  retained  her  spiritual  and  in- 
tellectual status.  In  1900  the  construction  of 
the  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Iowa  Eailroad  exten- 
sion from  Streator  west  across  Putnam  county 
passed  through  the  village  limits  and  brought 
her  a  new  lease  of  life.  To  the  shame  of  the 
railroad  company  be  it  said  that  $1,500  were  ex- 
torted from  the  citizens  for  the  location  of  a 
•depot  building  within  the  village,  which  was 
made  up  by  subscription  by  those  who  preferred 
giving,  to  seeing  a  new  town  established  within 
a  mile  of  old  Granville.  With  the  coming  of  the 
railroad  came  new  enterprise  and  new  industries. 
Hon.  A.  W.  Hopkins,  who  had  been  a 
member  of  the  legislature  from  this  dis- 
trict for  several  terms  and  whose  home  had 
always  been  within  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the 
village,  believed  that  the  opportune  time  had  ar- 
rived for  booming  his  native  community.  In- 
spiring in  others  the  same  belief,  he  with  James 
Albertus  Harper  began  a  vigorous  campaign  to 
boom  the  community.  A  joint  arrangement  was 
made  by  which  all  the  merchants  then  in  town 
and  a  number  desirous  of  coming  in,  united  in 
the  construction  of  a  magnificent-brick  block  which 
was  to  become  the  centralized  Emporium  of  the 
commercial  interests  of  the  town.  An  architect 
was  employed,  plans  and  specifications  drafted 
and  this  project  crystallized  into  tangibility  which 
resulted  in  the  constructed  in  1900  of  the  "Lin- 
coln Block."  New  additions  were  platted;  lots 
were  put  on  the  market,  and  a  regular  western 
boom  was  on.  Since  that  time  there  has  been  no 
cessation.  The  St.  Paul  Coal  Company  bought  up 
most  of  the  coal  lands  in  the  township  and  sunk 
a  magnificent  shaft  at  the  western  limits  of  the 
village  and  are  now  employing  hundreds  of  men 
and  are  paying  through  the  Granville  Bank,  at 
this  early  stage  of  development,  fifty  thousand 
dollars  a  month  in  wages.  The  Granville  Bank. 
established  by  Joel  W.  Hopkins  and  son,  has  been 
a  strong  feature  in  the  commercial  development 
Two  splendid  grain  elevators  furnish  a  market  for 
cereal  products.  The  Toluca,  Marquette  &  North- 


ern Kailroad  was  built  through  the  village  in  1905, 
the  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Eailroad  in 
1904,  and  in  1905  and  1906  the  Oglesby  &  Gran- 
ville, a  short  line  connecting  Granville  with  the 
Illinois  Central  at  Oglesby,  was  constructed.  Hun- 
dreds of  houses  have  been  built.  The  little  village 
of  two  or  three  hundred  people  has  approximated 
that  many  thousand.  Two  miles  east  of  the 
village  the  B.  F.  Berry  Coal  Co.  have  sunk  the 
largest  shaft  in  the  state  of  Illinois  and  at  the 
close  of  1906  are  just  beginning  the  opening  up 
of  the  underground  work.  Taking  all  in  all,  the 
pay-roll  from  the  St.  Paul  shaft  and  from  the 
Berry  shaft,  the  Oglesby  &  Granville  Railroad, 
and  the  commercial  interests  of  the  town  and  the 
elevators,  we  are  safe  in  saying  that  no  other  town 
of.  its  size  in  Illinois  today,  presents  a  better  out- 
look for  future  business  than  Granville. 


FLOEID. 

In  1836  Thomas  W.  Stewart  and  Aaron  Thomp- 
son laid  out  a  village  three  and  a  half  miles 
southeast  of  Hennepin  which  they  named  Florid 
It  attained  its  greatest  growth  soon  after.  The 
extent  of  its  development  has  been  a  little  hamlet 
nestling  in  the  woods,  built  upon  the  road  that 
leads  from  Hennepin  to  the  settlements  in  Ox  Bow, 
Strawn's,  and  Magnolia,  with  no  cross  streets. 
For  about  sixty  rods  the  villagers  built  their 
houses  on  either  side  of  the  road.  At  one  time 
it  had  two  churches,  both  of  which  are  closed  now. 
which  with  a  Woodman  Hall  and  the  school  house, 
constitute  the  public  buildings.  This  community 
was  made  up  of  some  of  the  best  and  strongest 
characters  of  pioneer  days.  A  few  rods  east  of  the 
village  is  the  site  of  the  famous  Fort  Cribs  which 
was  erected  in  1832  as  a  block  house  for  defense 
against  the  .Indians.  It  takes  its  name  from  the 
fact  that  a  number  of  corn  cribs  were  within  the 
enclosure.  It  was  resorted  to  by  all  the  settlers 
in  the  vicinity  for  safety,  as  many  as  a  hundred 
being  there  at  one  time.  A  memorable  event  was 
the  birth,  while  in  this  fort,  of  Milton  SheparcL 
son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Nelson  Shepherd.  We  per- 
sonally remember  while  teaching  at  Florid  ii} 
1881  and  1882  that  a  part  of  this  fort  still  stood 
but  has  been  torn  away.  Florid  contains  one  good 
general  store  at  present  and  a  number  of  good, 
substantial  dwelling  houses,  with  it-  honorable 


PAST    AX1)    1MJKSF.XT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    1MTNA.M    COT  NTI  KS. 


citizens,  mostly  retired  from  the  active  dutk 
life. 


of  two  and  a  half  miles  to  the  southwest  the  last  flick- 
ering hope  for  Mt.  Palatine  ever  becoming  a  town 
of  any  importance  died  out. 


MT.  PALATINE. 

On  the  county  line  between  Putnam  and  La 
Salle,  on  the  highest  point,  in  the  loveliest  part  of 
the  state,  overlooking  as  it  does  the  beautiful 
waving  fields  of  grain  stretching  away  to  the 
sylvan  borders  of  the  Vermillion  on  the  east  and 
the  Illinois  on  the  west,  beautiful  for  situation 
stands  what  is  left  of  what  once  promised  to  be 
the  center  of  education— Mt.  Palatine.  It  was 
laid  out  in  1849  by  Christopher  Winters.  Mr. 
Winters  had  bought  a  large  body  of  land  in  this 
territory  and  resold  it  mostly  to  eastern  settlers 
designing  to  start  a  live  Yankee  town.  lie  also 
purposed  to  establish  an  educational  institution 
which  when  first  built  was  called  a  seminary  but 
afterward  it  rose  to  the  dignity  of  Judson  College 
In  1842  the  first  house  was  built  in  the  town  by 
Deacon  Woodbury.  Otis  Fisher,  of  Granville,  be- 
came the  first  teacher  in  the  settlement  in  1841. 
He  had  a  small  frame  dwelling  erected  just  out- 
side the  limits  of  the  village  where  he  lived  for 
a  year.  Dr.  Lamed  Davis  first  visited  Mt.  Pala- 
tine in  July,  1841,  but  did  not  take  up  his  per- 
manent abode  there  until  1843.  There  were  a 
few  other  houses  built  near  and  around  the  town 
in  1842.  It  is  strange  that  at  the  time  of  the 
founding  of  Mt.  Palatine  there  was  not  a  house 
within  twenty-five  miles  southeasterly  except  that 
of  William  Johnston,  which  was  a  mile  away. 
The  village  promised  well  until  the  establishment 
of  Tonica,  which,  on  the  construction  of  the  Illi- 
nois Central,  began  to  grow,  taking  away  the 
trade  and  furnishing  a  railroad  market  but  seven 
miles  away.  The  first  store  opened  in  Mt.  Palatine 
was  that  of  Boardman  Fulson,  where  were  sold 
drugs,  groceries  and  dry  goods.  He  began  busi- 
ness there  soon  after  the  town  was  laid  out  and 
retired  from  business  in  1879.  The  village  con- 
tained three  churches,  a  good  district  school,  two 
general  stores,  two  blacksmith  shops,  one  wagon 
shop,  one  physician  and  a  postoffice,  about 
twenty-five  dwelling  houses  with  a  population  of 
about  one  hundred  people.  The  first  hotel  built 
was  owned  by  Samuel  Puffer.  It  was  a  big  brick 
house  which  still  stands.  Thus  like  many  little 
villages  its  history  was  greater  in  the  beginning 
than  in  the  end.  Bv  the  establishment  of  MeXabb 


PUTNAM. 

In  Senachwine  township  about  ten  miles  to  the 
southwest  Of  Hennepin,  situated  upon  the  west- 
ern bank  of  the  Illinois  river  is  a  little  hamlet 
now  called  Putnam,  but  formerly  known  by  the 
name  of  the  Indian  chieftain,  Senachwine.  Some 
heartless  wretch  with  no  appreciation  of  the  beau- 
tiful persuaded  the  government  to  change  the 
post-office  from  Senachwine  to  Putnam,  and  Put- 
nam it  remains.  In  1835  a  town  was  laid  out  by 
B.  M.  Hayes,  but  nothing  came  of  it  and  the  pres- 
ent town  was  established  by  Peter  Barnhart  and 
Cortland  Condit,  who  owned  the  land  upon  which 
it  stands.  In  1855  the  Bureau  Valley  Railroad 
now  a  part  of  the  Rock  Island  system  was  built 
through  to  Peoria.  Then  soon  after  James  Mc- 
Curdey  opened  the  first  store.  He  was  also  post-- 
master.  Soon  after  George  Ward  engaged  in  the 
grocery  business  and  Aaron  Hines  built  a  hotel 
The  town  has  good  gravel  streets,  an  artesian  well,, 
and  several  fairly  good  business  houses,  a  large 
elevator,  two  schools  and  two  churches  and  is  the 
social,  religious  and  political  life  of  the  town- 
ship. 

Just  below  Putnam,  about  1836  or  1837  upon  a 
beautiful  plateau  with  a  convenient  steamboat 
landing,  a  town  of  considerable  pretensions  was 
projected  and  boomed  by  energetic  business  men. 
Lots  sold  readily;  a  sawmill  and  gristmill  to  be 
propelled  by  steam  were  contracted  for  and  the 
machinery  brought  upon  the  ground,  a  blacksmith 
shop  was  set  up,  and  a  dozen  cabins  erected  and 
sold,  a  store  was  opened  by  Josiah  Hayes,  better 
known  from  his  diminutive  stature  and  certain 
characteristics  as  "Little  Hayes."  He  afterward 
moved  to  Kansas  and  achieved  greatness  by  be- 
coming a  colonel  in  the  Union  Army  and  after- 
ward secretary  of  state.  The  many  sloughs  and 
low  places  covered  with  decaying  matter  and  the 
impure  water  developed  chills  and  fever  and  ma- 
laria, and  followed  by  the  death  of  the  principal 
promoter  of  the  town,  caused  it  to  be  abandoned, 
but  not,  however,  until  it  had  been  named  in  honor 
of  the  great  Daniel  Webster.  All  that  remains 
now  to  mark  the  place  are  a  few  depressions  in  the 
soil  that  show  just  where  the  cabins  had  been. 


PAST    AND    1'RKSENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


CALEDONIA. 

At  one  time  there  was  a  little  settlement  called 
Caledonia,  where  there  were  a  number  of  build- 
ings, including  a  church,  a  school  house,  a  black- 
smith shop  and  a  store,  in  Magnolia  township 
on  Ox  Box  prairie.  Nothing  now  stands  there 
except  the  church  and  the  old  school  house. 


YOSEMITE. 

After  the  establishing  of  Spring  Valley  about 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  Mr.  Mower  planned 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  Illinois  river,  near  the 
site  of  the  present  Spring  Valley  bridge,  a  village 
he  called  Yosemite,  upon  which  he  paid  taxes  foi 
a  number  of  years.  Perhaps  half  a  dozen  build- 
ings were  erected  on  that  site,  but  nothing  came 
of  it  and  Yosemite  vou  can  not  see. 


McNABB. 

The  coming  of  the  I.,  I.  &  I.  Railroad  in  1900 
brought  to  the  county  an  additional  village.  In 
Magnolia  township  one  of  the  principal  local  pro- 
moters of  this  road  was  Hon.  J.  M.  McNabb,  at 
that  time  county  judge.  The  railroad  company 
felt  that  it  was  to  its  interest  to  establish  a  station 
somewhere  in  Magnolia  township,  so  they  bought 
Judge  McNabb's  farm  a  the  highest  price  that 
was  ever  paid  for  land  in  the  county,  and  laid  out 
a  little  town  which  they  rightly  named  McNabb. 
Its  development  has  not  been  up  to  expectations, 
fent  what  the  future  holds  far  it  we  may  not  yet 
discover.  It  is  already  a  social  and  business 
center  for  the  community.  It  has  two  or  three 
good  stores,  two  elevators,  a  lumber  yard  ,and  a 
hotel.  It  also  has  two  rural  mail  routes  emanat- 
ing from  its  office.  A  banking  house  under  the 
name  of  the  "Farmers'  Bank  of  McNabb"  is  man- 
aged by  Judge  McNabb,  cashier  and  one  of  the 
proprietors.  There  is  a  thriving  Danish  church 
in  the  village,  and  a  new  school  building  of  two 
stories  and  two  teachers.  The  Toluca,  Marquette 
&  Northern  Railroad  also  runs  through  the  town 
McNabb  can  boast  of  one  feature  that  no  other 
town  in  the  county  possesses.  They  have  a  regular 
sale  stable  where  public  sales  of  fancy  and  blooded 
stuck  bike  place.  They  have  a  commodious  hall  in 
which  social  and  literary  entertainments  are  held. 
Taking  all  in  all,  the  village  has  made  an  in- 
teresting social  center. 


MORONTS. 

There  remains  but  one  other  place  on  the  map 
and  that  is  the  station  of  Moronts  in  Hennepin 
township,  on  Hennepin  prairie,  and  four  miles 
northwest  of  Granville  and  the  same  distance 
northeast  of  Hennepin.  There  is  no  town  here 
There  is  not  a  house  there.  Only  the  station 
and  a  grain  elevator,  but  it  has  become  a  good 
shipping  point  for  the  farmers  in  the  community 
and  for  Hennepin. 

MARK. 

The  advent  of  the  coal  industry  has  brought  its 
accompanying  influx  of  population.  North  and 
west  of  the  St.  Paul  shaft  a  village  was  laid  out 
and  named  Mark.  Many  of  the  foreign-born  min- 
ing population  secured  lots  and  built  homes  for 
themselves  in  this  new  town  site.  To  the  south- 
east of  the  shaft  the  coal  company  itself  has  built 
its  houses,  which  differ  from  the  stereotyped  houses 
inasmuch  as  there  is  a  variety  of  architecture  re- 
lieving the  distressing  sameness  usually  seen  in 
corporation  cottages.  Being  just  over  the  Gran- 
ville village  corporation  line  this  addition  seems 
rather  to  be  a  part  of  Granville,  although  in  real- 
ity it  is  "Mark."  An  effort  was  made  to  prevent 
its  incorporation  and  to  annex  it  to  Granville 
proper,  but  the  coal  company  did  not  move  in  time 
and  the  promoters  of  the  new  village  succeeded 
m  incorporating  it.  In  all  probability  in  the  near 
future  the  two  towns  will  become  one. 

STANDARD. 

Joining  the  Berry  plant,  F.  W.  Sucher  platted 
a  town  and  named  it  Standard  and  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1906  most  of  the  lots  in  the  new  town 
had  been  sold  and  many  buildings  erected.  The 
Oglesby  and  Granville  road  connecting  this  ham- 
let with  Granville  makes  it  practically  a  suburb 
of  the  old  town. 

CEDAR  POINT. 

Just  over  in  La  Salle  county  at  the  settlement 
called  Cedar  Point,  another  shaft  is  in  process  of 
development,  and  like  Standard,  located  on  the 
O.  &  G.  railroad,  giving  it  interurban  connection 
with  Granville  makes  it  tributary  to  Putnam 
county's  great  metropolis.  What  change  this  de- 
velopment will  produce  upon  the  social  and  finan- 
cial interests  of  Granville  remains  to  be  seen. 
Our  prerogative  is  that  of  a  chronicler,  not  a 
prophet. 


1'AST    AM)    I'UKSKNT    OK    MARSHALL    AM)    IMTNAM    CO  I  UNTIES. 


CHAPTBB  V. 

EARLY  RECORDS. 

Amos  T.  Purviance,  who  served  this  county 
faithfully  and  very  satisfactorily  as  county  clerk 
over  forty  successive  years  (1857-1898)  had  a  pen- 
chant for  acquiring  data  and  souvenirs  and  has 
left  about  the  court  house  many  very  interesting 
relics  and  records  of  interest  to  the  present  gen- 
eration. From  Mr.  Purviance's  compilations  and 
from  data  gathered  by  other  historians  we  gather 
some  very  interesting  items  of  importance,  show- 
ing many  names  whose  descendants  are  still  promi- 
nent in  public  affairs,  though  so  numerous  have 
become  people  that  everybody  no  longer  knows 
everybody  in  .the  county. 

The  first  election  in  the  new  county  was  held 
at  the  house  of  William  Haws,  near  Magnolia, 
and  besides  the  judges  of  election,  but  one  voter 
appeared.  Of  course  there  were  no  "split  tickets" 
and  Thomas  Gallagher,  George  Ish  and  John  M. 
Gay  were  declared  elected  as -county  commission- 
ers, Ira  Ladd  as  sheriff,  and  Aaron  Paine  .as  cor- 
oner. James  W.  Willis  was  subsequently  ap- 
pointed treasurer.  Hooper  Warren  filled  the  offices 
of  recorder,  clerk  of  the  county  and  circuit  courts 
and  justice  of  the  peace. 

Among  the  members  of  the  bar  who  attended 
court  here  were :  Senator  David  Davis,  who  came 
from  Bloomington  on  horseback,  and  Judge  John 
B.  Caton,  who  came  down  from  Chicago,  riding  an 
Indian  pony. 

The  first  death  in  the  counties  of  Bureau,  Put- 
.nam  or  Marshall  was  in  the  family  of  Aaron 
Mitchell,  who  lost  a  child  in  August  or  September. 
1829.  There  being  no  lumber  in  the  country 
a  puncheon  coffin  was  made  by  X.  and  S.  Shepherd 
and  the  child  was  interred  near  Captain  Price's 
near  Magnolia. 

The  first  corpse  buried  in  Hennepin  Cemetery 
was  that  of  Philips,  shot  by  the  Indians,  June  4 
1831.  No  memorial  stone  marks  the  place,  and 
his  grave  is  unknown. 

Most  of  the  early  settlers  were  young  men,  and 
in  those  days  a  woman  or  a  baby  was  as  much  of 
a  novelty  and  excited  as  lively  an  interest  as  ever 
they  did  in  Roaring  Camp.  Some  of  the  men 
however,  brought  their  wives,  and  with  them  came 
other  female  marriageable  members  of  their  fami- 
lies who  speedily  found  husband* :  wo  find  among 
the  early  records  the  following  marriages : 


John  Shepherd  to  Tennessee  McComas,  July  5, 
1831;  by  George  Ish,  county  judge. 

Elisha  Swan,  of  Lacon,  was  married  to  Zilpha 
Dent,  February  25,  1832,  by  Rev.  Zadock  Hall. 

Livingston  Roberts  to  Margaret  Dent,  January 
24,  1843, -by  Hooper  Warren,  justice  of  the  peace 

Lemuel  Russell  to  Sarah  Ann  Edwards,  Febru- 
ary 23,  1823,  by  Rev.  Edward  Hale. 

William  Munson  to  Rachael  Hall,  March  7, 
1833,  by  John  M.  Gay,  justice  of  the  peace.  . 

\Villiam  S.  Horn  to  Sylvia  Hall,  May  5,  1833, 
by  Rev.  Horn. 

.  The  ladies  whose  names  appear  in  the  last  two 
notices  were  the  Hall  girls  whose  thrilling  experi-. 
ence  with  the  Indians  is  given  elsewhere. 

Some  of  the  early  ministers  of  the  county  were 
Revs.  John  McDonald,  Elijah  Epperson,  William 
II.  He.ith  and  Joel  Arlington. 

The  first  farm  opened  in  Hennepin  township 
was  that  of  James  Willis,  at  Union  Grove,  m 
1828,  and  his  was  the  first  dwelling  house  outside 
of  the  village  of  Hennepin. 

Elizabeth  Shepherd  was  one  of  the  first  white 
women  in  this  locality,  coming  in  1829. 

Austin  Hannum  is  claimed  as  the  first  white 
child  born  in  the  county.  His  parents  lived  in 
Magnolia. 

Isabel  Patterson,  since  Mrs.  R.  W.  Bowman 
was  born  in  1832,  and  Augustus  Shepherd  in- 
1830. 

In  the  court  house  at  Hennepin  hangs  a  large 
frame  with  the  portraits  and  names  of  many 
old  settlers,  and  the  date  of  their  coming  to  the 
county,  jt  will  be  observed  that  many  of  thf 
descendants  of  these  pioneers  are  still  residents 
of  the  county : 

1817— Thomas  Hartzell. 

1827— Thomas  Gallagher,  James  W.  Willis. 

1828— Stephen  D.  Willis,  Smiley  Shepherd. 

1829— James  G.  Ross,  Nelson  Shepherd,  Eliza- 
beth Shepherd. 

1830 — Harvey  Leeper,  Flora  Zenor.  Augustus 
Shepherd,  William  Patterson,  L.  E.  Skeel,  David 
Richey,  Lucy  Dick,  Olive  Skeel,  William  M.  Ham 
Anthony  Turk,  Samuel  D.  Laughlin,  Catherine 
Shepherd. 

1831 — Alvira  Zenor,  Lewis  Durley,  Lucy  Dur- 
ley, Mary  Stewart,  Mary  Shepherd,  George  Denfe 
Comfort  Dent,  Williamson  Durley,  H.  K.  Zenor 
Emeline  Durley,  E.  G.  Powers,  Louisa  Nash.  John 
Gallagher,  Aaron  Gunn. 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


1832— John  G.  Ross  (born  here),  Stephen  W. 
Stewart,  Nancy  Skeel,  Sarah  ..Stewart,  John  W. 
Stewart,  B.  F.  Whittaker,  J.  W.  Leech,  Mary 
Leech,  Robert  Leech,  Mary  A.  Templeton,  S.  G. 
Leech,  Sarah  Brumfield,  Thomas  Brumfield. 
Marian  Noys,  John  Brumfield,  Aaron  Barlow. 
John  N.  Laughlin. 

1833— Bayliss  Culter,  William  H.  Zenor,  Eliza- 
beth Durley,  Joseph  Fairfield,  Joseph  Cassell, 
Thomas  Coleman,  Charles  Coleman,  Oakes  Turner 
Wilson  Everett,  Jeremiah  Everett,  Alex.  Ross, 
Milton  Robinson. 

1834— Cyrus  Shepherd,  William  Baxendale 
Thomas  W.  Shepherd,  Guy  W.  Pool,  Thomas  At- 
water  (first  lawyer),  H.  J.  White,  Washington 
Webb. 

1836— Lyle  Shepherd,  Samuel  Holmes,  Sr.,  Al- 
fred Turner,  David  Cryder. 

.  We  do  not  presume  to  give  the  biography  of 
these  persons;  it  is  not  .desired  of  us.  We  name 
them  as  actors  in  the  drama,  but  do  not  assign 
their  parts. 

.  -Biography  is  the  narrative  of  individual  life 
while  history  is  the  account  of  the  deeds  of 
many  lives.  Our  part  in  the  work  is  not  so  much 
to  memorialize  the  man  as  to  point  to  the  lesson  of 
his  life. 

In  coming  years  men  may  not  know  the  names 
of  their  encestors,  but  the  lives  of  those  ancestors 
will  tell  in  them  whether  they  know  their  gene- 
alogy or  not,  for  we  live  in  deeds,  not  words. 

Inasmuch  as  t;he  composite  *life  of  this  com-  . 
munity  has  been  progressive — piogressive  means 
advancing  toward  the  goal  of  Divine  purpose  for 
us — it  evidences  the  fact  that  the  majority  of  the 
community  has  appreciated  its  opportunities  and 
improved  them.  Inasmuch  as  it  has  done  this  it 
has  made  history  worthy  of  record. 

Previous  historians  have  elaborated  the  deeds  of 
outlaws  and  miscreants  as  if  the  men  of  today 
desired  to  know  the  evils  of  their  ancestry.  We 
can  see  no  excuse  for  exploiting  such  acts  unless ' 
it  be  to  point  out  the  evil  effects,  that  men  may 
shun  them.  We  incline  rather  to  the  doctrine  that 
the  best  way  to  keep  our  boys  out  of  hell  eventually 
is  to  keep  hell  out  of  them  now.  A  witty  Irish 
friend  of  ours  has  said  to  us,  that  the  way  to  keep 
hell  out  of  a  boy  is  to  "give  him  hell"  just  as  you 
fight  fire  with  fire.  We  shall  not  turn  the  search- 
light on  the  dark  pictures  in  Putnam  count/? 
history,  but  rather  show  the  bright  experiences 


the  testings  and  the  victories,  moral  and  physical, 

that  made  our  fathers  pioneer  heroes  worthy  of  our 

emulation. 

"Speak,  history !  who  are  life's  victors  ?     Unroll 

*  thy  long  annals  and  say. 
Are  'they  those  whom  the  world  called  the  victors 

who  won  the  success  of  a  day? 
The  martyrs  of  Nero?     The  Spartans  who  fell  in 

Thermopylae's  tryst, 

Or    the    Persians   and    Xerxes?      His    judges,   or 
Socrates?  Pilate,  or  Christ?" 


CHAPTER  VI. 
JUST  BEFO'  THE  WA'. 

Many  very  thrilling  incidents  of  before-the- 
Civil-war  events  are  recorded  which  serve  to  show 
how  the  Putnam  county  stood  on  the  slavery  ques- 
tion. While  there  were  a  few  nigger  haters,  most 
of  our  ancestors  believed  in  the  principles  set 
forth  by  our  national  Constitution  recenth'  tersely 
put  by  President  Roosevelt — "Give  every  man  a 
square  deal.*' 

Putnam  county  had  some  popular  stopping 
places  on  the  underground  railroad  for  colored 
men  and  women  who  were  seeking  to  free  them- 
selves from  the  galling  chains  of  bondage.  The 
people  generally  sympathized  with  them  and  if 
there  were  any  who  were  not  active  in  aiding  the 
fugitives  forward  they  remained  neutral.  On  one 
occasion  as  many  as  sixteen  negroes  were  seen  in 
the  village  of  Granville  at  'one  time,  having  come 
in  on  the  "night  accommodation  train."  They 
had  made  their  way  from  St.  Louis  without  money 
or  molestation. 

In  1835  two  negro  women  who  were  pursued 
by  their  owners  and  were  likely  to  be  captured, 
were  hidden  in  the  cellar  of  James  T.  Laughlin's 
house,  and  there  remained  a  night  and  a  day.  The 
weather  was  exceedingly  stormy  and  cold  and  the 
pursuers  were  kept  in  a  continual  dance  from  one 
place  to  another  on  false  scents  and  rumors,  until 
they  were  nearly  dead  from  fatigue  and  exposure. 
The  citizens,  while  pretending  to  help  the  con- 
fiding slave-catchers,  were  'deluding  them  all  the 
time,  and  the  fellows  finally  gave  up  their  job 
and  returned  home.  Of  course  the  poor  fugitives 
were  sent  in  the  opposite  direction  at  fast  as  pos- 
sihlc.  until  they  wore  safe  among  friendly  Cana- 
dians. 


I'AST    AM)    I'UKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


Harry  B.  Leeper  was  a  very  active  conductor 
on  this  underground  railway  and  a  well-known 
citizen  of  Granville,  who  devoted  much  of  his 
time  te  the  cause  of  freedom. 

About  1835  a  negro  was  sold  in  Henncpin 
under  the  operation  of  the  infamous  black  laws 
of  the  state.  He  was  a  refugee  from  below,  and 
probably  reached  here  on  one  of  the  many  steam- 
ers plying  the  Illinois. 

He  possessed  no  visible  means  of  support  and 
either  cared  not  to  work  or  could  not  get  the 
opportunity,  and  at  the  instigation  of  interested 
parties  was  arrested  under  the  provisions  of  the 
vagrant  act,  and  advertised  for  sale  for  his  keeping 
and  costs.  There  was  an  active  abolition  element 
at  Granville  and  elsewhere  in  the  county  and  on 
the  day  of  the  sale  the  members  were  present,  but 
finding  there  was  no  claimant  for  his  person  nor 
any  arranged  plan  to  return  him  to  slavery,  they 
allowed  the  sale  to  go  on,  and  he  brought,  we 
believe,  one  dollar  and  costs.  William  M.  Stew- 
art,, of  Florid,  became  the  purchaser,  who  put  him 
in  the  harvest  field  and  paid  him  regular  wages. 
The  man  earned  a  suit  of  clothes  besides  his 
freedom,  and  some  money  to  take  him  on  the  road 
to  Canada. 

A  slave  was  brought  to  Union  Grove  in  1830 
by  Samuel  D.  Laughlin,  and  remained  some  time. 
He  was  taken  to  Chicago  by  Thomas  Hartzell, 
and  sent  on  his  way. 

Occasionally  a  fugitive  would  find  the  road  to 
freedom  through  Senachwine,  sent  upon  this  out- 
of-the-way  trail  to  avoid  pursuit.  Once,  a  negro, 
hotly  pressed  by  his  enemies  was  disguised1  by  his 
friends  as  a  woman  and  passed  thro'  Senachwine 
in  a  lumber  wagon,  in  charge  of  George  Cone,  who 
lived  between  this  village  and  Henry. 

On  another  occasion  a  fellow  came  to  the  house 
of  Asa  Cunningham,  near  the  village,  and  begged 
his  assistance.  He  was  an  escaped  slave,  from 
Missouri,  and  while  resting  by  the  roadside  dis- 
covered in  the  distance  an  approaching  horseman, 
whom  he  at  once  knew  to  be  his  master.  The 
negro  said,  "I  was  so  skeert  dat  I  shet  my  eyes, 
afeerd  he'd  see  'em,  and  didn't  dar  to  draw  my 
bref  afeerd  he'd  smell  'um,  for  I'd  a  ben  eatin' 
wild  ingens."  The  master  was  at  the  hotel  and 
the  slave  dare  not  move,  for  it  was  in  the  middle 
of  the  day.  Mr.  Cunningham  was  the  village 
undertaker  and  rightly  believing  that  no  one 
would  hunt  a  runaway  in  a  hearse,  hitched  up  his 


horse  and  loading  the  darkey  into  a  coffin  drove 
through  Senachwine  at  a  melancholy  amble,  the 
business  gait  of  the  ancient  nag.  The  master  saw 
the  cavalcade  and  was  amused  at  the  oddity  of 
the  turnout  while  the  driver  headed  his  course 
for  Hennepin  and  safely  delivered  his  living 
"corpse"  into  the  hands  of  trusty  friends  who 
kept  him  concealed  until  the  pursuers  left  the 
country. 

We  are  quoting  from  Ellsworth's  Record  of  the 
Olden  Times  a  few  incidents  particularly  pat  to 
this  subject. 

SLATE  HUNTERS  FOILED. 

In  1837  Alexander  Ross  living  near  Hennepin, 
while  on  his  way  to  Galena,  when  a  few  miles 
beyond  Princeton  encountered  a  couple  of  slave 
hunters  returning  with  two  young  and  attractive 
mulatto  girls  who  had  escaped  from  slavery.  The 
sight  of  the  weeping  girls  aroused  all  his  manly 
sympathies  at  once.  Ross  was  a  democrat,  but 
not  of  the  pro-slavery  class,  and  he  formed  a 
resolution  to  rescue  and  save  the  victims  if  possi- 
ble. So  he  proclaimed  himself  a  bitter  anti- 
abolitionist,  and  denounced  the  slave  stealers,  as 
he  called  them  in  fearful  terms.  The  men  were 
glad  to  meet  some  one  so  much  after  their  own 
heart,  and  asked  his  opinion  as  to  how  they  could 
best  get  away  with  their  chattels  and  escape  the 
fury  of  the  abolitionists.  He  promptly  told  them 
of  a  friend  of  his  at  Princeton  who  was  "all 
right"  and  offered  to  pilot  them  to  his  house. 
His  proffered  services  being  promptly  accepted, 
they  arrived  and  were  duly  quartered  for  the 
night,  when  Ross  volunteered  to  sit  up  and  guard 
the  slaves  from  any  attempt  at  rescue.  As  soon 
as  all  was  quiet  the  cunning  conspirator  and  the 
lady  of  the  house  aroused  the  girls  and  took  them 
in  a  cutter  to  James  W.  Willis,  at  Florid,  where 
they  safely  arrived.  Ross  returned  to  Princeton 
by  daylight  the  next  morning.  The  men  awoke, 
inquired  after  their  property  and  lo !  the  birds 
had  flown.  Ross  was  found  att  his  post,  sleeping  the 
sleep  of  the  just,  where  he  appeared  to  have  been 
all  night,  and  as  he  explained,  from  the  fatigue 
of  watching,  had  fallen  asleep  in  spite  of  himself. 
He  was  really  asleep  and  was  with  some  difficulty 
aroused  and  it  took  some  time  to  make  him  aware 
of  what  had  happened — his  head  being  unusually 
thick  on  this  occasion.  When  he  realized  what  had 
occurred  he  seemed  very  much  chagrined,  and 
blamed  himself  for  his  inability  to  keep  awake. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


He  promptly  volunteered  to  help  the  fellows  find 
their  property,  and  led  them  many  a  wild-goose 
chase  about  the  town  and  country,  but  all  to  no 
purpose,  and  finally  left  them  and  returned  to 
the  land  office.  In  the  meantime  Mr.  Willis  and 
other  friends  of  the  cause  started  the  girls  on  their 
way  to  a  safer  retreat. 

\1  \OVOLIA    UNDERGROUND   RAILROAD    STATION. 

The  managers  of  the  underground  railroad  line 
for  this  section  of  country  were  the  Lewis  broth- 
ers, William  and  Jehu,  the  former,  however,  the 
chief  and  ever-active  superintendent.  There  were 
two  branches  of  the  road  to  the  South,  which 
united  at  William  Lewis'  house,  one  from  Parker 
Morse's  in  Woodford  and  the  other  from  Nathaniel 
Smith's  at  the  southwest  corner  of  Marshall 
county.  From  William  Lewis'  house  the  escaping 
negroes  were  usually  taken  to  Chester  Duryee's,  at 
Lowell  in  La  Salle  county,  but  occasionally  some 
were  sent  to  Union  Grove,  a  few  miles  north  of 
Clear  Creek,  where  there  lived  several  sympathiz- 
ers in  the  cause  of  slavery.  The  Lewises,  though 
Virginians  by  birth,  were  thorough  abolitionists, 
and  earnest  active  workers  in  the  cause  of  free- 
dom. 

Once,  an  old  gray-headed  negro  came  along  who 
wore  a  pair  of  spectacles,  one  glass  of  which  was 
gone  and  the  other  badly  cracked.  He  was 
wrinkled  and  had  but  little  hair  upon  his  cranium. 
He  could  give  little  account  of  himself  save  that 
he  had  "runned  away  from  marser,  on  de  Knaw 
way  in  ole  Virginy"  and  that  he  had  "heered  that 
de  norf  star  would  lead  him  to  a  Ian'  of  liberty; 
and  he  had  follered  it  ebber  since  he  left  Knaw 
way."  He  had  picked  out  the  brightest  star  he 
could  find  in  the  northwest,  probably  Sirius,  and 
thus  he  traveled  mostly  by  night,  heading  his 
course  toward  that  far  off  luminary.  Mr.  Lewis 
gave  him  better  advice  and  started  him  on  a 
shorter  route. 

Once  there  came  an  intelligent  black  woman, 
wlKw.  back  and  shoulders  yet  showed  the  marks 
of  a  recent  terrible  flagellation  at  the  hands  of 
her  master.  It  was  her  fourth  attempt  to  escape, 
and  this  time  she  was  successful.  She  reached 
Canada  in  safety  and  wrote  a  touching  letter  of 
thanks  to  her  friends. 

Another  slave  came  to  Mr.  Lewis'  who  was  so 
near  white  as  to  escape  suspicion.  He  was  a 
blacksmith  and  worked  some  time  at  his  trade  and 
got  liberal  wages.  His  master  in  Kentucky  was 


his  own  half-brother.  He  at  length  left  here  and 
went  to  Chicago,  when  his  master  wrote  him  a 
touching  letter  promising  all  things  that  the 
young  man  could  desire  if  he  would  return  to  the 
family.  The  relationship  was  acknowledged  and 
the  family  joined  in  imploring  their  own  "dear 
Edward"  to  come  home,  but  he  had  tasted  liberty 
and  breathed  the  air  of  freedom  and  equality. 
While  not  doubting  the  sincerity  of  his  relatives 
yet  he  dreaded  the  possible  consequences  which 
the  laws  then  entailed  upon  a  runaway  slave  and 
refused  to  return.  This  letter  was  sent  to  Mr. 
Lewis  whose  family  still  have  it  in  their  posses- 
sion. 

Among  the  fugitives  at  different  times  were 
several  young  girls  nearly  white.  They  did  not 
escape  because  of  any  harsh  treatment  or  indignity 
but  simply  to  avoid  the  consequences  that  slavery 
was  sure  to  bring  upon  them  sooner  or  later  by 
being  sold  to  go  south,  or  become  the  victims  of 
brutal  men  restrained  by  no  law,  moral  or  Divine, 
in  their  treatment  of  the  unfortunate  females  who 
added  youth,  beauty  and  gracefulness  to  the  other 
charms  of  their  sex. 

WHITE   SLAVES. 

Mr.  Morse  held  the  opinion  that  eight-tenths 
of  all  the  escaping  slaves  had  white  blood  in 
their  veins.  Among  the  many  who  passed  through 
was  a  pretty  young  girl  with  pure  blue  eyes,  thin, 
evenly-formed  features,  a  straight  nose  and  auburn 
hair  falling  in  ringlets  down  her  back.  It  was 
not  kinky  or  wavy,  but  in  natural  curls. 

On  another  occasion  two  sisters  stopped  there 
who  seemed  the  perfection  of  grace  and  loveliness. 
Their  lips  were  neither  too  thick  nor  yet  too  thin; 
their  skin  was  fair  and  their  cheeks  bloomed 
with  nature's  roses;  their  hair  in  long  ringlets 
of  a  light  brown  color,  their  feet  small  and  with- 
out the  African  heel,  the  nose  Grecian  without 
flaring  nostrils,  and  the  eyes  a  bright  tender  blue. 
On  one  side  their  parents  had  been  white  for 
generations;  on  the  other  a  grandmother  was 
partly  colored.  Themselves  and  parents  belonged 
to  an  aristocratic  family,  but  reverses  and  impru- 
dent speculations  had  ruined  the  estate  and  tjj^p 
were  about  to  be  sold,  and  so  wisely  sought  their 
freedom. 

Afterward  came  a  little  girl,  so  purely  pau- 
casian  in  form  and  features,  that  no  one  could 
believe  she  was  aught  else.  Mrs.  Morse  was 
strongly  tempted  to  keep  her  and  finish  her  educa- 


86 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND  PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


tion  that  her  mistress  had  begun^  and  adopt  her 
into  her  family;  but  fearing  to  create  an  attach- 
ment that  might  be  broken  by  the  Southern  master, 
she  let  the  child  go  on  her  way  with  a  devout 
prayer  for  her  happiness. 

.  Another  incident  occurred  a  year  later  at  Florid, 
.in  which  a  slave-catcher  was  baffled.  A  couple 
of  slaves,  a  woman  and  her  daughter  traveling 
by  underground  railway  had  reached  Wm.  M. 
Stewart's  and  were  stopping  for  the  night.  While 
there,  a  sharp  fellow  appeared  who  claimed  to 
own  the  fugitives,  and  demanded  them.  He,  too, 
remained  over  night,  when,  to  gain  time,  Mr. 
Stewart  had  him  arrested  on  a  charge  of  at- 
tempted kidnapping.  The  slave-hunter  familiar 
with  our  odious  laws,  managed  his  own  case  and 
cleared  himself,  but  the  woman  in  the  mean- 
time had  been  hidden  in  Geo.  McCoy's  smoke- 
house and  couldn't  be  found.  They  got  away 
safely.  Ten  years  afterward,  Mr!.  McCoy  while 
passing  through  Indiana  in  the  timber,  passing  a 
neat  comfortable  cabin,  was  astonished  by  hearing 
his  name  spoken  By  a  good-looking  black  woman, 
who  proved  to  be  one  of  the  two  above  mentioned. 
She  had  since  married  and  was  in  happy  circum- 
stances, and  her  mother  also  lived  near  by  and  was 
satisfactorily  provided  for. 

AARON    PAYNE. 

Aaron  Payne  was  a  good  Christian,  but  reared 
in  the  South  he  firmly  believed  in  the  divinity  of 
slavery,  and  bitterly  opposed  the  advocates  of  free- 
dom. During  the  anti-slavery  excitement  an  en- 
thusiastic meeting  wes  once  held  at  the  log  school 
house  on  Clear  creek,  north  of  Magnolia  and 
addresses  and  sermons  on  the  subject  were  de- 
livered by  such  workers  as  Benj.  Lundy,  Owen 
Lovejoy  and  Richard  Codding.  Aaron  Payne  at- 
tended one  of  these  gatherings  and  created  a  fear- 
ful explosion  by  getting  up  and  denouncing  the 
meeting  and  its  object  as  an  affront  to  the  Al- 
mighty, who  had  created  the  negro  and  condemned 
the  race  to  be  the  slaves  of  the  white  man,  and 
the  institution  being  of  Divine  origin,  counten- 
anced and  approved  by  the  Creator;  in  both  the 
old  and  the  new  testaments,  could  not  be  assailed 
by  human  hands  without  sacrilege  and  sin.  The 
old  pro-slavery  preacher  was  not  allowed  to  finish 
his  remarks,  being  hustled  out  of  the  presence  of 
the  offended  congregation.  Nothing  but  his  per- 


sonal popularity  and  known  goodness  of  heart, 
saved  him  from  being  roughly  handled.  He  de- 
parted highly  indignant  and  often  afterward  re- 
lated the  incident  as  a  grievous  and  unpardonable 
offense  to  himself,  as  well  as  an  assault  upon  free 
speech. 

William  E.  Curtis,  the  great  newspaper  cor- 
respondent, wrote  up  an  excellent  incident  familiar 
to  our  people  in  early  days  under  the  caption — 

NIGGER  JIM. 

Down  at  Ottawa  the  other  day  the  old  residents 
were  telling  about  the  famous  episode  of  "Nigger 
.Jim"  which  occurred  at  that  place  in  1859,  soon 
after  the  Dred  Scot  decision  by  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court.  A  colored  man  named  Jim  who 
had  run  away  from  a.  plantation  in  Missouri,  got 
as  far  as  Ottawa  which  was  a  station  on  the 
underground  railway  and  before  he  could  be 
passed  on  was  arrested  and  held  for  trial  under 
the  -fugitive  slave  law.  His  owner  came  on  from 
Missouri,  employed  able  counsel  and  the  case  was 
tried  before  Judge  Caton.  The  night  before  the 
trial  a  company  of  citizens  gathered  as  usual  at 
Thompson's  drug  store  which  was  a  popular  ren- 
dezvous and  discussed  the  subject  with  great  in- 
terest and  •  suppressed  excitement.  Dr.  Hopkins 
and  Dr.  Stout,  the  two  leading  physicians  of  Ot- 
tawa, with  James  Stout,  an  attorney,  and  John 
Hossack  who  were  among  those  present,  formed 
a  plan  which  they  immediately  began  to  carry 
out.  The  next  morning  the  seats  along  the  only 
aisle  in -the  courtroom,  which  led  from  the  main 
entrance  to  the  bar,  wera  occupied  by  selected 
abolitionists,  and  other  friends  of  human  freedom 
were  detailed  to  mingle  with  the  crowd  ready  to 
act  upon  a  signal: 

The  evidence  against  the  prisoner  was  positive 
and  no  one  questioned  it.  There  was  not  a  man 
in  town  but  believed  that  Jim  was  a  runaway 
slave  and  the  law  as  interpreted  by  Chief  Justice 
Taney  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  was 
equally  correct  and  indisputable.  Judge  Caton, 
in  summing  up,  stated  the  law  and  the  facts,  al- 
though he  took  the  liberty  to  deplore .  them.  He 
declared  in  emphatic  language  that  he  was  not  in 
sympathy  with  the  proceedings,  but  under  his  oath 
he  had  no  alternative  but  to  uphold  and  vindicate 
what  he  believed  to  be  a  wicked  law.  Therefore, 
he  was  compelled  to  find  in  favor  of  the  plaintiff 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES.          _ 

unrighteously  took  from  him,  his  intellect  and  his    0    / 
manhood. 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  in  this  connection 
to  preserve  a  present-day  poem  that  has  created 
no  small  stir  in  civic  affairs,  written  apropos  of 
Millet's  great  painting  which  represents  a  slave 


and  order  the  sheriff  to  deliver  the  fi  _ 
owner  and  master. 

The  court  was  then  dismissed.  The  prisoner, 
with  his  master  on  one  side  and  the  sheriff  on 
the  other,  started  down  the  aisle.  When  they 
were  about  half  way  to  the  door  James  Stout 


chair  and  shouted,  "Make  way  for     disfigured  in  facial  expression  and  physical  ap- 


climbed upon 
liberty." 

That  was  the  signal.  The  men  who  had  been 
placed  on  the  seats  along  the  aisle  quietly  stepped 
in  between  Nigger  Jim  and  his  custodians  and  held 
the  latter  back  while  others  hustled  the  prisoner 
out  of  the  door  and  into  a  carriage  that  Major 
James  Campbell  had  in  waiting.  Nigger  Jim 
has  not  been  seen  in  Ottawa  since.  Of  course  his 
master  was  furious  and  Judge  Caton  boiled.  with 
indignation  outwardly  at  the  manner  in  which 
the  law  and  justice  had  been  trampled  upon. 
James  Stout,  John  Hossack  and  Dr.  Stout  were 
indicted,  tried,  found  guilty  and  fined  one  thou- 
sand dollars  each.  James  Stout  pleaded  his  own 
cause  and,  when  asked  whether  he  desired  any 
witness  to  be  summoned,  demanded  that  a  sub- 
poena be  issued  for  God  Almighty.  The  con- 
victed men  refused  to  pay  their  fines.  The  money 
was  raised  by  public  subscription,  but  they  de- 
clined to  accept  it  and  served  their  time  in  jail. 

These  were  exciting  days  and  when  the  call 
came  for  men  to  go  forth  to  preserve  the  union 
Putnam  county  offered  her  full  quota.  The  war 
record  of  the  county  is  alone  sufficient  to  fill  a 
volume,  but  the  matter  is  touched  upon  briefly 
under  another  head.  Many  colored  people  came 
into  the  county  and  at  one  time  there  were  va- 
rious settlements  of  negroes  among  our  inhabit- 
ants, but  they  found  it  less  and  less  agreeable 
till  now  there  are  but  two  or  three  families  in 
the  county  and  they  reside  at  Hennepin.  There 
have  been  several  very  interesting  characters 
among  these  sons  of  Ham.  None  more  inter- 
esting than  Americus  Reddick,  who  by  some 
valiant  deed  preserved  the  life  of  some  white  girl, 
who  was  so  impressed  with  the  heroism  of  her 
savior  that  she  felt  the  only  way  in  which  she 
could  ever  pay  him  for  his  heroic  deed  was  by 
giving  herself  to  him.  "Unto  them  have  been 
born  a  number  of  half-breeds,  among  them  a  pair 
of  twin  hoys  who  are  now  in  school  at  Hennepin 
and  they  are  an  intelligent  pair.  So  in  the 
process  of  evolution  the  colored  man  under  favor- 
able conditions  is  gaining  what  the  white  man 


pearance  by  years  and  generations  of  servitude, 
leaning  upon  his  hoe,  a  figure  representing  forcibly 
the  wreck  of  a  human  being,  which  the  author, 
Edwin  Markham,  has  named  for  Millet's  great 
conception. 


tE  MAN  WITH  THEfHOE. 
Bowed  by  the  weight  of  centuries  he  leans 
Upon  his  hoe  and  gazes  at  the  ground. 
The  emptiness  of  ages  in  his  face, 
And  on  his  back  the  burden  of  the  world. 
Who  made  him  dead  to  rapture  and  despair, 
A  thing  that  grieves  not  and  never  hopes, 
Stolid  and  stunned,  a  brother  to  the  ox? 
Who  loosened  and  let  down  his  lower  jaw 
Whose  was  the  hand  that  slanted  back  his  brow  ? 
Whose  breath  blew  out  the  light  within  his  brain  ? 

Is  this  the  Thing  the  Lord  God  made  and  gave 

To  have  domain  over  sea  and  land ; 

To   trace   the   stars   and   search   the   heavens    for 

power ; 

To  feel  the  passion  of  Eternity? 
Is  this  the  dream  He  dreamed  who  shaped  the 

suns 

And  pillared  the  blue  firmament  with  light? 
Down  all  the  stretch  of  Hell  to  its  last  gulf 
There  is  no  shape  more  terrible  than  this — 
More  tongued  with  censure  of  the  world's  blind 

greid— 

More  filled  signs  and  portents  for  the  soul — 
More  fraught  with  menace  to  the  universe. 

What  gulfs  between  him  and  the  seraphim ! 
Slave  of  the  wheel  of  labor,  what  to   him 
Are  Plato  and  the  swing  of  Pleiades? 
What  the  long  reaches  of  the  peaks  of  song, 
The  rift  of  dawn,  the  reddening  of  the  rose? 
Through  this  dread  shape  the  suffering  ages  look; 
Time's  tragedy  is  in  that  aching  stoop. 
Plundered,  profaned,  and  disinherited, 
Cries  protest  to  the  Judges  of  the  World, 
A  .protest  that  is  also  prophecy. 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL   AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


88 

0  masters,  lords  and  rulers  in  all  lands, 
Is  this  the  handiwork  you  gave  to  God, 
This     monstrous     thing,     distorted     and     soul- 
quenched  ? 

How  will  you  ever  straighten  up  this    shape ; 
Give  back  the  upward  looking  and  the  light; 
Rebuild  in  it  the  music  and  the  dream; 
Touch  it  again  with  immortality ; 
Make  right  the  immemorial  infamies, 
Perfidious  wrongs,  immedicable  woes'? 

0  masters,  lords  and  rulers  in  all  lands, 
How  will  the  Future  reckon  with  this  Man? 
How  answer  his  brute  question  in  that  hour 
When  whirlwinds  of  rebellion  shake  the  world? 
How  will  it  be  with  kingdoms  and  with  kings — 
With  those  who  shaped  him  to  the  thing  he  'is — 
When  this  dumb  Terror  shall  reply  to  God 
After  the  silence  of  the  centuries? 


CHAPTER  VII. 

POLITICS. 

The  political  history  of  Putnam  county  has  not 
been  'so  radical  that  it  differs  materially  from  the 
political  life  of  any  community.  Her  local  mat- 
ters have  always  been  adriiinistered  in  a  satisfac- 
tory manner  to  the  people  of  the  community.  She 
has  a  few  times  furnished  members  to  the  State 
Legislature.  The  number  has  been  limited  by  the 
fact  that  she  has  always  been  united  with  some 
stronger  counties  in  the  legislative  district  and 
has  had  to  take  what  she  could  get.  By  no  means 
has  it  been  because  she  did  not  have  men  capable 
of  holding  the  position.  Many  times  in  the  years 
past  have  her  honorable  citizens  had  their  ears  to 
ine  ground  waiting  for  their  country's  call,  but 
the  most  ambitious  have  accepted  their  fate  grate- 
fully and  heroically.  We  are  a  part  of  the  great 
commonwealth  of  "Illinois,  and  Illinois'  glory  is 
our  glory ;  Illinois'  great  men  are  our  great  men. 
Lincoln,  Douglas,  Grant,  Logan,  Cullom  and  men 
of  their  stamp  were  the  product  of  our  state.  Most 
of  these  men"  have  figured  during  campaigns  in 
Putnam  county,  and  Daniel  Webster  at  one  time 
considered  the  territory  of  sufficient  importance  to 
make  a  speech  here.  The  county,  since  tji'e  organ- 
ization of  the  republican  party,  has  been  repub- 
lican, but  strange  as  it  may  seem  t.he  offices  of  the 
county  have  been  about  equally  divided  between 


the  democrats  and  republicans,  which  goes  to  show 
that  political  tie's  do  not  bind  where  personal 
tastes  differ.  While  space  will  not 'admit  of  a  re- 
view of  the  officers  of  the  county,  interesting  as  it 
might  be,  we  do  wish  to  enter  in  this  record  a 
list  of  the  first  and  present  official  roster : 

County  Judge—John  P.  Blake,  1833;  Henry  C. 
Mills,  1902. 

County  Treasurer— James  W.  Willis,  1833,  ap- 
pointed; Harry  E.  Raley,  190G. 

Circuit  Clerk— Hooper  Warren,  1831,  also  Re- 
corder; Jefferson  Durley,  1876-1900 ;  J.  Linn 
Downey,  1904. 

State's  Attorney— Wm.  H.  Casson,  187?-1888 ; 
James  E.  Taylor,  1888. 

County  Clerk— Hooper  Warren,  1831;  Amos  T. 
Purviance,  1857-1898;  Chas.  C.  Greiner,  1902. 

Sheriff— Ira  Ladd,  1831 ;  Jasper  Cecil,  1906. 

County  Surveyors— 0.  F.  Stevenson,  1831 ;  Dan- 
iel B.  Turner,  1879,  till  present  time,  except  six 
months. 

Coroner— Aaron  Payne,  1831;  0.  F.  Taylor, 
1902. 

County  Superintendent  of  Schools — 1831,  N. 
Chamberlain.  Called  School  Commissioner  until 
1865  and  then  called  Superintendent;  George  W. 
Hunt;i902. 

It  might  be  said  in  passing,  that  the  first  and 
last  may  not  include  the  best  always,  and  we  are 
of  the  opinion  that  many  of  the  officials  whose 
names  do  not  appear  in  this  list  made  equally  as 
interesting  and  successful  history  as  those  here 
mentioned. 

The  men  who  have  represented  Putnam  county 
in  the  State  Legislature,  who  have  gone  from  this 
county,  have  been : 

In  the  Tenth  General  Assembly— Thomas  At- 
water. 

In  the  Twelfth  General  Assembly— William  H. 
Henderson. 

In  the  Seventeenth  General  Assembly — E.  B. 
Ames. 

In  the  Twenty-third  General  Assembly — George 
Dent. 

In  the  Twenty-fourth  General  Assembly — 
George  B.  Henderson. 

In  the  Twenty-sixth  General  Assembly— Joel 
W-  Hopkins. 

In  the  Twenty-seventh  General  Assembly — Jo- 
seph Iilieinhardt. 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COVXTIKS. 

In  the  Twenty-eighth  General  Assembly — John 
G.  Freeman. 

In  the  Twenty-ninth  General  Assembly — James 
T.  Thornton. 

In  the  Thirtieth  General  Assembly— Eli  V.  Ra- 
ley. 

In  the  Thirty-second  General  Assembly — James 
T.  Thornton. 

In  the  Thirty-third  General  Assembly — James 
T.  Thornton. 

In  the  Thirty-fourth  General  Assembly — Eli  V. 
Raley. 

In  the  Thirty-seventh  General  Assembly — Ar- 
chibald W.  Hopkins. 

In  the  Thirty-eighth  General  Assembly— Archi- 
bald W.  Hopkins. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
PUTNAM  COUNTY  NEWSPAPERS. 

The  first  paper  published  in  Putnam  county  of 
which  we  have  any  knowledge  was  the  Hennepin 
Journal,  established  by  Dr.  Wilson  Everett  in 
1837,  which  was  published  until  December,  1838, 
when  it  suspended  for  want  of  patronage. 

The  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation  was  then 
started  in  1845  by  Benjamin  Lundy,  a  brief,  sketch 
of  whose  life  appears  elsewhere,,  but  it  was  soon 
moved  to  Lowell,  near  Ottawa,  where  it  existed 
only  a  few  years. 

In  1845  Philip  Lynch  started'  a  paper  in  Hen- 
nepin called  the  Hennepin  Herald;  which  lived 
from  1845  to  1848. 

Then  came  the  Hennepin  Tribune,  in  1856,  by 
Birney  and  Duncan,  which  existed  for  about  three 
years.  This  was  followed  by  the  Putnam  County 
Standard,  with  Grable  Bros,  as  publishers,  in 
1860.  In  1861  the  Grable  boys  enlisted  in  the 
army  and  left  the  paper  in  the  hands  of  their 
father  with  Thomas  Stanton  as  editor.  W.  H.  G. 
Birney  was  also  connected  with  the  Standard  for 
a  short  time.  At  the  close  of  their  terms, of  ser- 
vice, the  Gfable  boys  moved  the  plant  to  Wenona 
and  started  the  Index. 

On  the  25th  of  June,  1868,  I.  H.  Cook  issued 
the  first  number  of  the  Putnam  County  Record,  a 
little  three  column  folio  12x18  inches,  printed  on 
an  Army  press,  which  was  continued  for  one  year. 
In  July  the  paper  was  enlarged  to  a  six  column 
folio  and  tlie  name  changed  to  the  Putnam  Rec- 


O 

8$ 

ord.  This  was  on  July  23d,  l'869,  and  it  continued 
until  1877  when  it  was  enlarged  to  a  seven  column 
folio,  which  form  was  continued  until  1882.  In 
1882  a  new  power  press  was  purchased  (the  one 
now  in  use)  and  the  form  of  the  paper  was 
changed  to  a  five  column  quarto.  One  year  later 
an  engraved  head  was  put  on  the  paper,  which  is 
still  in  use. 

Mr.  Cook  has  edited  an  extremely  unique  peri- 
odical. Never  has  he  tolerated  matter  of  a  politi- 
cal bias  to  enter  his  columns,  nor  in  the  history  of 
his  paper  has  he  ever  mixed  in  community  squab- 
bles. He  has  edited  a  newspaper  pure  and  simple 
and  his  subscribers,  who  are  legion,  insist  that  he 
has  run  the  best  paper  ever  published  at  Hennepin. 
Mr.  Cook's  office  is  decidedly  a  condensed  curi- 
osity. In  a  little  room  hardly  large  enough  for  a 
private  office,  he  has  stowed  away  all  the  necessary 
outfit  for  successfully  carrying  forward  a  newspa- 
per business.  No  visitor  to  Hennepin  has  seen  all 
the  attractions  of  the  place  until  he  visits  the  Rec- 
ord office. 

Mr.  Cook,  who  has  passed  the  three-score  year 
and  ten  mark  in  life's  pilgrimage,  still  devotes  as 
many  hours  to  his  Business  as  he  did  in  his  young- 
er years.  Always  agreeable  and  accommodating 
we  have  found  him  an  honorable  competitor  and  a 
faithful  friend. 

A  number  of  papers  have  been  started  in  Hen- 
nepin since  Sir.  Cook's  residence  there,  among 
which  we  recall  the  Hennepin  Herald  by  a  Mr. 
Whitaker.  After  a  seamy  existence  of  a  year  and 
a  half  it  sank  into  Grover  Cleveland's  famous  in- 
nocuous desuetude.  The  Epitome,  started  by  A. 
A.  Davis  an  attache  of  the  Record  office,  after  a 
brief  and  rocky  effort  was  transferred  to  some 
Dakota  town! 

Magnolia  boasted  of  a  paper  at  one  time  called 
the  Magnolia  N'ews,  edited  in  Magnolia  and  pub- 
lished in  Wenona,  but  it  also  followed  in  the  wake 
of  oblivion.  The  County  -r  Superintendent  of 
Schools,  John  M.  Boyer,  while  occupying  that 
office,  established  the  Granville  Review,  which  was 
published  at  Spring  Valley.  The  first  number 
appeared  iftarch  28,  1891.  A  very  creditable  little 
sheet,  spicy  and  newsy,  with  a  fairly  good  adver- 
tising patronage  and  correspondence  from  every 
hamlet  in  the  county.  In  looking  over  an  old  • 
file  of  the  Review  which  we  have  in  our  posses- 
sion we  discover  that  Mr.  Boyer  used  the  columns 
of  his  paper  for  the  publication  of  his  official  re- 


PAST   AND   PEESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


ports  of  visits  to  the  various  schools.  Some  of 
the  comments  upon  the  schools,  the  ability  or  lack 
of  ability  of  the  teachers,  general  appearance  of_ 
the  school  property  and  school  children  make  very- 
interesting  reading  at  this  late  day  and  must  have 
created  no  little  furor  at  the  time  of  publication. 
Boyer  had  physical  courage  and  was  never  thrashed 
that  we  have  heard  of.  When  he  was  superin- 
tendent of  schools  the  work  advanced  under  his 
administration  very  rapidly.  The  Granville  Re- 
view, after  about  two  years'  existence,  was  dis- 
continued and  F.  S.  Johnston  took  it  under  the 
wing  of  the  Spring  Valley  parent  paper. 

The  Granville  Echo  came  into  being  May  29, 
1903.  A  number  of  newspaper  men  visited  the 
village,  which  had  taken  on  new  life  by  reason 
of  the  advent  of  a  railroad  and  coal  mines,  with 
the  expressed  intention  of  establishing  a  news- 
paper for  the  growing  town,  but  were  not  the 
kind  of  people  that  the  community  encouraged,  so 
moved  on. 

W.  E.  Hawthorne,  Boyer's  successor  as  superin- 
tendent of  schools  of  the  county,  who  at  the  time 
was  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuit,  and  who  had 
had  some  little  experience  in  newspaper  work 
believed  that  the  opportune  moment  had  arrived 
for  him  to  launch  his  barque  on  a  comparatively 
untried  sea.  Therefore,  under  the  management  of 
his  brother-in-law,  B.  B.  Blosser,  who  had  been 
at  the  head  of  the  Carlinville  Republican,  the  first 
Echo  went  out  from  Granville  on  May  29,  1903. 
The  enterprise  being  fostered  by  all  of  the  busi- 
ness men  of  the  community  and  patronized  by 
the  people  quite  generally  met  with  unusual  suc- 
cess from  its  inception.  The  editor  was  a  man  of 
rare  talent  in  his  profession  whose  experience 
covered  every  phase  of  newspaper  work  from  er- 
rand boy  to  business  manager  of  a  city  daily,  but 
owing  to  misfortune  not  necessary  to  recount  here, 
we  find  this  new  enterprise  very  fortunate  in  his 
misfortune  in  securing  such  a  man  to  stand  at 
the  helm.  Business  and  circulation  increased 
rapidly,  so  much  so  that  on  December  1,  1905, 
the  proprietor  disposed  of  his  mercantile  interest 
in  which  he  had  been  engaged  since  the  expira- 
tion of  his  term  as  school  superintendent  and  de- 
voted all  his  time  to  the  newspaper  business.  On 
•the  3d  day  of  June,  1906,  Mr.  Blosser  died  sud- 
denly of  heart  failure.  During  the  year  of  1906 
Mr.  Hawthorne  was  doing  the  entire  editorial  and 
reportorial  work  of  the  paper.  The  ever-increas- 


ing volume  of  business  indicates  the  favor  with 
which  the  enterprise  has  been  sustained  by  the 
community. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
EDUCATIONAL  INTERESTS. 

UNION  GROVE. 

The  first  school  at  Union  Grove  was  taught  by 
Mrs.  Ramsey  in  a  blacksmith  shop  in  the  summer 
of  1831.  The  building  stood  about  half  a  mile 
from  the  site  of  the  present  brick  church  called 
the  Union  Grove  church.  In  the  fall  of  '31  John 
P.  Blake  was  engaged  to  take  charge  of  the  school 
and  he  remained  for  two  years.  His  building  was 
a  log  cabin  that  had  been  erected  by  the  Presby- 
terian church  society  in  1830,  a  fairly  good 
room  eighteen  feet  square  with  logs  hewn  on  the 
inside.  Some  of  the  children  who  attended  the 
school  were  those  of  John  W.  and  Stephen  D. 
Willis,  Hugh  Warnock,  J.  L.  Ramsey,  Thomas 
Gallaher,  Mr.  Leech,  Isaac  Stewart,  William 
Stewart  and  Torrance  Stewart.  It  is  also  stated 
that  two  colored  people,  a  young  man  twenty-two 
years  of  age  and  a  girl  twenty  years  old,  runaway 
slaves,  who  were  staying  with  James  Willis,  at- 
tended this  school.  The  establishing  of  schools 
in  the  adjoining  districts  and  nearness  to  the  vil- 
lages in  this  part  of  the  county  prevented  Union 
Grove  from  ever  becoming  more  than  a  "district" 
school,  which  it  remains  to  the  present  day. 


SCHOOLS  AT  CLEAR  CREEK  AND  CEN- 
TER. 

The  oldest  school  in  Magnolia  township,  if  not 
in  the  county,  was  built  in  the  fall  and  winter  of 
1830  and  stood  on  Clear  creek  about  a  mile  above 
the  camp  ground.  It  was  of  hewn  logs,  sixteen 
feet  square,  with  a  hole  hewn  for  a  window  made 
by  cutting  out  a  log.  Its  roof  was  covered  with 
sticks,  and  C.  S.  Edwards,  the  pioneer  pedagogue, 
opened  school  there  January  6th,  1831,  and  taught 
until  February,  1832.  When  he  commenced  teach- 
ing the  building  was  unfinished,  having  neither 
a  floor  nor  a  permanent  door.  It  was  supported 
for  several  years  on  the  subscription  plan.  The 
patrons  of  this  first  school  were  Aaron  Whitaker, 
Thornton  Wilson,  Aaron  Payne.  David  Boyle. 
Hartwell  Haley,  George  Hildebrant,  William 
Graves,  Ashael  Hannum  and  Mr.  Studyvin.  The 
average  attendance  in  this  school  was  from  ten  to 


JOHN   SWANEY   SCHOOL. 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


twelve  in  summer  and  from  fifteen  to  twenty  in 
winter. 

This  school's  development  was  commensurate 
with  the  opportunities  of  the  community.  Ap- 
preciating the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  superior 
instructors,  the  fathers  of  the  community  began 
importing  professional  teachers,  and  the  spirit  of 
advancement  has  grown  until  today  within  the 
boundaries  of  this  district  stands  an  educational 
monument,  unique  in  its  history  and  prophetic  in 
its  consummation,  which  shall  be  treated  as  wor- 
thy of  special  mention  under  the  head  of  the  "John 
Swaney  School." 

In  the  district  adjacent  to  Clear  Creek  on  the 
east  is  the  famous  Center  school,  formerly  called 
the  Quaker  school  because  a  large  majority  of  the 
attendance  were  Quakers.  This  district  has  pro- 
duced some  of  the  very  strongest  men  of  the 
county;  strong  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  and 
this  school  was  known  for  years  as  the  best  rural 
school  in  the  state  of  Illinois.  It  has  been  cus- 
tomary, as  in  the  Clear  Creek  district,  to  employ- 
especially  qualified  instructors ;  and  students  from 
this  school  have  been  admitted  without  examina- 
tion to  higher  institutions  in  the  state.  Out  of 
this  spirit  of  intellectual  development  and  thirst 
for  refinement  and  culture  has  grown  a  commu- 
nity rural  in  aspect  that  is  equal  in  intelligence 
to  the  educational  centers  of  the  state.  This  dis- 
trict has  had  much  to  do  with  bringing  about  the 
establishment  of  the  John  Swaney  School  and  it 
is  now  merged  with  the  Clear  .Creek  and  Ox  Bow 
schools  into  one  district — the  famous  532  school. 


JOHN  SWANEY  SCHOOL. 

As  an  introduction  to  this  theme,  which  has 
been  one  of  absorbing  interest  and  great  import 
to  the  entire  county  during  the  present  year,  let 
us  quote  from  the  Granville  Echo  of  March  2, 
which  first  announced  the  plans  of  its  organi- 
zation : 

Our  venerable  and  esteemed  citizen,  John 
Swaney,  of  McNabb,  has  planned  and  promul- 
gated a  scheme  by  which  the  community  about 
his  home  may  receive  an  everlasting  benefit  and  a 
world-wide  renown. 

Lying  north  of  and  contiguous  to  the  Grange 
fair  grounds  is  a  splendid  tract  of  twenty-four 
acres  of  beautifully  located  land  which  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Swaney  propose  dedicating  to  the  people  of 


two  or  more  school  districts  on  condition  of  their 
consolidation  into  one  district  and  the  selection 
of  said  site  for  such  consolidated  school  district, 
within  eighteen  months  from  the  date  of  said 
proposition.  Mr.  Swaney  further  proposes  to  put 
the  plat  into  special  condition  after  the  planning 
of  a  landscape  gardener,  provided  that  the  plans 
should  be  after  the  manner  of  rural  ideals,  and 
not  in  imitation  of  city  park  or  flower  gardening. 

A  gentleman  from  the  state  university  has  been 
on  the  ground  and  has  made  blue  prints  of  an 
ideal  arrangement  of  the  grounds  which  the  donor 
endorses  as  his  own  ideal  of  what  a  rural  school 
premises  should  be. 

It  is  specially  provided  that  this  platting  shall 
teach  to  the  children  and  to  the  whole  commu- 
nity the  possibilities  of  a  beautiful  rural  environ- 
ment, inspiring  a  love  for  nature  and  a  desire  to 
remain  on  the  farm.  The  idea  is  unique,  the  man- 
ner of  acomplishment  is  reasonable,  and  the  au- 
thor is  able  and  willing  to  supply  the  means  for 
its  development. 

Nothing  of  its  character  now  exists  that  we 
know  of  save  by  public  expense.  To  be  sure  this 
school  must  be  sustained  as  other  schools  are,  by 
public  tax ;  but  it  will  offer  superior  opportuni- 
ties to  any  school  system  now  extant.  Think  of 
it,  a  fine,  up-to-date  building  with  campus,  ex- 
perimental garden  and  field,  home  for  superin- 
tendent, stables  for  students'  horses,  walks,  drives, 
and  fountains ;  is  it  not  a  beautif-ul  conception  ? 
Ought  not  this  consummation  make  country  life 
more  attractive,  bring  child  life  more  in  touch 
with  the  great  heart  of  nature  ? 

And  here  in  this  sequestered  spot,  far  from 
the  contaminating  influence  of  the  maddening 
crowd,  children  may  grow  to  maturity  subject  to 
home  atmosphere,  tinctured  and  rarefied  by  con- 
tact only  with  this  ideal  intellectual  dispensary. 
"  'Tis  a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished." 

What  a  noble  purpose !  This  patriarch  who 
at  best  has  but  a  few  years'  pilgrimage  before 
him,  who  has  no  personal  benefit  to  derive  from 
his  great  plan,  is  willing  to  build  a  monument 
more  enduring  than  granite  shaft,  more  beneficial 
to  posterity  than  houses  or  land,  with  a  portion 
of  his  material  accumulation,  blessing  his  neigh- 
bors' children  to  generations  yet  unborn. 

Will  the  people  of  the  community  appreciate 
the  opportunity  and  rise  to  the  demands  of  the 
occasion?  We  think  they  will.  Already  a  large 
fund  has  been  raised  which  is  increasing  daily 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MAI.'SII  ALL    AM)    PITNAM    COr.NTIES. 


to  be  used  for  furthering  the  plan.  The  oppor- 
tunity to  vote  on  the  consolidation  will  be  given 
the  districts  to  be  benefited  this  spring  and  it  is 
morally  certain  that  these  friends  of  education 
whose  record  has  been  to  spare  no  expense  to  give 
their  children  the  greatest  possible  advantage 
obtainable  in  the  premises  will  endorse  the  plan 
of  enlargement  and  thus  increase  their  already- 
envious  reputation  for  leadership  in  rural  school 
work. 

Putnam  county  stands  in  the  first  rank  in 
Illinois  for  the  condition  of  work  in  the  district 
schools,  and  carrying  to  completion  Mr.  Swanej''s 
plan  for  Clear  Creek,  Center  and  the  adjoining 
districts  will  give  us  a  distinction  not  only  in 
Illinois,  but  in  the  country  at  large,  for  a  mam- 
moth stride  in  advance  of  the  most  progres- 
sive rural  communities. 

No  more  beautiful  site  for  such  an  experiment 
can  be  found  in  our  country. 

While  it  is  an  experiment  in  one  sense,  it  is  not 
of  a  speculative  character ;  there  is  no  uncertainty 
about  its  results. 

There  is  no  life  so  full  of  sweetness,  so  enjoy- 
able, so  conducive  to  a  completed  development 
of  perfect,  manhood  as  a  life  on  the  farm.  To 
this  end  our  venerable  friend  proposes  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  ideal  country  school. 

The  matter  of  the  consolidation  of  the  three 
districts,  Center,  Clear  Creek  and  Ox  Bow,  came 
up  for  consideration  before  the  trustees  of  Mag- 
nolia township  at  their  April  meeting  and  became 
the  issue  in  the  election  of  a  trustee  which  resulted 
in  the  selection  of  the  anti-consolidation  candi- 
date. Seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  voters  in  the 
three  districts  petitioned  for  the  consolidation, 
which  was  rejected  by  the  board  of  trustees.  The 
matter  was  appealed  to  the  county  superintend- 
ent, who  in  an  elaborate  official  ruling  setting  forth 
in  a  concise  and  exhaustive  manner  the  law  and 
the  interest  of  the  question,  reversed  the  decision 
->f  the  trustees  and  granted  the  prayer  of  the 
petitioners  for  consolidation. 

After  much  study,  gathering  of  data  at  home  and 
abroad,  counseling  with  the  state  superintendent 
and  authorities  legal  and  scholastic,  the  county 
superintendent  elaborated  an  exhaustive  opinion 
which  he  rendered  to  the  parties  interested  on 
Saturday,  April  27,  1906,  at  the  Congregational 
church  in  Granville. 

Quite  a  delegation  came  from  the  districts  in- 


terested and  a  number  of  Granville  people  gath- 
ci'cil  to  hear  the  decision  that  was  to  affect  for  all 
time  the  school  life  of  the  county.  Acting  upon 
the  decision  of  the  superintendent,  an  election 
was  called  for  a  board  of  directors  in  the  new 
district,  which  resulted  in  the  selection  as  the 
first  board,  Willis  B.  Mills,  from  Center;  John 
Wilson,  from  Clear  Creek,  and  Victor  Kays,  from 
Ox  Bow,  a  splendid  selection  to  initiate  this  new 
plan — men  of  practical  experience,  of  character, 
of  intelligence,  and  each  vitally  interested  in  the 
success  of  the  enterprise.  Proceeding  at  once  to 
the  business  in  hand,  an  election  was  called  to 
vote  on  bonding  the  new  district  to  secure  funds 
for  the  erection  of  a  suitable  school  building. 
The  people  entered  into  the  matter  with  zeal  and 
a  building  was  soon  under  way  which,  at  the  close 
of  the  year,  is  about  completed — a  beautiful 
three-story  brick  structure  with  all  the  modern 
improvements ;  light,  water  and  heat  in  every 
room ;  the  most  ideal  rural  school  in  existence. 
This  season's  school  work  has  been  carried  on  in 
the  Grange  Hall  and  the  Clear  Creek  school  house 
a  few  rods  south  of  the  new  building  under  the 
superintendence"  of  McNeil  C.  James  of  the  state 
university.  Thus  have  the  ambitions  and  dreams' 
of  the  promoters  of  this  philanthropic  enterprise 
crystallized  into,  a  magnificent  reality,  the  John 
Swaney  School. 


VILLAGE  SCHOOLS. 

MAGNOLIA,  HENNEPLN,  PUTNAM,  FLOE- 
ID  AND  McNABB. 

There  is  no  written  record  that  goes  to  show 
that  any  one  of  these  villages  ever  aspired  to  be- 
come seats  of  learning.  No  colleges  have  ever 
been  established  and  the  early  schools  were  all 
of  a  private  character.  While  these  villages  have 
maintained  schools  of  average  standing,  none  of 
them  has  been  a  leader  in  school  matters.  In 
later  days  since  the  establishment  of  public  schools 
they  have  held  their  standards  up  to  the  average 
and  are  still  pushing  to  the  fore.  At  the  present 
time  each  village  has  a  graded  school  with  a  clas- 
sified course  of  study  and  employs  especially  quali- 
fied instructors  who  give  the  students  a  rudiment- 
ary education. 

In  Magnolia  and  Hennepin  lecture  courses  have 
been  maintained  with  varied  success  which  have 
done  much  for  the  stimulating  of  educational  in- 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNT  IKS. 


terests.  Hennepin  in  particular,  as  the  county 
seat,  has  been  the  center  of  ihany  gatherings,  po- 
litical and  educational,  that  have  brought  to  the 
town  educators  of  superior  talent,  and  as  commu- 
nities, like  individuals,  are  subject  to  influence, 
so  these  villages  have  kept  abreast  of  the  times  in 
matters  educational  and  social.  At  the  present 
time,  in  Hennepin  and  Putnam  the  spirit  of  con- 
solidation is  the  leading  hope  of  the  people,  and 
no  doubt  at  an  early  date  this  movement  will  crys- 
tallize into  something  real  along  this  line.  Put- 
nam county  as  a  unit,  is  well  to  the  fore  in  school 
matters  and  under  the  leadership  of  the  present 
superintendent,  George  W.  Hunt,  sustained  by 
an  intelligent  and  enthusiastic  constituency,  she 
is  destined  to  take  front  rank  in  the  great  com- 
monwealth. 


JUDSON  COLLEGE. 

Mr.  Christopher  Winters,  in  the  establishment 
of  the  village  of  Mt.  Palatine,  designed  an  edu- 
cational institution  and  planned  and  hoped  to 
make  it  a  seat  of  learning.  When  he  built  the 
first  school  house  it  was  called  a  seminary,  but  it 
afterward  rose  to  the  dignity  of  Judson  College. 
The  probability  of  the  town  ever  becoming  a 
place  of  any  size  depended  upon  the  success  of 
this  scheme.  The  school  that  was  erected  was 
paid  for  by  subscriptions  from  the  farmers  in  the 
neighborhood.  The  building  begun  in  the  fall 
of  1841  was  plain  and  substantial,  built  of  brick. 
Rev.  Otis  Fisher,  who  had  done  much  in  the  build- 
ing up  of  the  Granville  academy,  came  to  this  new 
field  as  superintendent.  For  fifteen  years  the 
college  flourished  and  the  village  grew  in  popula- 
tion ;  but  as  is  cited  elsewhere,  the  coming  of  the 
Illinois  Central  to  Tonica,  only  six  miles  distant, 
caused  the  .rapid  decline  of  Mt.  Palatine.  The 
school,  too,  ceased  to  be  an  attraction  and,  becom- 
ing unprofitable,  was  sold  in  1860  to  the  Catholic 
people  in  the  vicinity.  A  condition  of  the  sale 
between  the  partjes  was  that  the  buyers  should 
maintain  permanent  school  in  the  building,  which 
they  have  done  thus  far,  the  condition  being  that 
in  the  event  of  failure  to  maintain  such  school 
the  title  of  the  property  reverts  to  the  original 
owners.  The  Catholics  not  only  use  the  .building 
for  school  purposes,  but  for  church  as  well.  This 
educational  institution  began  first  under  a  char- 
ter as  an  academy,  but  during  the  days  of  Mt. 
Palatine's  prosperity  the  trustees  obtained  from 


the  legislature  a  charter  as  a  college.  The  build- 
ing cost  originally  $3,000. 

•  Among  the  students  who  attended  this  school  at 
one  time  were  the  Hon.  Thomas  Shaw,  late  judge 
of  this  district,  and  a  Rev.  Daniel  Whittaker, 
who  became  a  distinguished  missionary  to  Bur- 
mahu  Another  distinguished  person  connected 
with  the  institution  as'  a  teacher 'was  the  poet, 
Coates  Kenney,  author  of  "Rain  on  the  Roof 
and  other  poems. 

As  a  climax  to  the  educational  interests  of  the 
village  it  might  be  said  that  at  this  time  she  sup- 
ports a  fairly  good  rural  school  in  one  of  the 
poorest  school  buildings  in  the  county. 


HISTORY  OF  EDUCATION  IN  GRANVILLE. 

We  have  a  faint  recollection  of  once  hearing 
it  stated  that  a  gentleman  by  the  name  of  Mr. 
Columbus,  from  Europe,  a  long  time  ago,  while 
out  boating,  was  surprised  by  a  sudden  fog  preva- 
lent in  those  parts  which  so  befogged  him  that 
he  floated  across  stream  and  discovered  a  new 
country,  inhabited  by  a  strangely  peculiar  people. 
It  is  stated  that  at  the  time  he  named  his  dis- 
covery Putnam  county,  in  honor  of  an  Israelite 
named  Putnam,  who  afterward  appeared,  fought 
and  died  for  his  country. 

If  we  remember  correctly,  it  is  further  stated 
that  this  same  Putnam,  along  with  some  of  his 
neighbors,  had  a  little  unpleasantness  with  an- 
other crowd  at  that  time  considered  consider- 
able, and,  although  Mr.  Putnam's  neighbors  came 
out  ahead,  he  lost  his  head.  It  appears  that  about 
1827  the  following  parties,  disregarding  Mr. 
Columbus'  rights  by  discovery,  began  occupying 
that  gentleman's  territory :  Three  brothers  by  the 
name  of  Willis,  Haws,  Rosses,  Warnocks,  Ishes, 
Harpers,  Mills,  Blakes  and  Wares.  Still  there 
were  Moores  to  follow,  Gunn,  Whitaker,  Hopkins 
and  Shepards  (by  the  way,  there  must  have  been 
rich  pasturage  here  in  early  days,  judging  from 
the  number  of  Shepards  that  pitched  their  tents 
here). 

Ministers  of  the  gospel  were  the  first  educators 
on  the  ground.  It  was  not  until  1834  (seven 
years  after  the  first  settlement)  that  the  first 
school  was  taught,  Miss  Burr  being  the  teacher. 
The  "edifice"  was  constructed  strictly  acording  to 
specifications,  of  logs,  with  a  12x12  auditorium, 
usually  used  by  Mr.  Wafer  as  a  smoke  house. 

The  first  school  building  erected  in  the  village 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


was  the  "academy,"  reminiscences  of  which  our 
forefathers  never  tire  of  recounting.  Eev.  Nathan 
Gould,  the  first  Presbyterian  minister  who  settled 
in  the  township,  was  the  projector,  not  only  of  the 
academy,  but  of  the  village  itself.  Granville,  as 
we  glean  it  from  the  records  of  the  olden  times, 
is  the  fossilized  embryo  of  blighted  anticipation. 
It  appears  that  Eev.  Gould  was  not  the  only  per- 
son who  desired  to  found  the  loveliest  village  of 
the  plain.  Eev.  Gale,  founder  of  Galesburg,  the 
seat  of  the  Harvard  of  the  west,  had  followed  the 
star  of  empire  westward  till  it  stood  over  the 
enchanted  spot  dear  to  the  heart  of  Brother  Gould. 
Failing  to  persuade  Mr.  Gould  that  "that  divinity 
that  shapes  our  ends"  had  directed  him  here  to 
father  the  speculative  enterprise  of  founding  a 
city  and  college,  Eev.  Gale  moved  on,  believing 
there  was  yet  a  sacred  spot  upon  which  to  build 
his  Sweet  Auburn.  Both  gentlemen  sought  to 
promote  the  interests  of  humanity;  both  sought 
to  bring  within  the  confines  of  civilization  the  roll- 
ing wealth  of  the  Sucker  domain. 

How  wisely  and  how  well  each  had  builded  time 
has  told.  Each  in  his  own  peculiar  way  has  en- 
joyed success ;  yet  we  cannot  refrain  from  express- 
ing the  opinion  that  had  the  spirit  of  union 
among  ministers  of  the  gospel  existed  then  as  now, 
the  reverend  gentlemen  would  have  united  their 
efforts  and  their  fortunes  and  today  Granville 
would  be  the  educational  center  of  the  whole  west 
and  in  all  probability  one  of  the  largest  cities  of 
the  state,  the  grand  result  of  the  united  effort  of 
two  great  and  noble  lives. 

In  the  early  days  the  Academy  was  a  popular 
institution,  being  patronized  by  young  people  of 
promise  from  various  parts  of  the  state. 

Her  "roll  of  honor"  is  resplendent  with  illus- 
trious names.  Many  of  her  dear  boys  have  played 
well  their  parts  in  the  drama  of  life,  as  educat- 
ors, pulpit  orators  and  statesmen. 

Although  Eev.  Gould  but  partly  accomplished 
the  work  he  had  planned  to  do,  and  but  saw  the 
alpha  of  his  darling  project,  he  lives  today  in  the 
glorious  results  of  the  efforts  and  influence  he 
exerted. 

Many  admirable  characters  molded  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  true  manhood,  whose  lives  are  blessings 
to  humanity,  are  noble  monuments  to  his  honor. 

In  1837  the  academy  was  turned  over  to  the 
township  trustees  for  the  purpose  of  opening  a 


public  school.  Prof.  Otis  Fisher  was  the  first 
principal  in  charge. 

Miss  Lovejoy,  sister  to  the  noted  Owen  Lovejoy, 
followed  Prof.  Fisher,  who  became  a  celebrated 
Baptist  minister.  It  is  no  uncommon  thing  at 
the  present  time  to  hear  praises  to  the  names  of 
these  early  teachers,  who  educated  not  only  for 
time  but  for  eternity. 

Many  of  Prof.  Fisher's  students  followed  him 
into  the  ministry  and  became  successful  work- 
ers in  that  most  important  field  of  usefulness. 
Among  those  who  turned  their  attention  to  law 
and  politics  were  Judge  Burns  and  ex-Governor 
Beveridge,  whose  names  are  familiar  in  all  our 
homes. 

Continual  improvement  is  necessary  to  keep 
abreast  of  the  times.  "Onward"  is  inscribed  upon 
the  banner  of  civilization.  Success  in  the  agri- 
cultural world  assures  success  in  the  commercial. 
Agricultural  and  commercial  success  depend  upon 
the  educational. 

As  agricultural  and  financial  success  came  to 
Granville  township  the  pressing  need  of  the  hour 
seemed  to  be  a  much  more  commodious  building, 
which  under  the  rushing  supervision  of  Mr.  Hiram 
Colby,  was  erected  in  1869,  a  structure  of  impos- 
ing appearance  that  could  be  seen  for  miles  around, 
the  pride  and  glory  of  the  township.  From  this 
building  many  splendid  men  and  women  went 
forth  to  engage  in  the  conflict  of  life — to  make 
practical  application  of  the  principles  imbibed  at 
their  alma  mater. 

Other  schools  of  good  standing  coming  into  ex- 
istence in  various  parts  of  the  state,  this  school 
gradually  narrowed  down  to  the  township,  still 
maintaining  the  same  degree  of  excellence.  To- 
day, Granville  boys  are  filling  positions  of  honor 
and  trust  in  various  parts  of  the  union.  To  home 
influences  most  of  their  success  is  attributed;  but 
it  is  with  pride  that  they  refer  to  Granville  as 
one  of  the  dearest  spots  on  earth,  made  doubly 
dear  by  so  many  sacred  memories  of  happy  days 
and  school-day  associations. 


GEANVILLE  LITEBAEY  SOCIETY. 
About  forty  years  ago  a  literary  society  was 
organized    at    Granville,    of   which    the    teachers 
and  ministers  and  the  intellectual  people  gener- 
ally were  members.    This  society  was  very  much 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


like  any  other  organization  that  has  for  its  aim 
the  culture  and  development  of  the  young  people 
of  the  community.  It  became  one  of  the  fixed 
institutions  of  society  and  all  the  young  people 
who  expected  to  become  something  or  somebody 
felt  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  a  course  in 
this  literary  society.  Not  only  did  the  young  peo- 
ple receive  constant  drilling  and  coaching  and 
encouragement,  but  the  maturer  ones  found  here 
an  intellectual  arena  for  mental  combat  and  the 
preparation  afforded  the  young  man  has  been 
telling,  not  only  in  this  community,  but  in  various 
communities  in  which  they  are  exercising  today 
their  talent.  Many  young  men  went  out  to  col- 
leges and  took  training  in  specialized  work  and 
are  now  filling  positions  of  importance  in  various 
parts  of  the  United  States.  In  connection  with 
this  literary  society  there  developed  the  Granville 
lecture  course,  which  had  for  its  object  the  in- 
troduction of  high-class  attractions  in  the  lecture 
field.  Not  only  speakers,  but  musicians  of  su- 
perior talent  and  novelty  entertainments  of  a  high 
class  were  thus  presented  to  the  people  of  the 
rural  community,  thus  bringing  to  them  the  cul- 
ture and  refinement  of  more  favored  communi- 
ties. The  very  best  talent  of  America  has  thus 
been  brought  before  this  community.  Wendling, 
Beecher,  Joseph  Cook,  Wendell  Philips,  Lovejoy, 
Greeley,  Burdette,  Moody,  Bryan,  and  in  fact 
nearly  all  of  the  great  speakers  of  the  country 
have  appeared  upon  the  Granville  platform,  and 
thus  this  lecture  course  has  flourished  through 
forty  or  fifty  years  and  is  still  maintained  with 
as  much  interest  and  'enthusiasm  as  an  days 
goneby. 

Mr.  Archibald  W.  Hopkins,  who  is  now  past 
sixty  years  of  age,  is  one  of  the  boys  who  began  his 
career  in  the  Granville  Literary  society  and  who 
for  twenty-five  years  managed  the  business  of  the 
Granville  lecture  course  successfully,  who  is  en- 
titled to  much  of  the  credit  for  the  life  of  the 
organization. 


CHAPTER  X. 
CHURCHES. 

As  has  been  noted  heretofore,  the  religious 
spirit  of  the  early  settlers  dominated  everything 
they  did.  They  believed  firmly  in  practical  Chris- 
tianity. They  believed  in  the  principles  of  the 


Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  applied  to  life  upon  the 
plains.  In  their  private  life  they  conscientiously 
adhered  to  the  professions  they  made.  In  public 
gatherings  they  did  not  forget  to  recognize  their 
Creator,  and  in  business  affairs,  honesty  was  with 
them  not  a  policy,  but  principle.  Though  many 
of  the  events  that  have  helped  to  make  the  his- 
tory of  the  county  may  conflict  with  this  asser- 
tion, yet  the  evidence  remains  that  violation  of 
this  principle  was  the  exception,  not  the  rule. 
One  previous  historian  rolled  as  a  sweet  morsel 
under  his  tongue  the  misdeeds  of  the  few  men 
whose  lives  were  not  in  keeping  with  the  general 
character  of  the  community.  It  has  been  stated 
that  Satan  himself  once  inhabited  the  heavenly 
realm  but  was  cast  out  for  lack  of  affinity  and 
harmony  with  his  environments.  Since  that  time 
wherever  good  men  have  congregated  Satan  came 
also  in  the  person  of  his  devotees.  While  it  is 
proper  to  cite  the  deeds  of  these  evil  persons  to 
show  the  reader  the  harm  to  follow  as  natural 
consequences,  that  he  may  avoid  them,  we  cannot 
feel  that  in  this  brief  narrative  the  recounting  of 
the  wickedness  of  these  men  is  in  any  way  inter- 
esting or  necessary.  This  is  particularly  true  to 
those  who  have  descended  from  these  progenitors 
and  who,  while  they  cannot  be  held  accountable 
for  the  deeds  of  their  ancestors,  are  the  fulfilment 
of  the  prophecy,  "Visiting  the  iniquities  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children,"  etc. 

It  has  been  said  that  in  opening  up  civilization 
the  Bible  leads  the  way,  missionaries  push  out  into 
the  unknown  and  unclamed  regions,  the  military 
follows,  and  civilization  is  the  result. 

As  early  as  the  beginning  of  1829  a  Bible  so- 
ciety was  formed  at  Union  Grove  church  under 
control  of  the  Presbyterian  people;  the  first  Bible 
society  in  this  part  of  the  state.  The  officers  were 
James  A.  Warnock,  president;  Christopher  Wag- 
ner, vice-president;  James  W.  Willis,  correspond- 
ing secretary;  Hugh  Warnock,  recording  secre- 
tary. 

The  territory  over  which  this  society  had  juris- 
diction originally  extended  from  the  Vermillion 
to  the  Illinois  river,  and  from  Tazewell  county  to 
the  Illinois  on  the  north.  Just  what  work  was 
accomplished  by  this  society  we  are  not  told,  but 
no  doubt  it  was  out  of  their  work  that  sprang  the 
different  churches  in  the  limits  of  their  territory. 

Quoting  from  the  first  authentic  history,  Henry 
A.  Ford's  work,  we  find  that  the  first  church  in 


PAST   AND   PBESENT   OF    MAI.'SIIALL    AND   PUTNAM    COUXTIHS. 


the  county  was  the  one  at  Union  Grove  upon  whose 
historic  ground  still  remains  the  largest  audito- 
rium in  the  county.  The  rear  of  the  building 
is  next  to  the  street  and  the  entrances  front  the 
south  with  doors  on  either  side  of  the  pulpit  with- 
out a  hallway.  The  church-goers  stepped  abruptly 
into  the  presence  of  the  assembly  and  climbed 
the  elevated  floor  to  their  particular  stall.  Each 
pew  was  enclosed  and  had  a  door  and  when  the 
family  were  once  in,  the  juvenile  members  were 
expected  to  remain,  calm  and  dignified,  during 
the  hour  and  a  half  or  two  hour  sermon.  The 
interior  of  the  building  remains  to  this  day  a.s 
constructed  over  half  a  century  ago.  Over  the 
exterior  beautiful  ivy  vines  have  grown  which 
,  give  it  much  the  appearance  of  an  ancient  castle 
ruins.  The  property  is  kept  intact  by  a  special 
fund  under  trustees  who  have  control  of  the 
property  belonging  to  the  society.  Church  serv- 
ices are  no  longer  held  in  the  building,  but  an 
ocasional  funeral  is  conducted  within  its  hallowed 
walls.  One  appreciates  the  spirit  of  the  muse 
that  took  hold  on  Gray  when  he  penned  his  im- 
mortal Elegy,  as  he  sits  in  the  shadow  of  this 
ancient  kirk. 

In  this  cemetery,  awaiting  the  sound  of  Ga- 
briel's trumpet,  lie  many  of  the  forefathers  of  the 
community.  They  have  played  well  their  parts, 
and  to  them  cannot  be  ascribed  too  much  of  the 
credit  for  the  social  condition  of  the  present  time. 

Ford  says:  "The  first  church  erected  in  Put- 
nam county  was  put  up  in  the  Grove  in  1830 
— a  little  rude  log  building  in  the  wilderness, 
whither  the  pioneers  and  their  families  for  miles 
around  repaired  for  the  worship  of  God.  Here  in 
the  season  of  Indian  difficulties  there  was  an  ap- 
pearance of  the  warlike  mingled  with  the  devo- 
tional, as  many  settlers  carried  their  guns  to 
meeting  to  guard  against  surprise  from  the  sav- 
age foe.  A  strong  religious  sentiment  pervaded 
the  entire  community,  and  the  settlement  was 
named  Union  Grove  in  token  of  the  peace  and 
harmony  which  reigned  there,  and  which  it  was 
hoped  would  abide  forever  within  its  borders." 

The  church  history  of  the  county  would  of 
itself  make  many  volumes  and  in  our  brief  space 
we  cannot  particularize.  We  have  not  time  to 
elaborate,  but  let  us  in  a  general  way  take  a 
glimpse  at  the  progress  of  the  church  since  its 
organization. 

The  early  settlers  were  pre-eminently  religious 


people.  One  of  the  first  things  they  did  was  to 
furnish  a  place  in  which  to  worship.  There  was 
no  lack  of  earnest,  self-sacrificing  ministers  who 
held  services  at  the  different  private  houses,  or  in 
.the  groves.  These  services  were  usually  well  at- 
tended and  always  received  the  strictest  attention. 
The  good  these  men  did  was  not  interred  with 
their  bones,  but  lives  after  them  and  bears  its  fruit 
to  this  day. 

Scattered  throughoiit  the  county  in  the  location 
of  the  original  settlements  .  there  still  stand 
churches  in  various  stages  of  disintegration.  One 
of  the  first  sects  to  establish  an  organization  was 
that  of  the  "Friends"  or  Quakers,  who  settled 
in  Magnolia  township  near  Clear  Creek  as  early 
.as  1833.  These  people  have  made  .the  southern 
portion  of  the  county  famous  by  their  interest  in 
religious  and  educational  matters  as  well  as  by 
their  success  in  agricultural  pursuits.  Many  of 
the  most  illustrious  names  in  the  annals  of  the 
county  come  from  this  section. 

This  society  was  broad  in  its  influence  and  its 
reputation  as  an  intellectual  and  religious  com- 
munity was  known  throughout  the  entire  west. 
In  1869  they  built  a  large  and.  convenient  meet- 
ing house  where  it  now  stands,  and  vied  with 
the  Union  .Grove  church  in  having  the  largest 
auditorium  in  the  county.  The  regular  annual 
meeting  draws  immense  crowds,  not  only  of 
Friends,  but  also  of  their  friends  of  other  denom- 
inations. The  organization  still  stands  and  holds 
to  the  traditions  of  their  fathers,  although  ma- 
terially broader  and  more  liberal  in  their  ideas 
of  religious  conduct,  which  is  true  of  most  of  the 
modern  churches. 


METHODIST  EPISCOPAL. 

This  church  organization  first  established  itself 
in  the  county  at  Hennepin  in  1833.  The  first 
workers  came  into  the  country  as  missionaries  and 
went  about  from  house  to  house  holding  what 
modern-day  people  would  call  cottage  prayer- 
meetings.  As  interest  grew  the  numbers  affili- 
ating with  this  society  increased  until  they  per- 
fected a  church  organization  and  constructed  a 
modest  meeting-house  in  which  they  worshiped 
for  a  number  of  years,  until  1866,  when  the  pres- 
ent commodious  brick  building  was  dedicated. 

In  the  vicinity  of  Granville,  Union  Grove  and 
Florid  the  blessings  of  Christianity  were  taught 


UNION   GROVE   CHURCH. 


PAST   AND    PKESBNT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


101 


by  these  early  day  missionaries,  among  whom  are 
named  Eevs.  William  Royal,  a  Methodist;  Mr. 
Parker  and  Edward  Haile.  There  are  still  evi- 
dences that  the  seed  sown  has  been  ripening  with 
increasing  fruitage.  There  are  today  in  the  county 
of  the  Methodist  denomination,  church  organiza- 
tions at  Hennepin,  Granville,  Magnolia,  Strawn's, 
Putnam  and  Caledonia. 


CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 

In  1845  the  Catholic  people  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  county  seat  began  to  hold  public  religious  ser- 
vices, ministered  to  by  different  priests  sent  over 
from  LaSalle.  Antedating  this  period  priests  had 
come  up  from  Peoria  and  even  St.  Louis  at  inter- 
vals depending  upon  circumstances,  such  as  deaths 
or  sickness  where  the  last  sacrament  was  desired. 
Not  until  1852  did  they  erect  a  church  building 
which  was  later  enlarged,  and  within  the  past  few 
years  a  beautiful  brick  structure  facing  the  Court 
House  stands  as  a  monument  to  Patrick  Dore,  the 
principal  donor  and  called  in  his  name,  St.  Pat- 
rick's Church. 

The  only  other  organization  of  the  denomina- 
tion in  the  county  is  the  church  at  Mt.  Palatine 
which  secured  the  building  originally  erected  for  a 
college  and  which  is  treated  more  fully  as  Judson 
College  under  the  general  head  of  Schools.  At  the 
very  close  of  1906  the  number  of  Catholics  who 
have  come  into  Granville  have  made  it  possible 
for  them  to  plan  an  organization  in  that  place  and 
no  doubt  within  a  year  a  splendid  church  edifice 
will  be  added  to  the  list  already  given. 


BAPTISTS. 

There  are  now  no  active  Baptist  organizations 
within  the  county,  though  history  recounts  and 
many  of  the  oldest  settlers  distinctly  recall  several 
flourishing  congregations.  As  the  new  settlers 
came  in  they  brought  their  religious  notions  with 
them  and  it  would  seem  that  they  attached  more 
to  doctrine  and  ritualism,  three-quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury ago,  than  we  do  today.  Nearly  all  of  the 
leading  protestant  denominations  were  represented 
among  the  new  comers.  We  find  at  least  three 
Baptist  churches  have  come  into  existence,  flour- 
ished and  passed  away.  In  1836,  Elder  Thomas 
Powell  was  the  first  Baptist  minister  to  preach 
in  Granvillo,  holding  his  services  in  an  unfin- 


ished frame  store  building  erected  by  James 
Laughlin  which  was  crowded  to  the  utmost  with 
Presbyterians,  Seceders,  Cougregationalists  and 
Baptists.  Elder  Powell  had  been  sent  as  a  mis- 
sionary by  the  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society. 
The  people  of  the  community  generally  were  very 
anxious  to  have  regular  religious  exercises  and 
they  invited  the  Elder  to  divide  his  time  between 
them  and  his  other  appointments  which  included 
Hennepin,  Clear  Creek,  Payne's  Point,  Magnolia 
and  on  the  Vermillion  where  Streator  now  stands. 
There  were  thirteen  Baptists  in  'Hennepin  and 
Granville  who  organized  into  the  Baptist  church 
of  Granville.  For  many  years  it  was  one  of  the 
most  important  factors  in  social  life  of  the  com- 
munity ;  it  furnished  four  young  men  for  the  min- 
istry, one  of  whom  went  as  a  foreign  missionary 
and  one  established  a  church  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  river  in  Oregon,  which  was  said  to  be 
the  first  protestant  church  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 
Very  few  of  the  members  of  this  church  remain 
in  the  county  and  most  of  them  are  identified  with 
other  church  organizations.  A  magnificent  church 
bell  that  was  purchased  bj  general  subscription 
was  donated  by  the  organization  at  its  last  meeting 
when  it  met  for  disbandment,  to  the  Baptist 
church  at  Utica.  Many  of  the  oldest  settlers  claim 
that  this  was  the  sweetest  toned  bell  that  ever 
pealed  forth  the  call  to  worship. 

The  church  organizations  at  Mt.  Palatine  was 
established  in  1845  and  Elder  Powell  was  its  first 
pastor,  which  goes  to  show  what  indefatigable 
workers  these  pioneer  missionaries  must  have  been. 
A  few  of  the  names-  upon  that  church  list  still  live, 
but  many  of  their  descendants  occupy  the  same 
territory  as  that  once  belonging  to  their  ancestors. 

A  Union  church,  since  the  passing  of  the  Bap- 
tists, was  maintained  for  awhile  by  the  people  of 
that  vicinity  which  also  having  lived  out  its  time, 
gave  place  to  the  present  organization  which  is 
Congregational. 


PRESBYTERIAN. 

This  rich  Illinois  soil  was  very  productive  of 
good  Presbyterian  stock,  and  in  the  formative 
period  the  Presbyterians  seem  to  have  been  more 
numerous  than  any  other  sect.  Particularly  is 
this  true  in  Granville  township  and  Union  Grove. 
At  one  time  there  were  two  branches  of  the  de- 
nomination in  the  village  of  Granville  and  the 


102 


PAST   AND   PHBSENT   OF   MAESHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Grove  church  was  the  great  church  of  the  county. 
The  mere  mention  of  the  names  of  the  organizers 
of  the  church  in  Granville  will  serve  to  -show 
the  strength  of  character  that  the  infant  church 
must  have  assumed.  There  were  Mearses,  Wares, 
Pools,  Laughlins,  Wafers,  Nashes,  and  Shorts.  In 
less  than  six  months  after  the  organization  the 
church  was  called  to  mourn  the  death  of  one  of  its 
first  chosen  Euling  Elders,  James  Hears.  Rev. 
H.  G.  Pendleton  was  the  first  pastor  of  the  church. 
The  church  was  torn  with  dissention  by  matters 
of  personal  interest,  especially  true  was  this  on 
the  slavery  question.  Many  of  the  members  with- 
drew from  the  church  and  connected  themselves 
with  a  Congregational  church  which  still  exists. 
The  history  of  this  church  is  quite  interesting  but 
unfortunately  demonstrates  that  even  those  who 
profess  to  be  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  gentle 
Nazarine  may  so  far  forget  His  example  as  to 
bring  disrespect  upon  their  profession.  But  this 
is  not  a  church  history.  There  does  not  remain  a 
single  active  society  of  this  faith  in  the  county 
today,  though  the  tenets  and  the  pious  example 
of  many  of  these  saintly  people  are  among  the 
richest  inheritances  of  the  community. 

The  Clear  Creek  congregation  of  the  Cumber- 
land Presbyterian  church  was  organized  by  Rev. 
S.  E.  Hudson,  of  Pennsylvania  Presbytery,  No- 
vember 26,  1854,  A.  D.,  and  flourished  during 
the  middle  of  that  century,  but  did  not  live  to  see 
its  close. 


CONGREGATIONALISTS. 

Three  Congregational  churches  constitute  the 
complete  number  of  that  denomination  ever  organ- 
ized in  the  county,  at  Granville,  in  1850,  in  Mt. 
Palatine  in  1869,  and  in  Hennepin  in  1874. 
These  organizations,  as  their  name  implies,  were 
made  up  on  what  in  the  early  days  was  called 
the  broad  gauged  plan.  The  ultimate  destiny  of 
every  religionist  is  heaven.  All  the  sectarian  doc- 
trines teach  this  idea.  Much  as  we  may  differ 
on  non-essentials,  there  are  many  general  doctrines 
upon  which  we  agree.  This  denomination  origin- 
ally was  made  up  of  comers  from  all  the  other 
denominations.  These  three  churches  still  live. 
The  one  at  Granville  being  the  strongest  religious 
organization  in  the  county. 

The  men  and  women  who  have  stamped  their 
personality  most  indelibly  upon  the  community 
life  have  been  church  people.  For  the  past  third 


of  a  century  the  social  life  of  the  county  has 
been  dominated  by  the  membership  of  this  church. 
No  spirit  of  clannishness  or  intolerance  prevailed, 
but  rather  the  higher  and  nobler  tie  of  Christian 
fellowship. 

The  congregation  at  Granville  erected  a  fine 
modern  church  in  1892  with  a  seating  capacity  of 
500,  and  often  this  will  not  comfortably  hold  the 
crowd.  The  entertainments  of  the  Granville  Lec- 
ture Association  are  held  in  this  room  and  while 
the  church  does  not  think  that  secular  matters 
should  be  taken  into  the  church  as  a  usual  thing, 
under  the  existing  circumstances,  in  as  much  as 
there  is  no  audience  room  in  the  town  large  enough 
to  hold  the  patrons  of  the  Course,  it  is  used  for 
that  purpose  only.  No  church  fairs,  or  plays,  or 
suppers  or  anything  of  that  kind  for  the  purpose 
of  raising  money  to  support  the  church  are  now, 
or  ever  have  been  tolerated. 

The  church  at  Hennepin  has  a  nice  little  build- 
ing, well  furnished,  with  regular  services.  The 
church  roll  bears  many  of  the  historic  names  of 
the  community,  who  have  stood  for  the  things  that 
laiild  up  a  people. 

The  Mt.  Palatine  church  has  decreased  in  num- 
bers by  deaths  and  removals,  and  no  longer  sup- 
ports a  resident  pastor,  but  is  ministered  to  by 
the  pastor  from  the  Tonica  organization.  The 
church  edifice  is  a  fine  one,  and  occupies  a  com- 
manding site  overlooking  the  broad  expanse  of  the 
beautiful  prairie  homes  whose  occupants,  at  the 
ringing  of  the  angelus,  may  turn  their  faces 
toward  Mt.  Zion,  which  Mt.  Palatine  might  well 
be  called. 

In  association  matters,  denominational  or  un- 
denominational, of  any  Christian  character,  this 
denomination,  true  to  its  name,  is  ever  in  the 
lead. 


MISCELLANEOUS  CHURCH  ORGANIZA- 
TIONS. 

Owing  to  the  cosmopolitan  character  of  the 
people  of  the  county  in  the  past  few  decades, 
there  have  come  into  existence  various  churches 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  these  new  people. 
Upon  the  county  line  north  of  Mt.  Palatine,  in  a 
German  community,  there  exist  two  German 
churches,  a  Lutheran  and  Evangelical. 

The  Lutheran  church  is  just  over  the  line  in 
LaSalle  county,  but  a  large  area  of  the  parish  is 
in  Putnam.  This  last  statement  is  also  true  of 


PAST    AND   PEESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


the  Evangelical  church.  For  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury .Rev.  Baumann  ministered  to  the  Lutheran 
congregation,  a  man  of  rare  talent  and  personal 
magnetism,  who  has  but  recently  left  the  scenes 
of  so  many  happy  and  active  years. 

The  Evangelical  church  is  ministered  jointly 
with  the  church  in  Eichland  township,  LaSalle 
county,  and  is  composed  of  a  strong,  earnest, 
consecrated  membership. 

In  the  village  of  Granville  a  neat  little  chapel 
stands  as  the  worshiping  place  of  the  Swedish 
Lutherans  of  the  community  which  with  the  in- 
creasing population  is  growing  in  numbers  and 
in  influence.  It  maintains  a  Sunday  school  in 
English,  and  its  whole  service  is  American  in 
character,  though  the  native  tongue  is  spoken  from 
the  pulpit  for  the  benefit  of  the  older  members. 

At  McNabb  the  Danish  citizenship  support  a 
church.  A  very  nice,  modern  structure  with  a 
parsonage  adjoining  and  a  resident  pastor.  This 
organization,  too,  is  wielding  an  influence  increas- 
ing in  extent  constantly. 

Within  the  recollection  of  the  writer,  a  Dunkard 
church  existed  at  Florid,  but  has  long  since  passed 
away.  A  nice  village  kirk  stands  on  an  eminent 
location  in  the  center  of  the  village,  where  services 
are  held  regularly,  ministered  to  either  by  the  Con- 
gregational pastor  from  Hennepin  or  a  Presby- 
terian Theological  Seminary  student. 

This  church  maintains  a  Sabbath  school  and  a 
Young  People's  Society,  and  much  of  the  real 
social  life  of  the  community  clusters  about  the 
organization. 

One  of  the  strong  churches  of  the  county  is  the 
Christian  organization  at  Putnam,  of  whose  his- 
tory we  know  very  little  except  by  their  works. 
M'anv  of  the  influential  people  of  the  township 
are  communicants  of  this  body,  and  in  general 
religious  gatherings  are  ever  ready  to  send  repre- 
sentatives or  extend  fraternal  courtesies  to  their 
home  church.  It  is  the  only  church  of  the  denomi- 
nation ever  organized  in  the  county,  we  believe. 

Ellsworth,  in  his  records,  names  a  denomination 
as  once  having  existed  in  Granville  called  the 
Emanuel  Church  of  Granville,  a  union  of  Evan- 
gelical and  Methodist  Protestant  denominations, 
and  was  organized  in  1867. 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

BUEL  INSTITUTE. 

As  early  as  1844  a  very  interesting  Farmers' 
Institute  met  in  the  county,  which  continued  for 


more  than  two  years  when  it  was  merged  into  the 
Buel  Institute,  and  under  this  heading  we  are 
treating  the  matters  of  organized  efforts  of  interest 
to  the  agriculturists. 

This  was  the  oldest  agricultural  society  in  Illi- 
nois and  the  first  formed  in  the  entire  West.  The 
initiatory  steps  to  organize  it  were  taken  at  Lowell, 
LaSalle  county,  on  February  23,  1846.  J.  S.  Bul- 
lock was  the  chairman  and  Elmer  Baldwin  the 
secretary.  There  were  four  or  five  farmers  present 
and  they  resolved  to  form  a  society  including  the 
friends  south  of  the  Illinois  river  in  that  part 
of  the  county  and  as  many  as  wished  to  unite 
from  the  counties  of  Putnam  and  Marshall.  A 
committee  to  draft  a  constitution  was  appointed 
consisting  of  Elmer  Baldwin,  L.  L.  Bullock  and 
11.  C.  Elliott  of  LaSalle  county;  Ealph  Ware  of 
Putnam  county;  and  William  Clarkson  of  Mar- 
shall county.  Later,  on  March  18,  another  meet- 
ing was  held  and  the  constitution  was  adopted 
and  officers  elected.  Elmer  Baldwin  was  presi- 
dent; Ealph  Ware,  William  Clarkson  and  J.  T. 
Little  were  vice-presidents;  J.  S.  Bullock,  treas- 
urer; Oakes  Turner,  corresponding  secretary;  and 
L.  L.  Bullock,  recording  secretary. 

The  next  meeting  was  held  in  Granville  the  first 
Tuesday  in  June  and  at  this  and  subsequent  meet- 
ings a  hundred  and  seventy  persons  joined  and 
paid  the  fifty  cent  membership  dues  into  the  treas- 
ury. Arrangements  were  made  for  discussing  im- 
portant topics,  such  as  farming,  stock  raising,  fruit 
growing,  etc.  These  meetings  were  to  be  held 
every  three  months  at  places  easy  of  access  within 
the  boundaries  of  the  society. 

The  question  under  discussion  at  the  first  meet- 
ing in  Granville  was  "The  best  mode  of  cultivating 
corn."  At  this  meeting  an  annual  fajir  was 
decided  upon  to  be  held  at  Lowell  the  first  Tues- 
day in  October.  This  society  was  received  with 
great  favor  and  became  a  popular  social  and  edu- 
cational feature,  both  ladies  and  gentlemen  rid- 
ing great  distances  in  inclement  weather  to  attend. 
The  meetings  for  debates  were  fixed  for  the  first 
Tuesday  of  every  December,  March,  June  and 
September,  and  the  place  was  chosen  at  the  pre- 
vious quarterly  meeting.  In  1846  the  fair  for  that 
year  was  abandoned  on  account  of  the  great 
amount  of  sickness  prevailing  throughout  the 
country.  The  regular  meetings  were  held  at 
Lowell,  Caledonia,  Point  Eepublic,  Cedar  Point, 
Granville  and  Magnolia,  in  turn,  and  the 


104 


I'AST    AM)    1'1,'KSKNT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    ITTXA.M    COUNTIES. 


members  delivered  addresses  and  read  essays, 
while  oral  discussions  were  freely  indulged  in. 

The  second  regular  fair  was  held  at  Granville 
in  October,  1848,  and  premiums  were  offered. 

The  third  fair  was  held  at  Lowell  and  $100.00 
was  voted  for  prizes.  The  executive  committee 
was  instructed  to  place  on  their  advertising  bills 
that  there  would  be  no  horse  racing  on  or  near  the 
show  grounds.  At  this  time  it  was  concluded  that 
two  days  were  necessary,  as  the  fair  had  become 
so  extensive  that  it  could  not  be  satisfactorily 
viewed  in  one  day. 

The  fourth  fair  was  held  at  Granville,  and  this 
fair  was  quite  extensively  advertised  by  large 
"show  bills." 

The  fifth  fair  was  held  at  Hennepin  and  was 
far  more  pretentious  than  any  of  its  predecessors 
and  seems  to  have  been  proportionally  successful. 
The  treasurer's  report  showed  a  balance  on  hand 
above  all  expenses  of  more  than  $150.00.  To  this 
society  belongs  the  credit  of  first  suggesting  a 
government  department  of  agriculture.  The  mat- 
ter was  thoroughly  discussed  by  the  Institute  and 
the  result  of  the  debate  was  a  petition  signed  by 
the  leading  fanners  of  Putnam,  Marshall  and  La- 
Salle  counties,  which  was  forwarded  to  the  repre- 
sentatives at  Washington,  which  petition  set  forth 
the  importance  to  the  country  of  agriculture,  the 
basis  of  all  pursuits. 

The  matter  came  before  Congress  and  was  not 
only  heard  but  acted  upon  and  the  result  was  the 
forming  of  the  Bureau  of  Agriculture. 

These  fairs  were  also  held  at  Peru,  but  the 
disadvantage  of  moving  about  without  permanent 
building  or  grounds,  the  growth  of  the  society, 
and  the  importance  and  increasing  size  of  its  an- 
nual exhibitions  made  a  permanent  location  neces- 
sary, and  the  Society  settled  upon  Hennepin  as 
central  and  sufficiently  accessible  from  all  direc- 
tions for  the  purpose. 

These  fairs  continued  many  years  and  were 
counted  as  one  of  the  great  events  of  the  year, 
people  coming  for  miles  and  miles  to  attend  them. 
But,  owing  to  the  development  of  such  organiza- 
tions at  larger  centers  of  population,  the  Hennepin 
Fair  died  a  natural  death  from  old  age. 


CHAPTER  XII. 
GRANGE  FAIR. 

About  thirty  years  ago  a  movement  of  general 
interest    to    the    agricultiirists    throughout    the 


United  States  was  made,  which  was  known  as  the 
Grange  movement.  True  to  the  spirit  of  the  com- 
munity, the  people  of  Magnolia  met  and  accepted 
this  new  organization  and  formed  a  society  out  of 
which  has  grown  a  general  union  of  thought  and 
effort  permeating  the  whole  community  life.  A 
spirited  and  healthy  rivalry  between  the  boys  and. 
girls  of  the  community  has  been  encouraged  along 
the  lines  of  mental  and  professional  development. 
Scientific  Agriculture  and  Domestic  Science  have 
become  fixed  teachings  in  every  home  and  school. 
Out  of  this  developed  an  annual  exhibition  of  the 
handiwork  and  the  production  of  their  labors.  The 
Grange  Fair  has  become  the  most  important  event 
of  the  whole  year  of  general  interest  to  the  county, 
and  fine  fair  grounds  with  the  necessary  building 
equipment  is  maintained,  and  at  the  regular  an- 
nual exhibition  people  drive  for  miles  from  all 
parts  of  Putnam  county  and  from  adjoining  coun- 
ties. We  are  under  obligations  to  the  first  secre- 
tary of  this  organization  for  the  following  infor- 
mation which  we  print  verbatim  as  given  to  us: 

Magnolia  Grange,  Patrons  of  Husbandry,  was 
organized  February  13,  1873,  at  Clear  Creek  school 
house,  Magnolia  township,  Putnam  county,  with 
twenty-one  charter  members  as  follows:  Thomaa 
Flower,  John  Swaney,  Sarah  G.  Swaney,  David 
Swaney,  Mary  Ann  Swaney,  Henry  K.  Smith, 
Oliver  Smith,  Amos  B.  Wilson,  Oliver  Wilson, 
Henry  Mills,  ST.,  Pusey  Mills,  Joseph  Mills, 
Thomas  K.  Mills,  Alfred  Given,  Philonzo  Given. 
Sarah  M.  Given,  Ann  Morris,  Sarah  L.  Hoyle, 
Gustav  Otto,  Louis  Beck  and  Barnet  Swaney. 

John  Swaney  was  elected  its  first  Master  and 
Amos  B.  Wilson  the  secretary.  The  meetings  were 
held  for  a  few  years  in  the  school  house  and  the 
membership  increased  soon  to  about  seventy-five. 
Later  the  abandoned  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
Church,  adjoining  the  school  house,  was  rented 
and  used  for  a  meeting  place.  In  1880  the  Grange 
bought  the  hall  and  fitted  it  up,  paying  largely 
for  it  from  the  proceeds  of  two  crops  of  potatoes 
raised  in  1879  and  1880,  the  members  donating 
all  the  work  of  plowing,  planting,  harvesting,  and 
each  member  donating  a  chair  for  furnishing  the 
hall  after  the  old  pews  and  seats  were  taken  out, 
since  which  time,  now  over  twenty-six  years,  the 
Grange  hjas  never  failed  to  meet,  and  hold  a  meet- 
ing Saturday  afternoon  of  every  alternate  week 
with  a  membership  enrollment  of  from  75  to  120 
during  the  whole  time.  What  of  good  or  ill,  and 


PAST    AM)    IMtKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    IM'TNAM    CO!   NT!  KS. 


105 


the  inllueiu-e  it  has  exerted  over  the  community, 
the  public  must  decide. 

About  twenty-two  years  ago  the  Magnolia 
Grange  instituted  what  is  now  known  as  the  Mag- 
nolia Grange  Fair,  which  has  gradually  grown  each 
year  to  its  present  proportions.  Its  management 
is  entirely  within  the  Grange.  A  board  of  nine 
directors,  three  of  which  are  elected  each  year  by 
the  Grange,  have  the  entire  management  and  con- 
trol of  the  Fair,  and  the  object  has  been  to  give 
the  county  a  strictly  dean  country  fair  without 
the  objectionable  features  that  characterize  many 
of  the  county  and  other  fairs  elsewhere.  It  is, 
however,  only  fair  to  state  here  that  this  fair  could 
never  have  reached  its  present  proportions  and  in- 
fluence had  it  not  been  for  the  hearty  support, 
liberal  exhibits,  and  charitable  appreciation  of  the 
efforts  of  the  Grange  by  a  generous,  sympathetic, 
true  and  honest-minded  public. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
GAME. 

BY    J.    0.    WINSHIP. 

Early  settlers  found  game  abundant  in  Putnam 
county.  Deer  were  so  plentiful  that  they  were 
often  shot  from  the  door  of  the  settlers'  cabins 
and  with  a  little  hunting,  deer  could  be  killed 
at  any  time.  Later  it  was  necessary  to  have  a 
track  in  the  snow  and  follow  the  trail  until  the 
game  was  captured.  Wild  turkeys  were  so  numer- 
ous that  there  was  nearly  always  wild  turkey  on 
the  table  on  Thanksgiving,  Christmas  and  New 
Year's,  and  in  fact  whenever  the  pioneer  had 
time  to  shoot  them.  They  were  often  captured  in 
rail  pens.  A  wild  turkey  will  never  go  under 
anything  if  he  knows  it.  Eail  pens  were  built 
on  sloping  ground  and  well  covered,  on  the  lower 
side  a  little  space  was  left  next  the  ground.  These 
were  built  of  old  rotten  poles  and  sticks  and  very 
inconspicuous.  Corn  was  scattered  on  the  lower 
side  of  the  pen  and  a  trail  of  corn  up  into  the 
pen.  The  turkeys  would  be  so  intent  on  eating 
the  corn  that  often  several  of  them  would  follow 
the  train  of  corn  up  into  the  pen  by  feeding  with 
heads  down ;  once  inside,  xip  would  go  their  heads 
and  nothing  could  induce  them  to  go  out  at  the 
place  where  they  came  in. 

As  the  settlers  grew  thicker  the  deer  and  wild 
turkeys  grew  thinner  in  number  and  in  about  1880 
ciiiiivlv  disappeared.  There  was  a  tradition  among 


the  Indians  that  buffalo  were  plentiful.  That 
about  fifty  years  before  the  white  settlers  came, 
during  a  very  hard  winter,  they  nearly  all  perished 
and  that  the  survivors  soon  left  and  were  seen  no 
more.  Buffalo  bones  and  horns  were  sometimes 
found  by  the  early  settlers. 

Prairie  chickens  were  so  abundant  that  a  few 
steps  from  the  house  would  secure  a  mess  any 
time.  1  have  seen  thousands  in  a  single  flock. 
Have  seen  houses,  barns,,  corn-cribs  and  shade 
trees  literally  covered  with  them ;  now  only  a  few 
lonely  specimens  are  left.  Quail  were  always  un- 
certain quantities.  There  would  be  very  great 
numbers  of  them  and  then  a  hard  winter  would 
kill  them  by  thousands ;  several  years  would  elapse 
before  they  were  plentiful  again.  The  pheasant  is 
a  product  of  civilization.  Owing  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  undergrowth  by  fire,  the  early  settler 
found  none  here,  since  the  second  growth  of  tim- 
ber and  brush  has  grown  a  few  have  come  in. 
Rabbits  have  also  increased  with  civilization.  Wild 
pigeons  were  so  numerous  that  flocks  often  a 
mile  long  were  seen.  They  were  caught  by  thou- 
sands in  nets  by  feeding  for  a  few  days  in  a 
selected  spot  and  using  stool  pigeons  as  decoys. 
They  entirely  disappeared  about  1885,  not  only 
from  Putnam  county  but  from  the  United  States 
as  well.  Their  sudden  disappearance  is  a  mystery 
to  naturalists. 

In  early  days  sand  hill  cranes  were  numerous. 
They  always  migrated  by  flying  in  circles,  and 
continually  uttering  their  doleful  cries.  They 
have  disappeared  from  Putnam  county  but  are 
still  seen  in  the  western  states. 

Swans,  two  varieties  of  geese,  brants  and  sixteen 
kinds  of  ducks  were  so  plentiful  that  it  was  little 
sport  to  shoot  them.  All  that  a  family  could  use 
could  be  had  in  a  few  minutes.  In  early  days  they 
were  not  considered  good  eating  in  comparison 
with  turkeys  or  venison  and  were  very  little  sought. 
Duck  calls,  decoys,  breech-loading  shot-guns  and 
nitro-powder  have  about  exterminated  these  once 
plentiful  game  birds.  The  city  sportsmen  have 
rented  or  bought  the  marshes,  have  employed 
watchmen  to  keep  the  farmers'  sons  off  the  pre- 
serves, fed  the  game  until  they  have  become  tame, 
then  slaughtered  them  for  the  pure  love  of  killing. 
I  have  seen  hundreds  of  these  birds  killed  and 
hung  up  for  the  carrion  birds  to  devour.  Among 
the  smaller  game,  snipe  and  woodcocks  were  nu- 
merous. A  few  pelicans  have  been  killed  in  the 


106 


PAST  AND   PBESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


county  and  many  other  water  birds  and  wooders. 
Song  birds  were  very  numerous  but  are  disap- 
pearing and  with  their  disappearance,  the  worms 
and  insects  are  taking  possession  of  our  fruit. 

Wolves,  foxes,  lynx,  wildcats,  racoons,  skunks, 
opposums,  otter,  mink  and  muskrats  were  a  men- 
ace to  the  settlers'  poultry  and  young  domestic 
animals.  Minks  and  muskrats  are  still  quite 
numerous. 

Wolves,  foxes,  lynx  and  wildcats  were  hunted 
with  hounds;  racoons  were  hunted  at  night  with 
any  kind  of  a  "coon  dog" — always  "the  best  dog 
that  ever  treed  a  coon."  In  October  and  Novem- 
ber the  raccoons  would  fatten  on  any  cornfield 
near  the  timber,  always  feeding  at  night.  The 
coon  hunters  would  circle  the  fields  and  the  dog 
would  soon  strike  the  trail  and  follow  it  silently 
until  the  'coon  took  to  a  tree.  The  excitement 
would  cause  the  creature's  eyes  to  glow  like  two 
balls  of  fire,  and  the  pioneer  seldom  failed  to  plant 
a  bullet  in  the  creature's  brain  even  in  the  dark- 
est night;  in  fact,  they  claimed  the  darker  the 
night  the  better. 

Wolves  had  to  be  shot  while  on  the  run,  the 
hunter  stationing  himself  where  the  animal  was 
most  likely  to  pass.  Gray  foxes  were  treed,  red 
foxes  took  to  holes  in  the  ground.  Foxes  were 
often  chased  for  the  sport,  but  were  seldom  killed. 
In  late  years  there  has  been  a  bounty  on  foxes  and 
now  they  are  killed  whenever  possible.  Wildcats 
and  lynx  are  now  seldom  seen ;  foxes  are  still 
numerous ;  otter  have  disappeared.  Most  fur  ani- 
mals were  easily  caught  in  traps. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
RAILROADS. 

As  an  introduction  to  this  theme  we  quote  Ells- 
worth in  1880: 

"The  County  of  Putnam  is  wholly  destitute  of 
railroads,  and  this  want  of  a  means  of  transit 
has  led  to  several  expensive  schemes,  thus  far  with- 
out any  result ;  prominent  of  which  is  the  building 
of  a  line  from  Bureau  Junction  through  the  coun- 
ties of  Putnam,  LaSalle,  Grundy,  Will  and  Kan- 
kakee.  It  was  agitated  in  1868-9,  and  meetings 
were  held  at  different  points  along  the  line'  in  the 
spring  and  summer.  Putnam  county  voted  to 
subscribe  $125,000;  Granville  added  $10,000; 
Round  Grove  $15,000;  Dwight  $30,000;  Tonka 
$50.000;  LaSalle  and  Livingston  counties  to- 


gether gave  $205,000;  Bureau  $10,000;  and  Kan- 
kakee  $165,000,  making  a  grand  total  of  half  a 
million  dollars.  In  Putnam  county  the  first  vote 
of  $75,000  had  been  nearly  unanimous  for  the 
stock,  but  when  the  company  demanded  an  in- 
crease of  $50,000  more,  the  people  were  not  quite 
so  eager.  The  question  was  submitted  to  the  vo- 
ters February  8,  1870,  and  the  result  was:  For 
the  additional  sum,  475  votes;  against  it,  350. 
February  26,  1870,  the  road  made  an  assessment 
of  three  per  cent  upon  its  capital  stock,  a  sum 
that  though  small,  was  not  very  cheerfully  given. 

"Magnolia  had  been  deeply  moved  for  and 
against  the  project,  and  much  bitterness  of  feeling 
resulted.  Finally  they  voted  to  subscribe,  provided 
the  company  would  build  eight  miles  of  the  road 
in  this  township,  the  work  to  be  completed  to  the 
eastern  terminus  before  the  bonds  should  be  is- 
sued. This  well  guarded  provision  proved  their 
safety.  The  road  was  graded  in  many  places  in 
Putnam  county  and  large  sums  of  money  ex- 
pended in  the  work,  but  the  company  failed  in 
making  expected  loans,  and  it  was  never  finished, 
its  history  being  that  of  many  other  roads  in  the 
West,  where  people  subscribe  bonds  in  advance  of 
the  completion  of  the  enterprise.  The  county, 
though  deeply  swindled,  is  paying  her  obligations 
in  full,  thereby  setting  an  example  that  wealthier 
corporations  might  copy  with  profit." 

It  would  seem  that  this  historian  was  not  al- 
ways particular  as  to  relative  events.  In  another 
chapter,  pertaining  to  the  settlement  of  Senach- 
wine  township,  he  plainly  states  that  the  Bureau 
Valley  railroad  was  built?  through  the  township  in 
1855,  which  served  as  an  impetus  to  the  rapid  de- 
velopment of  the  community.  This  road  con- 
nected the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  &  Pacific  at 
Bureau  with  Peoria,  now  a  division  of  that  great 
system,  and  is  the  first  railroad  of  which  Little 
Putnam  can  boast.  The  Kankakee  line,  which 
cost  the  county  so  much  in  taxes,  of  which  many 
of  the  present  generation  distinctly  remember  by 
the  taxes  they  paid,  was  never  built  though  the 
moss-covered  grade  crosses  Magnolia  and  Henne- 
pin  townships,  remaining  as  monuments  of  what 
was  to  be.  In  1900  the  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Iowa 
Railway  following  the  original  Kankakee  survey 
until  it  came  into  this  county,  and  having  for  a 
number  of  years  operated  as  far  west  as  Streator, 
extended  its  line  across  Putnam  county  into  Bu- 
reau to  connect  with  the  Chicago,  Burlington 


SENACHWINE  LAKE. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


109 


and  (Jiiim-v  east  of  Princeton  at  a  place  named 
Zearing,  in  honor  of  Louis  Zearing,  a  former 
State  Senator  of  this  district.  This  road  enters 
the  county  at  exactly  the  center  of  Magnolia 
township  on  the  county  line  and  runs  in  a  north- 
westerly direction  for  about  three  miles  where  it 
turns  and  runs  due  north  for  five  miles  and  then 
to  the  northwest  in  a  circuitous  route  to  the  Illi- 
nois river,  thus  entering  all  the  townships  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Illinois. 

On  the  farm  of  John  McNabb,  Judge  of  the 
county  at  that  time,  a  town  has  been  established 
and  named  in  honor  of  the  Judge,  McNabb.  The 
Judge  had  much  to  do  in  assisting  the  company 
to  survey  its  right-of-way  across  the  county  and 
had  no  small  influence  with  the  company  in  the 
establishment  of  its  route. 

(iranville,  the  little  staid  village  that  had  a  his- 
tory because  of  its  imique  personality,  in  modern 
phraseology,  was  "help  up"  for  $1,500  that  it 
might  secure  a  station  within  the  village  limits. 

In  securing  the  right-of-way,  the  company  paid 
what  was  at  that  time  considered  a  very  liberal 
price  to  the  farmers  for  their  land,  and  made 
sucli  stipulations  as  were  demanded  as  to  fences, 
farm  crossings,  etc. 

With  the  coming  of  the  railroad  came  a  new 
spirit  of  commercial  interests  to  the  entire  com- 
munity which  is  elaborated  in  the  comments  on 
Granville.  This  road  was  operated  under  its 
charter  until  April  10,  1906,  when  it  was  merged 
with  the  Indiana  Harbor  road  into  a  new  line 
called  the  Chicago,  Indiana  and  Southern  and  be- 
came a  part  of  the  New  York  Central  system. 
This  road  serves  as  an  outer  belt  line  for  Chicago 
as  it  crosses  nearly  every  road  that  runs  into  the 
great  metropolis  and  has  become  a  great  seaboard 
outlet  for  western  freight. 

In  1904  and  1905  a  coal  railroad  that  had  for 
its  purpose  the  connecting  of  the  Devlin  coal  in- 
t  en 'sis  in  Bureau,  Putnam  and  Marshall  counties, 
mas  constructed.  The  southern  point  was  at 
Toluca  on  the  Santa  Fe  railroad  in  the  eastern 
portion  of  Marshall  county.  Its  course  is  to  the 
northwest :  passing  directly  through  the  village  of 
Magnolia,  it  follows  the  timber  line  to  the  west  of 
the  fair  grounds  and  circles  to  the  east  to  McNabb. 
From  this  point  it  parallels  the  Chicago,  Indiana  & 
Southern  until  it  reaches  Granville,  which  point 
at  the  present  time  is  its  northern  terminus,  and 
owing  to  the  financial  failure  of  Charles  J.  Devlin, 


the  promoter,  the  road  has  gone  into  the  hands  of 
a  receiver  and  what  disposition  will  be  made  of 
it  is  not  known.  It  has  furnished  very  convenient 
accommodations  for  the  eastern  side  of  the  county 
and  added  materially  to  the  freight  facilities  of 
the  villages  on  its  line. 

The  Chicago,  Milwaukee  &  St.  Paul  Railroad 
Company,  having  completed  its  own  line  as  far  as 
Seatonville  in  Bureau  county,  eleven  miles  north 
of  Granville,  leased  the  right-of-way  of  the  "Three 
I"  to  McNabb  and  in  1904  began  running  trains 
to  McNabb.  The  St.  Paul  Coal  Company  had  con- 
structed a  spur  from  the  "Three  I"  tracks  in  Gran- 
ville to  their  shaft  half  a  mile  west,  and  owning 
thousands  of  acres  of  coal  lands  in  this  part  of  the 
state,  it  may  easily  be  seen  what  their  object  was 
for  constructing  their  line  into  this  territory. 

In  1906  the  Oglesby  and  Granville  railroad  was 
completed.  This  is  a  short  line  connecting  Gran- 
ville with  the  Illinois  Central  and  the  Chicago, 
Burlington  &  Quincy  at  Oglesby,  LaSalle  county. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  statement  our  previ- 
ous historian  made  as  shown  in  our  quotation,  that 
Putnam  county  is  destitute  of  railrodas  is  no  lon- 
ger true.  Not  only  are  the  roads  named  operating 
and  doing  an  immense  business,  but  there  is  at 
present  a  prospect  of  at  least  two  new  roads  en- 
tering the  county  in  the  near  future;  one  from 
Peoria  follows  the  river,  through  Hennepin  and 
on  the  northeast.  The  other  is  still  "in  the  air" 
and  may  result  in  an  air  line. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
THE    COAL    INDUSTRY. 

Illinois  ranks  first  in  the  Union  in  her  produc- 
tion of  corn  and  her  reputation  as  a  bituminous 
coal  producing  territory  is  rapidly  forging  to  the 
front  as  well.  "The  Coalfields  of  Illinois"  has  be- 
come a  stereotyped  term  in  commercial  parlance. 

The  St.  Paul  Coal  company  which  is  auxiliary 
to  the  St.  Paul  Railroad  company,  having  secured 
thousands  of  acres  of  coal  land  in  Putnam  and 
LaSalle  counties,  sunk  their  first  shaft  in  this 
part  of  the  state  at  Granville  in  1903.  Newspa- 
pers are  the  chroniclers  of  historical  events.  By 
referring  to  the  Granville  "Echo"  files  wre  extract 
the  following  account  of  this  event : 

"A  Red  Letter  Day !  Granville  Coal  Shaft  is 
formally  opened.  June  25th  the  eventful  day. 
With  ceremonies  befitting  the  occasion,  the  St. 
Paul  Coal  Co.  breaks  soil  for  shaft  No.  1. 


110 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


"At  two  o'clock  p.  m.  on  Thursday,  June  25, 
1903,  the  new  mine  of  the  St.  Paul  Coal  Company 
just  west  of  Granville  was  dedicated  with  appro- 
priate ceremonies  improvised  only  a  few  hours  be- 
fore upon  the  announcement  of  Superintendent 
Cherry  that  he  would  begin  to  sink  the  shaft  after 
dinner  on  that  day.  The  Granville  Band  led  the 
procession  from  town. 

"Mr.  C.  B.  Peck,  the  local  head  of  the  coal  com- 
pany had  prepared  a  platform  and  erected  a  pole 
from  which  "Old  Glory"  floated  proudly  to  the 
gentle  breeze.  , 

"Mr.  Peck  introduced  W.  E.  Hawthorne  as  mas- 
ter of  ceremonies,  who  presented  each  number  on 
the  programme  with  short  appropriate  comment: 

Music  Granville  Band 

Quartet Ladies'  Celestial  Choir 

Address George  W.  Hunt 

Turning  of  soil  with  a  golden  spade.  .  .C.  B.  Peck 

Vocal  Selection  Celestial  Quartet 

Remarks C.  B.  Peck 

Music Band 

Address Judge  Martin,  Topeka,  Kan. 

Music Baiid 

"Then  everybody  throw  out  a  shovelful  of  dirt- 
women  and  children,  as  well  as  men — and  the 
ceremonies  were  declared  closed. 

"There  was  a  large  and  enthusiastic  crowd  in 
attendance,  and  everybody  pronounced  the  dedi- 
catory program  a  decided  success." 

During  the  construction  part,  a  great  deal  oi 
speculation  was  entered  into  by  the  citizens  of  the 
county,  as  to  whether  it  would  be  for  the  better- 
ment of  community  life.  The  class  of  people  wiio 
follow  mining  as  a  business,  coming  as  they  do 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  bringing  with 
them  their  customs  and  habits,  introduced  into  the 
Staid  old  community  like  Granville,  produced  a 
revolution  in  social  conditions.  But  our  theme  is 
the  Coal  Industry. 

The  St.  Paul  Company  erected  a  magnificent 
modern  plant  over  their  shaft,  putting  up  brick 
buildings  and  a  steel  tipple.  A  splendid  write-up 
of  the  shaft  at  Granville  in  the  "Black  Diamond" 
the  miners'  journal,  published  in  Chicago,  pro- 
fusely illustrated  and  elaborated  this  mine  as  being 
one  of  the  best  in  the  state. 

The  shaft  does  not  hoist  coal  for  commercial 
purposes.  It  does  supply  the  local  demand  at  the 
shaft  but  its  principal  object  is  to  secure  coal  for 
the  St.  Paul  Railway  Company  which  it  hauls  out 
bv  the  train  load. 


The  company  is  at  present  working  the  third 
vein  which  is  about  500  feet  below  the  surface. 
The  underground  plans  are  modern  in  every  p  >r- 
ticular.  The  main  drives  are  electric  lighted  and 
the  mine  being  a  dry  one  the  works  are  easily 
kept  in  splendid  condition.  The  amount  of  coal 
hoisted  per  man  is  equal  to  the  average  anywhere 
else.  The  capacity  of  the  shaft  when  in  full 
working  operation  is  about  2,000  tons  per  day, 
employing  below  and  about  the  works  from  700  to 
1,000  men. 

The  second  shaft  in  the  county  was  sunk  by  the 
B.  F.  Berry  Coal  Company  two  miles  east  of  Gran- 
ville and  exceeds  the  St.  Paul  shaft  very  litile  in 
size.  The  whole  shaft,  like  No.  1,  is  modern  in  its 
equipment.  No  shacks ;  no  wooden  buildings  exist- 
ing, but  all  their  structures  are  brick  and  steel. 

This  shaft  is  located  on  the  Oglesby  &  Gran- 
ville Railway  and  its  output  goes  to  the  Milwau- 
kee. Prospecting  drilling  having  taken  p'ace  in  a 
number  of  other  places  in  different  portions  of  the 
county  in  Magnolii  ard  Hennepin  townships  and 
also  in  Granville  tov.jiship,  there  is  no  question 
but  what  a  number  of  other  shafts  will  be  sunk 
within  the  next  few  years,  and  Putnam  county 
will  become  celebrated  for  her  coal  fields,  as  the 
quality  of  the  production  is  superior. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

INCIDENTS. 

"A    FOOL    AND    HIS    MONEY   ARE    SOON 
PARTED." 

Of  James  Willis  this  story  is  told:  In  the 
spring  of  1830  he  returned  to  his  former  home  to 
settle  up  some  business  and  on  his  way  stopped 
at  a  wayside  house  of  entertainment,  where  he 
made  the  acquaintance  of  a  traveler,  looking  up, 
as  he  said,  a  location.  As  usual  in  those  days, 
the  men  made  known  their  respective  businesses, 
and  Mr.  Willis  stated  that  he  had  been  quite  suc- 
cessful in  closing  up  his  affairs,  and  was  convey- 
ing home  the  results.  He  had  some  ready  money 
and  proposed  to  improve  his  farm,  and  was  on 
the  lookout  for  a  suitable  man  to  engage.  The 
stranger  listened  with  interest  and  replied  that 
he  thought  some  of  visiting  the  Illinois  country, 
and  that  if  Mr.  Willis  would  giv<j  him  a  job  he 
would  change  his  route  and  accompany  him  home. 
A  bargain  was  easily  made,  and  the  next  morn- 
ing the  two  started  out,  Willis  riding  his  horse 
and  the  stranger  on  foot.  In  this  way  they  passed 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Ill 


the  settlements  and  entered  on  an  extensive  prai- 
rie, Willis  occasionally  giving  his  companion  a 
ride  and  walkjng  himself.  As  they  journeyed 
along  a  deer  sprang  up  and  the  stranger  asked  to 
shoot  it.  His  request  was  granted,  but,  though 
the  chance  was  good,  the  fellow  didn't  fire,  say- 
ing he  couldn't  "get  the  hang  of  the  tarnal  thing." 
Not  long  after  they  again  changed,  Mr.  Willis 
resuming  his  gun.  The  money  was  carried,  be  it 
known,  in  a  pair  of  saddlebags  behind  the  saddle. 
After  mounting  the  stranger  rode  off  leisurely 
but  in  a  gradually  increasing  gait  until  a  suffi- 
cient distance  was  gained,  when  he  raised  his 
hat,  bade  Willis  good-by,  and  rode  off  at  a  gal- 
lop. Willis  brought  his  fusee  to  his  face  and  or- 
dered him  to  stop,  but  the  powder  had  in  the 
meantime  -been  removed  from  the  pan,  and  it 
would  not  go  off.  He  turned  off  the  regular  road 
and  was  soon  lost  to  view.  Willis,  meantime, 
pushed  on  as  hard  as  he  could.  A  dozen  miles  or  so 
ahead  was  a  settlement  where  he  was  known,  and 
a  few  hours  sufficed  to  gather  a  crowd  of  trusty 
men  on  horseback,  and  after  a  sharp  chase  of  thirty 
miles  the  thief  was  turned  over  to  the  sheriff 
of  the  county,  and  Willis  proceeded  homeward. 
There  was  no  jail  in  the  county  and  the  sheriff 
took  his  prisoner  home,  placed  shackles  on  his 
limbs  and  kept  him  in  his  own  house.  The  fellow 
took  the  arrest  quite  coolly,  and  appeared  to  be 
not  at  all  displeased  with  the  arrangement.  It 
was  the  beginning  of  a  hard  winter  and  the  pros- 
pect of  comfortable  quarters  was  not  at  all  dis- 
pleasing. He  read  and  sang  and  played  the  fid- 
dle, and  made  himself  both  agreeable  and  useful. 
Finding  his  landlord's  household  needed  shoe- 
ing, he  made  it  known  that  he  understood  the 
whole  art  6f  cobbling  and  said  that  if  his  enter- 
tainer would  furnish  the  leather  he  would  do  the 
work.  It  was  done,  and  the  good-natured  thief 
made  shoes  for  the  whole  family  while  chained 
by  one  leg  to  his  work  bench.  One  stormy  day 
the  sheriff  was  absent  and  none  about  the  prem- 
ises but  women,  the  cattle  broke  into  the  field 
where  the  corn  was  in  shock  and  the  acommodat- 
ing  fellow  unlocked  his  shackles  with  an  awl, 
drove  them  out,  and  then  replaced  the  irons  on 
his  legs  as  iisual.  Toward  spring  he  grew  uneasy, 
and  as  court  was  about  to  convene,  he  told  his 
entertainers  that  his  health  was  failing,  and  was 
afraid  they  would  have  to  part.  So,  removing 
his  shackles  in  their  absence,  he  left. 


CHIEF  SHABBONA  EXCITED. 

Somewhere  about  1831,  a  minister  named  Jesse 
Hale  came  to  Hennepin  to  establish  a  mission 
among  the  Indians.  He  was  a  man  of  simple 
faith  and  very  earnest,  believing  himself  able  to 
convert  and  civilize  them  if  only  a  hearing  could 
be  obtained.  Old  Louis  Baley  was  sent  for  as 
an  interpreter,  and  the  Indians  came  from  far 
and  near.  Hale  mounted  a  stump  in  the  woods 
below  Hennepin  and  harangued  his  dusky  audi- 
ence for  an  hour.  When  the  interpreter  had  trans- 
lated the  last  sentence  into  the  Pottawatomie  dia- 
lect, old  Shabbona  came  forward  and,  motioning 
silence,  said :  "To  what  white  preacher  say,  I 
say  may  be  so !  Are  all  white  men  good  ?  I  say, 
may  be  so.  Do  white  men  cheat  Indians?  I  say, 
may  be  _so.  Governor  Cole  gave  me,  Shabbona, 
hunting  grounds,  and  told  me  to  hunt.  Your 
big  White-sides  ( Genera.!  Whiteside)  come  along 
and  tell  Shabbona  puck-a-chee  (clear  out)."  Here 
the  angry  chief  exhibited  his  papers  bearing  the 
signature  of  the  governor  and  the  great  seal  of 
the  state,  and,  throwing  them  on  the  ground, 
stamped  them  with  his  feet.  Hale  tried  to  pacify 
the  indignant  chief  by  saying  that  "Whiteside  is 
a  bad  white  man",  whereupon  Shabbona  retorted : 
"If  white  man  steal  Indian's  land,  hang  him." 
Hale  thought  he  meant  himself,  and  he  fled 
through  the  bushes  for  town  and  never  sought  to 
convert  an  Indian  again. 


"QUEEN  ANN"  AND  MOSQUITOES. 

The  year  1849  will  be  remembered  by  the  old 
settlers  for  the  great  prevalence  of  bilious  dis- 
eases. It  was  known- as  the  "sickly  season."  It 
was  ushered  in  by  a  wet,  dismal  spring,  a  back- 
ward summer  and  very  high  water  in  June,  run- 
ning down  in  August  and  leaving  ponds  of  stag- 
nant water  everywhere  to  rot  and  breed  pestilence 
and  death.  Ague  was  universal,  even  far  out  on 
the  pariries  among  the  few  settlements  that  had 
been  attempted  in  the  wilderness  of  grass  and 
sloughs.  Along  the  river,  bottoms  and  the  bor- 
ders of  streams  ague  was  universal,  continual,  un- 
relenting and  incurable;  never  yielding  to  any- 
thing but  its  higher  type  of  bilious  or  intermit- 
tent fever,  either  of  which  in  those  days  very  fre- 
quently ended  the  patient's  career. 

The  people  were  poor  in  every  sense  of  the  word. 


PAST    AM)    IMtKSKNT    OK    MARSHALL    AND    1TTXAM 


Ragged,  shrunken  of  form,  living  skeletons,  with 
nothing  to  eat,  nobody  to  cook  it,  and  not  appetite 
to  eat  if  food  were  cooked.  The  prevailing  mal- 
ady not  only  affected  human  beings,  but  even  dogs 
and  cats  dragged  their  hollow  carcasses  into  the 
sunlight  and  trembled  and  shook  as  if  stricken 
with  the  dread  contagion.  The  calves  got  too 
poor  to  bawl,  the  cattle,  neglected,  roamed  off 
to  the  timber,  and  the  very  chickens  seemed  to 
crow  with  melancholy  languor.  Of  course,  these 
were  exaggerated  descriptions  of  the  general  com- 
plaint, but  several  of  our  old  physicians,  who  were 
then  young  men,  who  went  forth  to  battle  with 
the  universal  malady,  still  instist  that  the  accounts 
cannot  be  overdrawn.  During  the  great  freshet 
in  the  spring  one  or  two  steamboats  and  wrecks 
of  others  were  seen  in  the  cornfields  between  Ot- 
tawa and  Hennepin  t>y  Dr.  Perry,  who  soon  after- 
ward had  occasion  to  note  the  "tallow-faced"  peo- 
ple he  met.  All  were  sallow,  hollow-eyed,  blue- 
lipped  and  ready  to  shake  on  the  slightest  provo- 
cation. Children  died  of  the  fever  and  dys- 
entery, and  quinine,  or  "queen  ann,"  as  they 
called  it,  was  the  staple  diet  of  everybody.  A 
storekeeper  of  a  neighboring  county  said  that  re- 
gion produced  two  articles,  "queen  ann  and  mos- 
quitoes." The  mosquitoes  were  pests  of  the  most 
aggravating  character,  and,  owing  to  the  extent 
of  their  breeding  places  from  the  unusual  over- 
flow and  the  consequent  stagnant  water,  their  in- 
crease favored,  too,  by  a  fiercely  hot  sun,  the 
winged  messengers  of  sharp  bills  swarmed  and 
grew  to  monstrous  proportions,  and  as  the  modern 
appliances  of  screens  and  mosquito  bars  were  un- 
known then,  the  miserable  victims  of  the  double 
affliction  were  defenceless  indeed. 

But  there  is  no  evil  without  its  corresponding 
good.  The  great  floods  drove  the  ducks  out  upon 
the  ponds  in  the  edge  of  the  prairie,  where  they 
reared  large  flocks.  They  swarmed  the  country 
everywhere,  and  became  so  numerous  and  so  ac- 
customed to  the  new  haunts  of  stubble  field  and 
corn  that  the  settlers  had  no  trouble  in  supplying 
themselves  and  neighbors  with  duck  meat  in 
abundance. 


where,  is  told  by  his  descendants.  Previous  to 
his  removal  to  Putnam  county  he  resided  in  Mad- 
ison county,  in  this  state,  where  in  1824  they 
were  greatly  annoyed  by  a  band  of  thievish, 
impudent  Indians,  encamped  in  the  vicinity.  Hav- 
ing previously  sold  their  lands  to  the  government, 
and  consented  to  emigrate  beyond  the  Missis- 
sippi, application  was  made  to  the  Indian  agent, 
who  sent  a  company  of  soldiers  to  order  their 
removal.  The  former  were  few  in  number,  while 
the  Indians  were  well  armed  and  supplied  with 
ammunition,  and  the  advantages  if  force  were 
resorted  to  would  be  all  on  their  side.  In  this 
predicament  a  ruse  suggested  by  Mr.  Durlev  was 
tried  and  proved  entirely  successful.  Accom- 
panied by  his  son  James,  now  of  Hennepin,  he 
rode  over  to  the  Indian  village,  with  the  chief  of 
which  he  was  on  friendly  terms,  and  told  him 
the  purpose  of  the  great  father,  who  had  sent  a 
thousand  warriors  with  orders  to  kill  all  the  In- 
dians who  had  not  left  the  country  as  agreed 
in  their  treaty,  adding  that  in  half  an  hour  they 
would  pass  in  front  of  Sugar  Loaf  hill,  a  small, 
conical  eminence  a  mile  from  the  Indian  village, 
and  near  which  they  were  to  camp.  He  advised 
the  chief  to  leave,  or,  doubting  his  word,  to  hide 
among  the  trees  and  count  the  soldiers. 

Soon  after  the  troops  appeared,  marching  slowly 
in  front  of  the  hill,  and  running  at  full  speed 
on  the  opposite  side,  so  as  to  keep  the  show  in 
front  continuous.  In  this  way  the  duped  chief 
was  deluded  into  counting  thirty  or  forty  men 
over  and  over  until  they  numbered  thousands, 
when  he  broke  for  the  camp,  hastily  packed  his 
ponies,  and  left  helter-skelter  for  the  Mississippi 
river,  followed  by  the  soldiers  at  a  safe  distance 
all  night.  While  crossing  the  Illinois  river  the 
Indians  were  fired  upon  by  the  troops  and  several 
killed.  A  pony  on  which  was  strapped  seven 
little  Indian  children  was  shot  and  its  load  of 
infants  all  drowned. 


DURLEY'S     STRATAGEM— INDIANS     SEE 

DOUBLE. 

One  of  the  first  merchants  of  Hennepin  was 
John  Durlev,  and  the  following  incident  in 
which  he  was  a'n  actor,  though  occurring  else- 


SOAP  AND  WATER  OBJECTIONABLE. 

In  1832  few  settlers  came  into  the  country,  and 
many  who  were  here,  alarmed  at  the  prospect, 
abandoned  their  claims  never  to  return.  After 
the  war  was  over,  a  few  came  in,  among  whom 
were  Isaac  D.  Glenn,  Henry  Hartenbower  and 
Henry  Studyvin.  Also,  Isaac  Ash,  George  Griffith 
and  William  and  Joseph  Hoyle. 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL   AM)    1TTXAM    COCNTIKS. 


113 


Joseph  Hoyle  moved  into  a  cabin  built  by  Mr. 
Gunn,  who  afterwards  moved  to  La  Salle.  It  was 
quite  primitive  in  character,  having  been  built 
during  ihc  Indian  war  excitement  and  had  port 
holes  for  defense.  It  was  sixteen  feet  square 
and  had  a  "shake"  roof  and  the  old-fashioned 
chimney  with  dried  clay  hearth.  Mrs.  Hoyle,  a 
Quakeress,  and,  like  her  friends,  noted  for  clean- 
liness and  tidy  surroundings,  undertook  to  polish 
up  with  soap  and  water  the  clay  hearth,  not  doubt- 
ing that  she  could  make  it  clean  and  white,  \mtil 
it  assumed  the  consistency  of  a  sort  of  mortar  bed, 
when  she  perceived  her  error  and  abandoned  the 
task  with  disgust. 


MAKKIED— UNMARRIED— REMARRIED 
—MUCH  MARRIED. 

In  1833  there  were  eleven  families,  all  told, 
in  Hennepin,  half  a  dozen  marriageable  females 
and  about  forty  eligible  bachelors  and  widowers. 
Of  course  the  former  were  in  great  demand  among 
the  young  settlers  wanting  wives,  but  the  widow- 
ers had  the  inside  track  and  carried  off  the  best 
ones.  In  those  days  an  extensive  trip  and  wed- 
ding outfit  was  not  thought  of,  for  both  parties 
meant  business  and  proceeded  in  a  business  way. 
The  groom  prepared  his  cabin  for  its  new  occu- 
pant and  she,  dressed  in  a  clean  calico  dress, 
with  hair  nicely  combed,  was  ready  for  the  cere- 
mony. Next  the  services  of  a  minister  were 
invoked,  a  few  friends  called  in,  and  a  bountiful 
supper  of  venison  and  johnny  cake  concluded  the 
festivities,  after  which  the  bride  was  conducted 
to  her  new  home  and  their  married  life  began. 
For  ten  years  there  was  a  marked  scarcity  of 
marriageable  women,  and  the  first  indictment  in 
the  county  was  made  against  a  man  for  having 
two  wives.  The  culprit,  a  man  named  Hall,  lived 
in  the  vicinity  of  Hennepin.  in  a  small  cabin, 
and  claimed  to  be  lawfully  married  to  the  two 
.women  with  whom  he  lived,  and  that  his  religious 
views  justified  his  conduct. 

The  jurymen,  who  were  mostly  bachelors, 
thought  it  smacked  too  much  of  monopoly  and 
some  favored  hanging  as  an  example  for  the  fu- 
ture, but  their  advice  was  not  taken. 

What  was  strange  about  it  was  that  the  women 
seemed  satisfied,  and  on  hearing  what  had  been 
done  by  the  grand  jury  voluntarily  followed  their 
much-married  husband  elsewhere. 


AN   EARLY  DAY  HOSPICE. 

Hotel  accommodations  in  183-t  and  1835  were 
not  what  they  are  at  present.  There  was  plenty 
to  eat,  such  as  it  was,  but  French  cooks  had  not 
been  imported  and  cook  books  were  unknown  to 
our  grandmothers.  Hog  and  hominy,  coffee  and 
molasses  were  the  staples,  and  the  traveler  who 
could  not  appreciate  them  after  a  six-hour  jolt 
in  Frank  &  Walker's  "mud  wagons''  was  set  down 
as  "too  nice  for  anything."  For  lodgings,  a 
blanket,  buffalo  robe,  or  a  sheepskin  was  provided, 
and  the  traveler  told  to  select  the  softest  plank 
he  could  find.  As  landlords  increased  in  wealth 
they  increased  their  accommodations,  and  a  sin- 
gle large  room  was  devoted  to  sleeping  purposes, 
filled  with  beds  upon  which  was  a  "shake  down" 
filled  with  prairie  hay  and  a  blanket.  Sheets  were 
a  decided  luxury,  and  it  was  not  "every  hotel" 
that  afforded  them.  The  traveler  was  expected 
to  share  his  bed  with  others,  and  this  custom  of 
the  country  was  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course, 
though  occasionally  some  fine-haired  individual 
objected. 

Captain  Haws,  of  Magnolia,  once  entertained 
a  choleric  fellow  who  claimed  to  be  "a  gentle- 
man" and  said  he  never  in  his  life  slept  with 
anyone  but  his  wife  and  rather  than  do  that  he 
sat  up  all  night.  At  intervals  he  would  groan 
and  wish  himself  out  of  this  barbarous  country, 
to  which  the  unfeeling  lodgers  would  respond 
with  a  hearty  "Amen." 


BIG  "INJUN"  RIDE  OX  COW. 
Indian  boys  affiliated  readily  with  the  whites 
of  their  own  age,  and  joined  heartily  in  the  sports 
common  to  both.  They  were  athletic  and 
"springy,"  but  usually  undersize,  and  could  not 
cope  in  a  fair  rough-and-tumble  with  the  pale 
faces.  They  did  not  easly  take  offense,  but  when 
angered  their  wrath  was  fearful.  Mr.  William 
Gallaher  tells  us  an  amusing  story  of  one  who 
was  his  frequent  playmate.  Mr.  G.'s  business 
was  hauling  logs  with  a  yoke  of  oxen,  one  of 
which,  a  very  quietly  disposed  brute,  he  used  to 
ride,  and  his  mate  was  wild  and  vicious.  The 
Indian  one  day  wished  to  ride  and  G.,  in  a  spirit 
of  mischief,  put  him  on  the  wild  animal,  at  the 
same  time  releasing  him  from  the  yoke.  The  ox 
has  an  instinctive  fear  of  an  Indian,  and,  unused 
to  such  treatment,  he  started  off  at  a  desperate 


114 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


pace,  setting  up  a  bellow  that  infected  every  ani- 
mal on  the  place  with  a  like  frenzy,  and  away 
they  started  in  pursuit.  The  Indian  was  a  good 
rider  and  hung  on  like  grim  death,  while  the  ox 
tore  through  the  fields,  brush  and  briers  until  he 
readied  the  larger  timber,  where  a  projecting  limb 
brushed  off  his  rider,  unhurt.  But  the  Indan 
never  forgave  this  too  practical  joke  and  sought 
to  kill  young  Gallaher,  who  was  careful  ever  after 
to  keep  out  of  his  way. 


CAPTURED  BY  THE  INDIANS. 

Volumes  might  be  written  about  incidents  that 
occurred  during  the  Black  Hawk  war,  which  war 
has  been  dignified  by  special  history  and  not  nec- 
essary to  repeat  here.  Illinois  was-  the  dividing 
line  between  the  settlers  and  the  red  men  and 
while  Putnam  county  was  not  the  battle  ground 
of  the  war,  it  was  on  the  very  borders.  A  simple 
incident  taken  from  "Reminiscences  of  Bureau 
County"  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  experiences 
and  the  exciting  events  of  those  cruel  days.  This 
narrative  of  the  capture  and  escape  of  Rachel 
and  Sylvia  Hall,  personally  narrated  by  the  elder 
sister : 

After  being  placed  on  horseback,  and  guarded 
by  two  Indians  who  rode  by  our  sides,  holding 
onto  the  reins  of  the  bridles,  we  commenced  our 
long  and  tedious  journey.  We  rode  most  of  the 
time  on  a  canter  and  the  Indians  frequently  looked 
back,  as  though  afraid  of  being  followed  by  the 
rangers  who  were  at  that  time  roaming  through  the 
country.  We  continued  to  travel  at  a  rapid  rate 
until  near  midnight,  when  we  halted  to  rest  our 
ponies.  After  waiting  about  two  hours  we  rode 
on,  traveling  all  night,  and  all  the  next  day  until 
noon,  when  we  again  halted.  Here  our  captors 
turned  out  their  horses  to  graze,  built  a  fire, 
scalded  some  beans,  roasted  some  acorns,  of  which 
they  offered  us  some  to  eat,  but  we  declined  tast- 
ing. We  remained  in  camp  a  few  hours;  dur- 
ing that  time  the  Indians  were  engaged  in  dress- 
ing scalps  by  stretching  them  on  small  willow 
hoops.  Among  these  scalps  I  recognized  my 
mother's  by  the  bright  color  of  her  hair.  The 
sight  of  this  produced  in  me  a  faintness  and  I 
fell  to  the  ground  in  a  swoon  from  which  T  was 
soon  after  aroused  in  order  to  continue  our  jour- 
ney. After  leaving  the  camp  we  traveled  more 


leisurely  than  before,  until  about  nine  o'clock  at 
night  we  reached  the  camp  of  Black  Hawk,  after 
having  ridden  near  ninety  miles  in  twenty-eight 
hours. 

We  found  the  Indian  camp  on  the  bank  of  a 
creek,  surrounded  by  marshy  ground  covered  with 
burr  oak  trees,  being,  as  we  afterward  learned, 
near  the  Four  Lakes  (now  Madison  City,  Wis- 
consin). On  our  arrival  in  camp,  a  number  of 
squaws  came  to  our  assistance,  taking  us  from 
our  horses  and  conducting  us  into  a  wigwam. 
These  squaws  were  very  kind  to  us  and  gave  us 
some  parched  corn  and  maple  sugar  to  eat,  it 
being  the  first  food  we  had  tasted  since  our  cap- 
tivity. Our  arrival  in  camp  caused  great  rejoicing 
among  the  Indians.  A  large  number  of  warriors 
collected  around  us  beating  on  drums,  dancing, 
and  yelling  at  the  top  of  their  voices.  Next  morn- 
ing our  fear  of  massacre  or  torture  had  somewhat 
subsided,  and  we  were  presented  with  beans  and 
maple  sugar  for  breakfast.  They  also  offered  us 
coffee  to  eat,  which  had  been  taken  from  Davis' 
house,  not  knowing  that  it  required  to  be  ground 
and  boiled  before  using.  About  ten  o'clock  the 
camp  was  broken  up  and  we  moved  five  or  six 
miles,  crossing  a  creek,  and  encamped  on  high 
ground  which  was  covered  with  timber.  We  were 
provided  with  horses  to  ride  and  behind  us  was 
packed  camp  equipage  which  consisted  of  tents, 
kettles,  provisions,  etc.  On  arriving  at  our  new 
camp  a  white  birch  pole  was  stuck  into  the  ground, 
on  which  the  scalps  of  our  murdered  friends  were 
hung,  being  exhibited  here  as  trophies  of  the  war. 
About  fifty  warriors,  with  faces  painted  red  and 
divested  of  their  clothing,  danced  around  this  pole 
to  the  music  of  drums  and  rattling  gourds.  Every 
day  during  our  stay  this  pole  with  the  scalps  was 
erected  and  the  dance  was  repeated. 

One  morning  a  party  of  warriors  came  to  our 
camp  and  took  us  out,  placing  in  our  hands  small 
red  flags,  and  made  us  march  around  the  encamp- 
ment with  them,  stopping  to  wave  the  flags  at  the. 
door  of  every  wigwam.  After  this'we  were  taken 
to  the  dance  ground  beside  the  scalp  pole,  by  the 
side  of  which  a  blanket  was  spread.  After  paint- 
ing our  faces,  one  half  red  and  the  other  half 
black,  we  were  made  to  lie  down  on  the  blanket 
with  our  faces  on  the  ground.  The  warriors  then 
commenced  dancing  around  us,  flourishing  their 
tomahawks  and  war  clubs  over  our  heads  and 
yelling  like  demons.  We  now  thought  our  timf 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


115 


had  come  and  waited  our  fate  quietly,  expecting 
every  minute  to  be  our  last.  When  the  dance 
was  over,  we  were  taken  away  by  two  squaws, 
\\hinii  we  understood  to  be  the  wives  of  Black 
Hawk.  By  these  squaws  we  were  adopted  as  their 
children;  although  separated,  we  were  allowed  to 
visit  each  other  frequently.  Every  day  our  camp 
was  moved,  always  traveling  in  a  circular  route. 
Along  the  trail  at  short  intervals  the  Indians 
would  erect  poles  with  tufts  of  grass  tied  on  one 
side  to  show  the  hunters  in  what  direction  the 
camp  could  be  found.  Our  fears  of  massacre  had 
entirely  disappeared,  being  adopted  into  the  fam- 
ilies of  these  squaws,  not  being  required  to  work, 
but  being  watched  closely  to  prevent  our  escape. 

Some  days  after  our  arrival  at  Black  Hawk's 
camp  we  were  told  that  we  must  go  with  two  Win- 
nebago  chiefs  who  had  come  for  us.  The  squaws 
with  whom  we  lived  were  greatly  distressed  at 
the  thought  of  parting  with  us.  The  Winnebago 
chiefs  tried  to  make  us  understand  that  they  were 
taking  us  to  white  people,  but  we  did  not  believe 
them.  Thinking  they  intended  to  take  us  further 
from  home  and  friends,  we  clung  to  the  squaws 
and  refused  to  go. 

Contrary  to  our  wish,  we  were  placed  on  horses, 
behind  each  of  the  chiefs,  and  with  us  they  gal- 
loped away,  traveling  twenty  miles  that  same 
night.  The  chiefs  said  they  were  afraid  of  being 
followed  by  some  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  who  were 
displeased  at  our  departure.  Every  few  minutes 
the  cliiefs  would  look  back  to  see  if  they  were 
pursued,  and  would  then  whip  their  ponies  into 
a  gallop. 

Some  time  after  dark  we  arrived  at  the  Winne- 
bago camp,  where  we  remained  over  night.  Early 
the  next  morning  we  continued  our  journey,  trav- 
eling all  day,  when  we  arrived  at  an  encampment 
on  the  Wisconsin  river,  where  there  were  about  a 
hundred  warriors.  During  the  next  day  a  party 
of  Sac  Indians,  dressed  in  the  clothes  of  mur- 
dered white  men,  came  into  camp.  These  Indians 
commenced  talking  to  us,  but  the  Winnebago 
chiefs  told  us  to  turn  away  from  them  and  not 
listen  to  what  they  said,  which  we  did.  ("It  was 
afterwards  ascertained  that  a  petty  chief  who 
had  captured  the  girls  was  off  on  a  hunt  at  the 
time  the  girls  were  given  to  the  Winnebago  chiefs, 
and.  not  receiving  his  portion  of  the  ransom,  im- 
mediately started  off  with  a  party  of  warriors  to 
retake  them  or  kill  them  in  the  attempt.  These 


warriors  did  not  overtake  the  girls  until  they  ar- 
rived safe  at  the  Winnebago  camp.") 

White  Crow  asked  us  if  we  thought  the  whites 
would  hang  them  if  they  took  us  to  the  fort.  We 
gave  them  to  understand  that  they  would  not. 
White  Crow  then  collected  horses  and  with  Whirl- 
ing Thunder  and  about  twenty  Winnebagoes  we 
crossed  the  river  and  pursued  our  journey,  my  sis- 
ter and  myself,  each  on  a  different  horse.  We  en- 
camped about  dark,  rose  early  the  next  morning, 
and  after  a  hasty  meal  of  pork  and  potatoes  (the 
first  we  had  seen  since  our  captivity)  of  which 
we  ate  heartily,  we  traveled  on  until  we  reached 
the  fort  near  Blue  Mounds,  Wisconsin  territory. 

Before  our  arrival  there  we  had  become  satisfied 
that  our  protectors  were  taking  us  to  our  friends 
and  that  we  had  done  them  injustice.  About  three 
miles  from  the  fort  we  stopped,  and  the  Indians 
cooked  some  venison,  after  which  they  took  a  white 
handkerchief  which  I  had,  and  tying  it  to  a  long 
pole,  three  Indians  proceeded  with  it  to  the  fort. 
About  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  there,  we  Avere  met 
by  a  Frenchman.  The  Indians  formed  a  ring  and 
the  Frenchman  rode  into  it  and  had  a  talk  with  our 
protectors.  The  latter  expressed  an  unwillingness 
to  give  us  up  until  they  had  seen  Mr.  Gratiot,  the 
agent.  Being  informed  by  the  Frenchman  that  we 
should  be  well  treated,  and  that  they  should  see  us 
daily  until  Mr.  Gratiot's  return  they  delivered  us 
into  the  Frenchman's  care. 

We  repaired  immediately  to  the  fort,  where  the 
ladies,  who  had  in  the  meantime  assembled,  re- 
ceived us  with  the  utmost  tenderness.  We  were 
thereupon  attired  once  more  in  the  costume  of  our 
own  country  and  next  day  started  for  Galena. 

On  reaching  a  little  spring  at  White  Oak 
Springs  we  were  met  by  our  eldest  brother,  who, 
together  with  a  younger  one,  was  at  work  in  the 
field  near  the  house  •  where  we  were  captured  and 
who,  when  the  massacre  began,  fled  and  arrived  in 
safety  at  Dixon's  Ferry.  On  leaving  Galena,  we 
went  on  board  the  steamboat  '"Winnebago"  for  St. 
Louis,  which  place  we  reached  in  five  days  and 
were  kindly  received  by  the  citizens  and  hospitably 
entertained  by  Governor  Clark.  Previous  to  our 
leaving  Galena  we  had  received  an  affectionate 
letter  from  Rev.  Mr.  Horn  of  Morgan  county, 
Illinois,  inviting  us  to  make  his  house  our  future 
home.  We  accepted  the  invitation  and  left  St. 
Louis  in  the  steamboat  Caroline,  for  Beardstown 
on  the  Illinois  river,  where  we  arrived  on  the  third 


116 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


day  thereafter.  On  landing,  we  were  kindly  re- 
ceived by  the  citizens  and  in  a  few  hours  reached 
the  residence  of  Mr.  Horn,  five  miles  distant,  in 
the  latter  part  of  July,  1832,  when  our  troubles 
ended. 

A  brother  of  the  Hall  sisters,  having  married 
and  settled  in  Putnam  county,  invited  his  sisters 
to  come  and  reside  with  him.  They  did  so  in  the 
forepart  of  August,  1832.  The  elder  Miss  Hall 
afterward  married  William  Munson,  and  the 
younger  sister  in  May,  1833,  married  William 
Horn,  a  son  of  the  clergyman  who  had  so  kindly 
offered  them  a  home  in  his  family,  removed  to 
Morgan  county  and  then  to  Nebraska. 

The  Hall  sisters  were  captured  May  21,  1832. 
According  to  foregoing  account,  they  were  three 
days  in  traveling  with  their  captors  and  continued 
five  days  with  the  Sacs  at  their  camp.  This  would 
bring  the  time  up  to  May  29.  They  were  five 
days  more  in  traveling  with  the  Winiiebagoes  to 
the  Blue  Mounds  which  comports  with  all  the  reli- 
able statements  of  the  time  of  their  being  deliv- 
ered up  to  the  whites  which  was  June  3,  1832. 

William  Munson,  who  became  the  husband  of 
Rachel  Hall,  a  few  years  ago,  erected  a  beautiful 
marble  monument  at  the  grave  where  the  fifteen 
victims  were  buried.  It  is  in  view  of  the  public 
road  leading  from  north  to  south  in  Freedom 
township,  near  the  banks  of  Indian  Creek  and  the 
scene  of  the  massacre.  The  inscriptions  are: 
First— "William  Hall,  aged  45;  Mary  J.  Hall, 
aged  45 ;  Elizabeth  Hall,  aged  8."  Second— "Wil- 
liam Pettigrew,  wife,  and  two  children, Davis, 

wife  and  five  children." 

At  the  bottom  :    "Killed  May  20,  1832." 

Mrs.  Munson  (Rachel  Hall)  died  May  1,  1870. 


WOLVES  AND  DEATH. 

In  the  summer  of  1833,  a  Mr.  Hale,  living  south 
of  Beckwiths,  lost  a  child  and  the  sympathizing 
nughbcrs  came  over  to  sit  up  with  the  corpse  and 
comfort  the  bereaved  family.  The  father,  too,  was 
lying  very  low  and  nobody  about  but  women, 
when  a  pack  of  wolves  made  daring  by  hunger  and 
doubtless  scenting  the  dead  child,  came  to  the 
house  and  began  to  howl.  They  got  benoulh  the 
floor,  and  scratched  at  the  doors  seemingly  de- 
termined to  get  inside.  The  women  were  greatly 
terrified  and  threw  blazing  brands  of  firewood  to 


drive  them  away.  Mrs.  Beckwith,  who  narrated 
this,  says  it  was  the  most  dreadful  night  she  ever 
experienced. 

Another  instance  related  is  of  a  young  mother 
who  was  left  alone  with  a  sick  babe.  The  cabin 
had  no  windows,  and  the  only  door  was  a  blanket 
hung  before  the  opening.  During  the  night  her 
babe  died  and  then  began  the  awfulest  uproar  out- 
side imaginable.  A  gang  of  twenty  or  more  wolves 
appeared  and  seemed  determined  to  force  an  en- 
trance. The  mother's  fears  were  for  her  dead 
babe  which  she  wrapped  in  blankets  and  placed 
upon  a  beam  overhead  and  then  barricaded  the 
door  with  a  table.  Throughout  the  long  and 
dreadul  night  the  poor  woman  stood  against  the 
frail  protection  through  which  the  infuriated 
beasts  outside  tried  to  force  an  entrance.  Morning 
came  at  last  and  during  the  day  her  husband  re- 
turned and  friends  came  to  assist  in  the  burial. 


JAIL  BURNED. 

The  Hennepin  jail  was  set  on  fire  and  burned 
down  September  27,  1842.  A  fellow  named  Fred- 
erick was  confined  in  it  for  burglary,  having 
broken  open  the  store  of  Pulsifer  Company  and 
stolen  valuable  goods,  or  which  he  was  under  in- 
dictment. It  was  built  of  brick  at  a  cost  of  $3,000 
and  was  lined  with  heavy  timbers,  and  supposed 
to  be  burglar  proof.  While  the  jail  was  burning 
the  prisoner  was  placed  in  the  Court  House  for 
safety,  but  gave  his  guard  the  slip  and  escaped. 
The  enraged  tax-payers,  .however,  hunted  him 
down  and  kept  him  safe  until  his  trial. 


IT    PAYS    TO   PRAY. 

Among  many  reminiscences  that  Amos  T.  Pur- 
viance  recited  to  the  writer  was  one  narrating 
how  Oakes  Turner  secured  a  teacher  for  his  rural 
school. 

One  of  the  grade  teachers  in  the  Henr.epin 
school  was  a  very  devout  young  woman  who  de- 
voted a  great  deal  of  time  to  opening  exercises  of 
a  religious  character.  The  good  people  of  the  dis- 
trict were  not  opposed  to  the  nature  of  her  ex- 
ercises, but  objected  to  taking  so  much  time  from 
the  real  object  of  the  school.  Finally  the  matter 
became  so  distressing  that  the  Board  requested  her 
to  limit  her  devotions  to  a  reasonable  length  of 
time.  The  teacher  asserted  that  it  was  a  matter 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OP   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


117 


of  conscience  with  her  and  that  pray  she  must, 
though  the  children  never  got  out  of  her  grade. 
Fnally  she  was  requested  to  resign,  which  she  did 
at  once. 

Oakes  Turner,  was  a  director  in  an  adjoining 
district  and  on  hearing  that  this  superior  teacher 
had  quit  at  Hennepin,  jumped  astride  his  horse 
and  was  at  the  teacher's  door  before  breakfast  the 
next  morning.  He  briefly  stated  his  mission,  to 
which  the  lady  replied,  "Do  you  know,  Mr.  Tur- 
ner, why  I  ha  ve^  quit  here?  I  can  not  do  good 
work  without  first  invoking  God's  guidance  and 
blessing  on  the  work  in  hand."  To  which  Mr. 
Turner  replied,  "Oh,  that's  all  right,  you  just 
come  and  teach  our  school  and  you  can  pray  all 
you  damned  please ;  it  won't  make  a  bit  of  differ- 
ence to  us." 

She  went,  she  prayed,  she  succeeded. 


LOU  DODSON'S  AUTOMOBILE. 

The  great  proverb  writer  states  that  there  is 
no  new  thing  under  the  sun.  In  these  modern 
days  of  telegraphy,  telephone,  wired  and  wireless, 
electric  and  aerial  transportation,  photophoney 
and  a1'  the  wonderful  discoveries  and  inventions 
of  science,  we  are  apt  to  believe  that  we  are  liv- 
ing in  the  golden  age,  and  all  these  things  are 
new  under  the  sun.  Men  are  now  living  in  Put- 
nam county  who  could  tell  us  that  in  1848  Mag- 
nolia township,  near  the  present  site  of  the  Qua- 
ker meeting  house,  an  inventive  genius  by  the 
name  of  Lou  Dodson  made  an  automobile  whose 
motive  power  was  air,  and  whose  machine  ran 
nicely  in  the  open,  making  modem  time  speed 
until  his  steering  apparatus  gave  way,  depositing 
him  in  the  middle  of  a  big  pond,  where  his  in- 
vention remained  all  summer. 

Four  years  previous  to  Dodson's  experience  John 
Ham  ran  a  traction  engine  through  the  streets 
of  Magnolia,  and  yet,  thirty  years  afterward, 
when  engines  came  into  use  for  threshing  purposes, 
they  hauled  them  from  farm  to  farm  by  horse 
power,  demonstrating  that  mechanical  invention 
has  not  been  confined  to  any  one  age. 


between  Henry  and  Peru.  In  the  winter  time 
when  the  river  is  frozen  over  teams  cross  on  the 
ice,  but  in  the  high  water  time  no  crossing  is  af- 
fected except  by  skiff.  Hennepin  gets  her  mail 
from  the  Rock  Island  railroad  at  Bureau  Junc- 
tion by  hack.  During  the  high  water  season  the 
mail  carrier  uses  a  skiff.  In  the  spring  of  1906 
two  men,  Percy  McWhorter,  a  grain  buyer,  and 
Elaine  Jenkins,  a  drug  clerk,  volunteered  to  go 
after  the  mail  since  Hennepin  had  been  for  sev- 
eral days  without  any.  William  Bentley,  son  of 
Richard  Bentley  of  Hennepin,  who  was  living  in 
Chicago,  desired  transportation  across  the  river 
from  Bureau  to  Hennepin.  These  three  men,  with 
several  sacks  of  mail  and  some  packages  of  ex- 
press, braved  the  waters  of  the  Illinois;  but  not 
one  of  them  reached  Hennepin  to  tell  the  story 
of  their  sad  fate.  For  forty-eight  hours  excite- 
ment reigned  in  the  quiet  village.  The  floating 
skiff  and  the  mail  pouches  and  hats  indicated 
where  the  tragedy  had  occurred  and  in  due  time 
the  bodies  were  all  recovered  and  a  triple  funeral 
took  place, 

In  the  fall  of  the  same  year  a  team  in  trans- 
portation upon  the  ferry  took  fright  and  dashed 
off  the  boat,  taking  the  faithful  old  ferry  horse 
with  them.  Two  horses  were  drowned  and  the 
driver  barely  escaped  with  his  life,  and  yet  Hen- 
nepin continues  to  get  her  mail  from  Bureau  with 
a  railroad  station  equally  as  close  in  Hennepin 
township — Moronts. 


TRAGEDY  NEAR  HENNEPIN. 

No  bridge  has  ever  spanned  the  river  at  Hen- 
nepin. Until  the  establishment  of  Spring  Valley, 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  there  was  no  crossing 


PRESENT  GENERAL  CONDITION. 
The  general  condition  of  Putnam  county  at  the 
present  writing,  socially,  morally  and  financially 
is  that  of  an  intelligent  and  prosperous  people. 
Cosmopolitan  in  the  extreme,  we  have  Swedish 
settlements,  German  communities,  Polish  neigh- 
borhoods, Irish  vicinities  in  the  country;  and  in 
the  villages,  particularly  in  Granville  township,  all 
tongues  and  nations  mingle  and  co-mingle  in  po- 
litical, social,  fraternal  and  religious  relationship. 
As  a  farming  community  Putnam  county  is 
strictly  in  the  advance  rank.  Very  few  farms  in 
the  county  but  what  are  connected  by  mutual  tele- 
phone systems  with  the  centers  of  population,  and 
the  establishing  of  the  rural  free  mail  delivery 
brings  them  in  close  touch  with  the  world  at 
large.  Especial  attention  is  being  paid  to  the 


118 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


improvement  of  highways.  In  Hennepiu  and 
Senachwine  townships  all  the  main  roads  are 
thoroughly  graveled.  In  the  other  townships 
which  have  more  prairie  roads  much  attention  is 
being  given  to  graveling,  and  eventually  the 
whole  county  will  be  one  network  of  graveled 
highways.  The  coming,  of  the  consolidation  of 
schools  and  the  introduction  of  automobiles  by  the 
farmers  themselves  demand  a  better  condition  of 
the  public  thoroughfares.  Since  the  enlargement 


of  the  home  market  the  farmers  no  longer  haul 
their  produce  out  of  the  community  and  the  ten- 
dency is  to  make  permanent  public  improvements. 
Theje  is  no  state  institution  in  this  county,  but 
the  developments  of  the  last  decade  are  causing 
public  attention  from  without  and  Putnam  coun- 
ty is  destined  to  take  her  proper  rank  among  the 
counties  of  the  state  justified  by  her  advanced 
condition  in  all  things  that  make  for  an  intelli- 
gent and  progressive  citizenship. 


BIOGRAPHICAL. 


EGBERT  BOAL,  M.  D. 

Dr.  Robert  Boal  was  born  in  Dauphin  county. 
Pennsylvania,  November  15,  1806,  and  died  in 
Lacon,  Illinois,  June  12,  1902,  in  the  ninety- 
seventh  year  of  his  age.  The  long  life  allotted 
him  was  characterized  by  a  noble  use  of  the  talents 
with  which  nature  had  endowed  him  and  in  all 
life's  relations  he  was  found  faultless  in  honor, 
fearless  in  conduct  and  stainless  in  reputation. 
He  was  descended  from  Scotch-Irish  ancestry.  The 
comparatively  early  death  of  his  parents,  Thomas 
and  Elizabeth  (Creain)  Boal,  led  him  to  become  a 
member  of  the  family  of  his  uncle,  Robert  Boal 
who  was  a  resident  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  to  which 
city  Dr.  Boal  had  accompanied  his  parents  on  their 
removal  in  1811.  His  early  education,  acquired  in 
the  public  schools,  was  supplemented  by  study- 
in  the  Cincinnati  Literary  College  and  a  natural 
predilection  for  the  science  and  practice  of  medi- 
cine led  him  to  become  a  student  in  the  Ohio  Med- 
ical College,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1828 
being  at  the  time  of  his  death  its  oldest  alumnus 
Throughout  his  life  he  remained  a  student  not, 
only  of  his  profession  but  of  general  literature,  the 
drama  and  history  as  well,  and  at  the  same  time 
keeping  abreast  with  the  trend  of  modern  thought 

In  1834  Dr.  Boal  made  a  tour  of  central  Illi- 
nois and  in  1836  removed  from  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
to  Columbia,  now  Lacon,  Illinois,  where  he  en- 
gaged in  the  practice  of  medicine  for  almost  three 
decades.  In  1865  he  removed  to  Peoria,  Illinois 
where  he  continued  in  active  practice  for  twenty- 
seven  years.  He  retired  from  active  connection 
with  the  profession  after  a  service  of  sixty-five 


years  and  in  1893  returned  to  Lacon.  In  his  pro- 
fession he  attained  much  more  than  local  repu- 
tation. He  was  a  member  of  the  American  Medi- 
cal Association,  the  Illinois  State  Medical  Society, 
the  Peoria  City  Medical  Society  and  an  honorary 
member  of  the  North  Central  Medical  Association. 
Not  only  did  he  use  these  connections  to  keep 
him  in  touch  with  the  onward  march  of  progress 
in  the  practice  of  medicine  and  surgery,  but  inde- 
pendently he  carried  on  his  researches  and  investi- 
gations and  bis  native  intellectual  force  proved 
perhaps  the  most  potent  element  in  his  success  as 
a  physician  and  surgeon — a  success  which  in  the 
course  of  years  won  him  the  recognition  of  his 
brethren  of  the  medical  fraternity  and  gained  him 
that  measure  of  prosperity  which  is  the  legiti- 
mate reward  of  earnest,  persistent,  conscientious 
effort.  He  was  one  of  the  incorporators  and  di- 
rectors of  the  Cottage  Hospital  of  Peoria,  and  he 
found  occasion  to  utilize  his  professional  knowl- 
edge in  connection  with  other  public  service. 

Coming  into  full  possession  of  his  developed 
powers  and  talents  at  the  most  momentous  period 
in  the  history  of  the  country  since  the  establish- 
ment of  the  republic,  Dr.  Boal  naturally  wielded 
a  wide  influence  over  public  thought  and  action. 
He  did  not  seek  fame  in  political  circles,  but 
was  a  student  of  the  burning  questions  of  th( 
hour  and  possessed  a  statesman's  grasp  of  the 
issues  which  arose.  In  1844  he  was  elected  to 
the  state  senate  and  was  active  in  securing  the 
passage  of  the  bill  for  the  completion  of  the 
Illinois  and  Michigan  canal,  also  the  law  for  thr 
creation  of  the  Illinois  Hospital  for  the  Insane 


122 


PAST   AND   PEESENT   OF   MAESHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


at  Jacksonville.  In  1854  he  was  elected  to  the 
house  of  representatives  and  at  the  session  of  1855 
voted  for  Abraham  Lincoln  for  United  States  sen- 
ator, continuing  thus  to  cast  his  ballot  until  per- 
sonally requested  by  Mr.  Lincoln  to  vote  for  Ly- 
man  Trumbull,  who  was  then  elected.  In  1856 
Dr.  Boal  was  again  chosen  to  represent  his  district 
in  the  house  and  was  chairman  of  the  joint  com- 
mittee of  the  senate  and  the  house  to  investigate 
the  condition  of  the  public  institutions  for  the 
insane,  the  blind  and  the  deaf  and  dumb  at 
Jacksonville.  The  committee  found  that  an  al- 
most chaotic  condition  existed,  so  reporting  in  the 
session  of  1857  and  recommending  the  reduction 
of  the  number  of  the  trustees  of  each  institution 
and  suggesting  that  not  more  than  one  should 
be  appointed  from  any  county  in  the  state.  The 
report  was  practically  embodied  in  a  bill  which 
passed  and  became  a  law.  In  1857,  upon  the  ad- 
journment of  the  legislature,  Dr.  Boal  was  ap- 
pointed a  trustee  of  the  deaf  and  dumb  institu- 
tion by  Governor  Bissell  and  thus  served  for  sev- 
enteen years  through  appointment  of  Governors 
Yates,  Oglesby,  Palmer  and  Beveridge,  acting  as 
president  of  the  board  during  the  last  five  years 
In  this  connection  his  professional  knowledge  ren- 
dered his  service  of  the  utmost  benefit.  In  1862 
Dr.  Boal  was  appointed  surgeon  of  the  board 
of  enrollment  for  the  fifth  congressional  district 
comprising  seven  counties,  and  so  continued  until 
the  close  of  the  war  in  1865,  during  which  period 
he  examined  nearly  five  thousand  volunteers  and 
drafted  men,  a  large  majority  of  whom  "went  to 
the  front." 

Beared  in  the  faith  of  the  Presbyterian  clmrch 
Dr.  Boal  afterward  became  a  communicant  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  church,  his  connection  there- 
with continuing  until  his  demise.  About  1893  he 
returned  from  Peoria  to  his  old  home  in  Lacon 
and  his  closing  years  were  spent  with  his  daugh- 
ter. His  married  life  covered  a  period  of  more 
than  a  half  century.  In  Beading,  Ohio,  May  12 
1831,  he  wedded  Christiana  Walker  Sinclair,  who 
was  of  Scotch  descent.  Their  family  numbered 
two  sons  and  a  daughter.  The  elder  son,  Charles 
T.  Boal,  has  for  more  than  forty  years  been  F 
resident  of  Chicago.  The  younger  son,  James 
Sinclair  Boal,  died  in  that  city  while  the  in- 
cumbent in  the  office  of  the  United  States  assistant 
district  attorney,  in  which  position  he  had  served 
for  ten  years.  The  only  daughter  is  Mrs.  Clara  B 


Fort,  the  widow  of  the  late  Colonel  G.  L.  Fort, 
and  the  years  of  his  retirement,  spent  with  his 
daughter  and  a  grandson  bearing  his  name,  were 
surpassingly  serene  and  happy.  Caring  naught 
for  fame  nor  honors  for  their  own  sake,  his  life 
was  a  life  of  service  given  to  his  fellowmen.  It 
was  exceptional  not  only  in  the  count  of  its  years, 
but  in  its  breadth  and  fullness  and  the  beneficent 
activities  with  which  it  was  crowned.  In  his  state 
he  was  connected  with  events  which  have  left  an 
indelible  impress  upon  the  history  of  the  common- 
wealth. In  his  profession  his  ability  advanced  him 
far  beyond  mediocrity  and  gained  him  the  recog- 
nition of  the  ablest  members  of  the  medical  fra- 
ternity in  Illinois,  and  yet  in  his  long  professional 
career  the  motive  spring  of  his  service  was  his 
broad  humanitarianism  and  his  desire  to  do  the 
utmost  possible  for  his  fellowmen.  Perhaps  the 
best  characterization  and  summary  of  the  life  of 
Dr.  Boal  has  been  given  by  Dr.  J.  H.  Morron,  who 
said  of  him,  "A  learned  and  skillful  physician,  Dr. 
Boal  was  also  a  distinguished  citizen — one  of  the 
founders  of  the  party  which  for  the  last  forty 
years  has  dominated  and  shaped  our  national  af- 
fairs, and  to  which  belongs  the  glory  of  our  eman- 
cipation, reconstruction  and  expansion  politics. 
His  patriotism  was  kindled  while  yet  a  child,  amid 
the  fires  of  the  war  of  1812,  and  continued  intense 
and  burning  to  the  last.  He  was  a  man  of  remark- 
able balance  and  poise,  free  from  eccentricity  and 
warp — firm  without  obstinacy,  gentle  without 
weakness,  sane  and  vigorous  in  every  faculty.  He 
was  familiar  not  merely  with  the  science  of  his 
profession,  but  with  general  literature,  and  his 
capacious  and  keen  mind  was  stored  with  varied 
and  enriching  knowledge.  He  wrote  with  rare 
clearness,  force  and  elegance,  and  has  left  behind 
papers  of  permanent  value.  But  above  everything 
else  was  the  man  himself — his  refinement  of  na 
ture,  his  sterling  character,  his  cultivated  gracious 
manners,  his  sincerity  and  loyalty,  his  geniality, 
kindness  and  universal  good  will." 


COLONEL  GEEENBUEY  L.  FOET. 
Colonel  Greenbury  L.  Fort,  of  Lacon,  who  de- 
parted this  life  January  13,  1883,  was  for  a  long 
period  a  member  of  the  Marshall  county  bar  and 
left  the  impress  of  his  individuality,  clear  under- 
standing and  masterful  grasp  of  problems  upon 
the  law-making  bodies  of  state  and  nation.  Time 


PAST    AND    PHKSKXT    OK    MAKSllAI/L   AND    ITTNAM    COT  Ml  IIS. 


tests  the  merit  of  all  things,  and  while  Colonel 
Fort  in  his  modesty  to  a  large  degree  shunned 
fame  and  prominence,  subsequent  events  have 
proven  the  clearness  of  his  conception  and  the 
breadth  of  his  wisdom  in  regard  to  legislative 
measures  which  have  had  direct  and  beneficial  ef- 
fect upon  the  history  of  the  country.  A  native  of 
Ohio,  he  was  born  in  French  Grant,  Scioto  county 
near  Portsmouth,  October  17,  1825,  and  was  de- 
scended from  a  family  which  in  its  lineal  and  col- 
lateral branches  has  been  distinctively  American 
through  many  generations.  His  first  ancestor  in 
this  country  was  Koger  Fort,  born  about  1675 
at  Pemberton,  Burlington  county,  New  Jersey 
There  are  now  three  distinct  branches  of  the  fam- 
ily in  the  United  States —  in  New  Jersey,  Illinois 
and  Georgia.  Family  records  show  that  a  large 
percentage  of  the  Forts  have  been  professional 
men  and  that  they  have  been  represented  in  every 
American  war. 

In  his  early  boyhood  days  Greenbury  Fort  ac- 
companied his  parents  to  Marshall  county,  Illinois 
where  the  family  home  was  established  amid  pion- 
eer surroundings  in  April,  1834.  He  assisted  in 
the  arduous  task  of  developing  new  land  and 
improved  the  educational  opportunities  afforded 
him,  supplementing  a  public  school  coarse  by  study 
in  the  Rock  River  Seminary.  The  years  of  his 
early  manhood  were  devoted  to  teaching  school  and 
reading  law,  and  following  his  admission  to  the 
bar  in  1860  he  presented  his  first  brief  in  Wood- 
ford  county  court,  where  Senator  David  Davis 
was  judge  and  Abraham  Lincoln  the  opposing 
counsel.  His  clientage  soon  became  large  and 
of  a  distinctively  representative  character.  Thor- 
oughness was  ever  one  of  his  salient  characteristics 
and  was  manifest  in  his  preparation  of  a  case  and 
its  presentation  before  the  court. 

Allied  with  the  whig  party  from  the  time  when 
age  gave  to  him  the  right  of  franchise,  he  became 
a  recognized  leader  in  the  ranks  of  the  party  and 
was  first  called  to  office  in  1850  by  election  to  the 
position  of  sheriff.  He  served  successively  as 
county  clerk,  county  attorney  and  county  judge 
being  elected  to  the  last  named  position  in  1857 
The  following  year  he  was  married,  on  the  25th 
of  May,  to  Miss  Clara  E.  Boal,  a  daughter  of 
Dr.  Robert  Boal,  and  entered  upon  a  home  lif^ 
which  was  largely  ideal. 

He  continued  in  practice  until  April,  1861, 
when  he  responded  to  the  first  call  for  volunteers 


enlisting  for  three  months'  service.  He  had  been 
a  close  student  of  the  momentous  questions  which 
led  up  to  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  and  his  course 
was  based  upon  well  formulated  opinions,  result- 
ing from  a  comprehensive  understanding  of  the 
existing  conditions.  He  was  chosen  lieutenant  of 
Company  B,  Eleventh  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry 
and  on  the  expiration  of  his  term  returned  home 
and  recruited  another  company,  of  which  he  was 
chosen  captain.  He  took  the  men  to  the  front  at 
his  own  expense  and  entered  active  field  service. 
Following  the  battle  of  Fort  Donelson,  in  which  he 
participated,  he  was  appointed  quartermaster  by 
President  Lincoln,  a  position  of  great  trust  in- 
volving the  success  of  movements  in  the  field  of 
the  utmost  importance.  He  served  in  the  Army 
of  the  Tennessee  on  field  and  staff  duty  and  was 
chief  quartermaster  of  the  Fifteenth  Army  Corps 
on  the  march  to  the  sea.  After  the  grand  review 
in  Washington  he  was  ordered  to  Texas  and  re- 
mained in  the  service  until  mustered  out  at  Gal- 
veston  with  the  rank  of  colonel,  in  the  spring  of 
18G6. 

Following  his  return  home  Colonel  Fort  resumed 
the  practice  of  law,  but  was  soon  called  again  to 
public  life,  being  elected  to  the  Illinois  state  sen- 
ate in  1866.  In  1872  he  was  elected  to  congress, 
re-elected  in  1874,  in  1876  and  1878.  Refusing 
longer  to  serve,  he  retired  to  private  life.  His 
most  important  public  service  was  in  connection 
with  the  solution  of  the  resumption  problem  and 
to  him  was  due  the  remonetization  of  silver.  With 
a  mind  trained  in  the  severest  school  of  investi- 
gation and  to  which  close  reasoning  had  become 
habitual  and  easy,  he  took  up  the  study  of  the 
money  question  and  time  has  vindicated  his  posi- 
tion and  proven  his  keen  foresight. 

Refusing  to  serve  longer  in  the  legislative  halls 
of  the  nation  he  returned  to  his  home  in  Lacon 
concentrating  his  energies  upon  his  private  busi^ 
ness  interests.  He  wisely  placed  his  capital  in 
the  safest  of  all  investments — real  estate — and 
became  the  owner  of  farming  interests  in  Mar- 
shall county  and  in  Nebraska. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  strongest  traits  of  his  char- 
acter was  his  innate  modesty  and  his  freedom  from 
all  ostentation  and  display.  Through  his  own, 
efforts  he  won  success  but  was  ever  approachable 
and  kindly,  willing  to  accord  to  any  one  the  cour- 
tesy of  an  interview.  His  acquaintance  with  mem 
of  national  fame  was  great,  yet  he  never  sought 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


their  influence  in  his  own  behalf.  His  strength 
lay  in  his  integrity  and  his  known  ability  and 
willingness  to  help  others.  He  was  at  once  gentle 
and  strong — the  gentleness  of  courtesy  and  cult- 
ure, the  strength  of  high  purpose,  honorable  prin- 
ciples and  fidelity.  For  more  than  thirty  years 
he  was  prominent  in  the  public  life  of  his  county 
state  and  nation  and  in  the  discharge  of  every  duty 
entrusted  to  him  displayed  rare  zeal,  consummate 
ability,  unwavering  fidelity  and  sterling  integrity 
which  inspired  universal  confidence  and  respect 
A  fitting  and  deserved  encomium  is  found  in  the 
words  of  Shakespeare : 
"His  life  was  gentle  and  the  elements 
So  mixed  in  him  that  Nature  might  stand  up 
And  say  to  all  the  world :  'This  was  a  man.' " 


COLONEL  ROBERT  BOAL  FORT. 

Colonel  Robert  Boal  Fort,  who  through  the  period 
of  his  comparatively  brief  but  intense  active  and 
useful  life  was  termed  "the  foremost  citizen  of  Mar- 
shall county,"  was  born  April  26,  1867,  in  Lacon, 
Illinois,  the  only  son  of  Colonel  Greenbury  Lafay- 
ette and  Clara  (Boal)  Fort.  During  his  father's 
official  service  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  he  began  his 
education,  which  was  later  continued  in  Wyman 
Institute  and  Exeter  Academy.  He  completed  his 
studies  abroad  and  in  various  visits  to  the  old 
world  gained  that  wide  knowledge  and  general 
culture  which  only  travel  can  bring.  He  prepared 
for  the  bar  but  never  engaged  in  active  practice. 
He  was  the  owner  of  landed  possessions  in  Illinois 
and  Nebraska  and  in  the  control  of  farming  oper- 
ations in  both  states  he  displayed  discrimination 
and  executive  ability.  Through  careful  manage- 
ment his  wealth  was  augmented  and  he  derived 
his  greatest  pleasure  from  its  use  in  administering 
to  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  others.  His  be- 
neficence became  almost  proverbial  and  yet  no 
man  was  more  reticent  concerning  his  kindly  acts 
or  free  from  ostentation  in  his  charities.  He 
never  personally  made  mention  of  his  benefactions 
but  the  story  is  told  by  the  recipients  of  his  kind- 
ness and  in  their  hearts  his  memory  is  enshrined. 

Robert  Boal  Fort  stood  as  a  splendid  repre- 
sentative of  the  highest  type  of  American  manhood 
of  the  present  age.  He  looked  at  life  from  the 
broad  standpoint  of  citizenship  and  of  individual 
responsibility  and  brought  to  bear  upon  all  the 
questions  with  which  the  public  mind  is  con- 


cerned the  thorough  understanding  which  comes 
from  close  study,  combined  with  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal responsibility.  This  was  one  of  the  strong 
elements  in  his  political  service.  His  maternal 
grandfather  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  repub- 
lican party  in  Illinois.  His  father  was  representa- 
tive from  his  district  in  the  legislative  councils  of 
the  nation  and  in  the  state  senate,  and  from  his 
boyhood  Robert  Fort  was  imbued  with  the  deepest 
interest  in  the  important  issues  which  divide  the 
two  great  parties.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he 
was  a  county  central  committeeman,  filling  that 
position  until  his  election,  in  1895,  to  the  office 
of  mayor  of  Lacon.  Before  the  expiration  of  his 
two  years'  term  he  was  elected  to  represent  the 
twentieth  senatorial  district  in  the  state  senate 
thus  becoming  the  successor  of  his  grandfathes 
and  father  in  the  legislative  halls  of  the  common- 
wealth. During  the  period  of  his  service  in  the 
senate,  covering  altogether  seven  years,  he  was  con- 
nected with  much  important  constructive  legisla- 
tion, showing  his  thorough  understanding  of  the 
needs  and  possibilities  of  the  state  in  its  various 
lines  of  material  development  and  political 
progress. 

In  1898,  a  few  days  after  the  destruction  of  the 
Maine,  Colonel  Fort  visited  Cuba  and  after  a 
brief  stay  in  Havana  made  a  tour  through  the 
provinces  of  Matansas  and  Santa  Clara,  spending 
some  time  with  the  Cuban  insurgents.  Learning 
that  war  was  imminent  between  his  country  and 
Spain  he  returned  to  the  United  States  and  raised 
a  troop  of  cavalry.  He  made  every  effort  to  secure 
an  order  for  his  men  to  go  to  the  front,  but  only 
succeeded  in  advancing  as  far  as  Chickamauga. 
Following  the  election  of  Governor  Yates  he  was 
made  colonel  of  the  First  Illinois  Cavalry  and  a 
colonel  on  the  personal  staff  of  the  governor.  At 
the  time  of  his  death  he  was  prominently  men- 
tioned as  candidate  for  lieutenant  governor  and 
had  he  lived  would  undoubtedly  have  received  the 
nomination.  In  his  political  service  he  manifested 
none  of  that  ultra-conservatism  which  has  ham- 
pered the  efforts  of  many  political  leaders,  but 
stood  as  an  exponent  of  the  spirit  of  the  times 
which  recognizes  changing  conditions  and  seeks 
legislation  which  will  eradicate  existing  evils,  bring 
about  needed  reforms  and  anticipate  future  de- 
mands. These  qualities,  together  with  his  recog- 
nized devotion  to  the  highest  standards  of  political 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


129 


service,  naturally  caused  his  opinions  to  carry 
weight  in  the  councils  of  his  party  and  made  him 
a  recognized  leader  in  Illinois  political  circles. 

The  stress  of  business  or  politics  was  never  so 
great  with  Robert  Fort  as  to  shut  out  from  his  life 
the  friends  of  his  earlier  years — and  only  a  great 
nature  is  steadfast.  It  was  those  who  knew  him 
best  that  appreciated  to  the  fullest  extent  the  kind- 
ness of  his  heart.  His  efforts  in  behalf  of  others 
were  prompted  by  the  simple  joy  of  doing  good. 
He  valued  so-called  "society"  at  its  true  worth 
and  found  his  companionship  among  the  men  of 
master  minds  who  are  concerned  with  the  weighty 
serious  problems  of  life  and  yet  delight  in  all 
that  is  joyous  and  ennobling.  He  was  of  that  type 
of  men  who  "listen  to  babes  and  sages,  birds  and 
stars,  with  open  heart,"  learning  the  lessons  of  life 
from  all.  He  attended  the  Episcopalian  church 
but  his  religion,  knowing  no  barriers  of  creed  or 
dogma,  found  exemplification  in  the  helpful  spirit 
which  he  bore  toward  all.  There  was  not  an  in- 
dividual too  humble  or  obscure  to  arouse  his  in- 
terest or  awaken  his  sympathy  and  receive  his 
assistance  if  siich  were  needed.  He  passed  away 
after  a  very  brief  illness,  in  Springfield,  May  21 
1904,  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven  years.  There  are 
those  who  win  honor  and  fame,  who  command 
respect,  who  receive  admiration — but  there  are  few 
men  who  are  uniformly  beloved;  but  the  con- 
sensus of  public  opinion  concerning  Robert  Boal 
Fort  was  that  "he  was  one  of  the  few  young  men 
who  were  beloved  by  all."  One  of  his  most  dis- 
tinguishing 'traits  was  his  kindness  of  heart  and 
generosity  to  his  home  people.  He  was  one  of 
those  fascinating  characters  who  throw  around 
them  much  of  the  sunshine  of  life.  Those  who 
knew  him  best  delighted  to  honor  him  and  he 
was  worthv  of  all  honor. 


CHARLES  A.  CAMP. 

When  the  history  of  business  activity  and  com- 
mercial prosperity  in  Henry  is  written  the  name 
of  Charles  A.  Camp  will  find  honored  place  on 
its  pages.  He  is  the  vice  president  of  the  Henry 
National  Bank  and  a  capitalist  whose  business 
ability  has  been  manifest  in  the  successful  con- 
duct of  various  important  enterprises  which  have 
felt  the  stimulus  of  his  co-operation  or  benefited 
bv  his  wise  counsel  and  keen  discrimination.  A 


native  of  Henry,  he  was  born  June  29,  1856,  and 
is  a  son  of  Abner  and  Eliza  A.  (Ham)  Camp. 
The  father  was  born  in  New  York  and  in  early 
manhood  became  a  resident  of  Henry,  Illinois, 
where  in  1853  he  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss 
Eliza  A.  Ham,  whose  birth  occurred  in  Dover, 
New  Hampshire,  April  27,  1817.  Her  parents 
were  Titus  and  Nancy  (Purse)  Ham,  natives  of 
New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts,  respectively. 
Mrs.  Camp's  parental  grandfather  was  one  of  the 
heroes  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  while  her  father, 
Titus  Ham,  was  a  valiant  soldier  .of  the  war  of 
1812.  By  occupation  he  was  a  farmer  and  he 
had  a  wide  and  favorable  acquaintance  in  Dover, 
where  for  many  years  he  resided,  both  he  and 
his  wife  passing  away  there.  In  their  family 
were  eight  children,  two  sons  and  six  daughters, 
which  number  included  Mrs.  Camp.  Following 
their  marriage  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Abner  Camp  began 
their  domestic  life  in  Henry  and  for  some  years  he 
engaged  in  business  as  a  carpenter  and  con- 
tractor, while  from  1870  until  1876  he  con- 
ducted a  hotel  at  Henry.  His  political  support 
was  given  to  the  republican  party  and  he  was  one 
of  its  stanch  advocates  and  also  a  great  temper- 
ance worker,  his  life  being  characterized  by  an 
unfaltering  fidelity  to  those  principles  and  rules 
of  conduct  which  work  for  honorable  manhood. 
He  died  in  the  year  1888  and  was  survived  by 
his  wife  until  1900.  They  had  but  two  children: 
Charles  A.  and  Clara  Belle. 

In  the  public  schools  of  Henry,  Charles  A. 
Camp  acquired  his  more  specifically  literary  edu- 
cation and  later  pursued  a  commercial  course  at 
Grand  Prairie  Seminar}',  from  which  he  was  grad- 
uated. Following  his  return  home  he  spent  two 
years  in  the  dry  goods  business  of  E.  H.  Hutch- 
ins  and  six  months  with  Peter  Wykoff.  He  then 
took  charge  of  the  Camp  House,  of  which  he  was 
proprietor  for  twenty-five  years,  making  this  the 
leading  hotel  of  Henry.  He  introduced  many 
modern  improvements,  including  a  bath  house 
where  hot  sulphur  baths  could  be  enjoyed.  He 
made  his  hotel  a  first-class  hostelry  in  every  re- 
spect and  he  continued  active  in  its  management 
for  many  years,  or  until  he  retired  to  devote  his 
energies  to  other  business  interests.  Upon  the 
organization  of  the  Henry  National  Bank  in  1904 
he  was  elected  its  vice  president  and  has  since 
served  in  that  capacity.  The  other  officers  are: 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OP  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


J.  W.  Watercott,  president;  P.  R.  Philips,  cash- 
ier; and  B.  A.  Hoyle,  assistant  cashier.  These 
gentlemen,  together  with  Prank  Yanochowski,  A. 
G.  Humphrey,  A.  Stickle  and  V.  0.  Turner,  con- 
stitute the  board  of  directors.  The  bank,  during 
an  existence  of  two  years,  has  gained  a  most  cred- 
itable place  in  financial  circles  and  is  conducting 
an  extensive  and  gradually  developing  general 
banking  business.  In  addition  to  his  other  in- 
terests Mr.  Camp  is  joint  owner  with  E.  S.  Ster- 
ritt  of  the  Henry  Telephone  company. 

In  1881  Mr.  Camp  was  married  to  Miss  Ella 
S.  Leech,  a  native  of  Hennepin,  Illinois.  Unto 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Camp  was  born  a  son,  Ivan  C., 
whose  birth  occurred  in  1882,  and  who  died  in 
1887. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Camp  is  a  repub- 
lican, prominent  in  the  ranks  of  his  party  in  Mar- 
shall county.  He  has  served  as  postmaster  of 
Henry  under  appointment  of  Theodore  Roosevelt 
since  1903  and  was  for  two  years  mayor  of  Henry, 
having  previously  served  twice  as  alderman.  He 
gave  to  the  city  as  its  chief  executive  officer  a  bus- 
iness-like, practical  and  progressive  administra- 
tion and  it  was  during  his  rule  that  the  system 
of  cement  sidewalks  were  installed  and  a  curb 
line  was  established.  He  was  chairman  of  the 
waterworks  and  finance  committees  at  the  time  of 
the  installment  of  the  waterworks.  He  recog- 
nizes individual  responsibility  in  citizenship  and 
has  always  stood  for  opposition  to  misrule  in  mu- 
nicipal affairs  and  is  a  well  known  champion  of 
those  practical  movements  which  produce  direct 
result  in  public  progress  and  which  also  look 
beyond  the  exigencies  of  the  moment  to  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  future. 


WILLIAM  HENRY  BELL. 
William  Henry  Bell,  who  owns,  operates  and 
occupies  an  excellent  farm  of  eighty  acres  in 
Henry  township,  was  born  in  England,  January 
21,  1862,  and  when  only  six  months  of  age  was 
brought  to  America  by  his  parents,  who  settled 
in  Stark  county,  Illinois,  near  Bradford.  The 
father,  James  Bell,  was  likewise  a  native  of  Eng- 
land and  the  year  1862  witnessed  his  arrival  in 
the  new  world.  He  settled  on  a  farm  with  his 
brother  and  there  carried  on  general  agricultural 
pursuits  for  many  years,  his  diligence  and  enter- 
prise bringing  to  him  a  goodly  measure  of  pros- 


perity. His  political  allegiance  was  given  to  the 
republican  party.  While  living  in  his  native 
country  he  had  been  identified  with  the  Episcopal 
church  and  in  the  new  world  he  became  a  member 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church.  His  death  oc- 
curred May  16,  1906,  and  he  had  long  survived 
his  wife,  who  passed  away  in  1872  at  the  age  of 
thirty-seven  years.  She  bore  the  maiden  name  of 
Mary  Ann  Dodd  and  was  also  a  native  of  Eng- 
land. In  the  family  of  this  worthy  couple  were 
nine  children,  of  whom  four  are  now  living: 
Robinson  Bell,  who  is  a  farmer  residing  in  Al- 
berta, Canada;  Abram  Bell,  a  machinist  whose 
home  is  near  Lincoln,  Nebraska;  Mrs.  John  Clift, 
whose  husband  is  a  farmer  near  Buda  Springs, 
Kansas;  and  William  Henry. 

Brought  to  the  United  States  in  his  infancy, 
William  Henry  Bell  has  spent  almost  his  entire 
life  in  Illinois.  His  early  education  was  acquired 
in  the  district  schools  of  Henry  township  and  he 
afterward  attended  Henry  College,  thus  being 
equipped  by  a  liberal  education  for  life's  prac- 
tical and  responsible  duties.  He  was  reared  to 
the  work  of  the  farm,  early  becoming  familiar 
with  the  task  of  cultivating  the  fields  and  caring 
for  the  stock.  He  remained  upon  the  old  home- 
stead until  twenty-one  years  of  age,  when  he 
rented  his  present  farm  from  Robinson  Bell,  an 
uncle,  and  eventually  came  into  possession  of  this 
place,  which  comprises  eighty  acres  of  rich  and 
arable  land  in  Henry  township,  all  under  cultiva- 
tion. He  is  likewise  interested  in  stock  raising, 
which  constitutes  an  important  branch  of  his 
business.  He  now  has  a  well-improved  place  and 
has  recently  erected  a  fine  barn  on  his  farm.  None 
of  the  accessories  and  equipments  of  a  model 
farm  are  lacking  and  the  latest  improved  machin- 
ery facilitates  the  work  of  the  fields. 

In  1886  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Mr. 
Bell  and  Miss  Mary  Anne  Flynn,  of  Peru,  Illi- 
nois, and  unto  them  were  born  two  children: 
James  Robinson,  who  died  at  the  age  of  two 
years ;  and  Mamie,  who  is  seventeen  years  of  age 
and  was  graduated  from  the  Henry  high  school 
with  the  class  of  1906.  The  parents  are  consist- 
ent and  faithful  members  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal church.  Mr.  Bell  is  a  republican  and  is  in- 
terested in  politics,  keeping  well  informed  on  the 
questions  of  the  day  and  doing  whatever  he  can 
to  promote  the  growth  and  insure  the  success  of 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


131 


his  party.  He  has  served  as  school  trustee  and 
as  school  director  for  a  number  of  years  and  the 
cause  of  education  finds  in  him  a  warm  and  stal- 
wart friend.  His  efforts  in  behalf  of  public  prog- 
ress have  been  far-reaching  and  beneficial  and 
while  he  has  won  success  in  his  farming  opera- 
tions he  has  also  found  time  to  aid  in  public  af- 
fairs. 


OTIS   MONTGOMERY. 

Otis  Montgomery,  editor  and  proprietor  of  the 
Wenona  Index,  is  a  typical  representative  of  the 
spirit  of  modern  progress  and  advancement  mani- 
fest in  the  field  of  journalism  and  has  made  of 
the  Index  a  paper  most  creditable  to  the  city  and 
section  of  the  state  to  whose  interests  and  up- 
building it  is  devoted.  Born  in  Mason  City, 
Illinois,  on  the  16th  of  May,  1868,  Mr.  Mont- 
gomery is  a  son  of  Jesse  C.  and  Catharine  ( Scott) 
Montgomery,  the  former  a  native  of  Indiana  and 
the  latter  of  Pennsylvania.  The  parents  came  to 
Illinois  at  an  early  day  and  settled  in  Mason 
county.  The  father  was  a  brick  mason  by  trade 
and  followed  that  pursuit  for  a  half  century,  or 
until  the  time  of  his  death,  which  occurred  in 
1904.  His  widow  is  still  living  and  resides  in 
Petersburg,  Illinois.  In  their  family  were  six 
children,  three  of  whom  survive:  Ellen,  the  wife 
of  J.  N.  Onstott,  of  Petersburg ;  John  B.,  who  is 
living  in  Minonk,  Illinois ;  and  Otis. 

The  last  named  is  indebted  to  the  public-school 
system  of  Mason  City  for  the  educational  privi- 
leges which  he  enjoyed.  He  pursued  his  studies 
until  lie  attained  the  age  of  fourteen  years,  when 
he  entered  upon  his  business  career  as  an  appren- 
tice in  the  office  of  the  Petersburg  (Illinois) 
Democrat,  where  he  remained  for  two  years.  He 
then  returned  to  his  native  city,  where  he  was 
employed  at  newspaper  work  and  also  in  other 
offices  in  different  parts  of  the  state,  including 
Peoria  and  Chicago.  He  came  to  Wenona  on  the 
14th  of  February,  1887,  and  entered  the  employ 
of  the  Wenona  Index,  with  which  he  was  con- 
nected until  the  1st  of  January,  1898.  He  then 
established  the  Pantagraph,  which  he  published 
until  the  1st  of  July  of  the  same  year,  when  he 
purchased  the  Index  and  consolidated  the  two  of- 
fices, giving  to  the  name  of  the  publication  the 
Wenona  Index.  He  has  since  advanced  it  to  its 
present  high  standard,  making  it  one  of  the  best 


newspapers  in  this  part  of  Illinois.  He  also  has 
one  of  the  best  equipped  job  offices  in  this  section 
of  the  country,  having  the  latest  facilities  and 
most  improved  presses  in  order  to  carry  oh  the 
work.  He  now  owns  a  Cottrell  press  and  a 
Chandler  &  Price  Gordon  job  press,  both  of  which 
are  run  by  gasoline.  He  is  prepared  to  do  all 
kinds  of  job  work  and  has  quite  an  extensive  pa- 
tronage in  that  department.  The  Index  is  pub- 
lished weekly  and  has  a  circulation  of  one  thou- 
sand copies.  Mr.  Montgomery  employs  four  or 
five  people  all  of  the  time  and  gives  to  every  de- 
partment of  the  work  his  personal  supervision. 
Everything  is  kept  up  to  a  high  standard  and 
the  business  is  continually  increasing.  He  de- 
votes his  whole  time  and  attention  to  his  news- 
paper and  office  business,  which  has  long  since 
become  a  profitable  source  of  income. 

On  the  23d  of  June,  1892,  Mr.  Montgomery 
was  married  to  Miss  Jeannette  Kahn,  of  Wenona, 
and  unto  them  has  been  born  a  daughter,  Hester. 
The  parents  are  members  of  the  Presbvterian 
church  and  Mr.  Montgomery  affiliates  with  the 
Modern  Woodmen  of  America. 


CHARLES   L.   KLEIN. 

Charles  L.  Klein,  who  carries  on  general  agri- 
cultural pursuits  on  section  28,  Whitefield  town- 
ship, is  one  of  the  native  sons  of  Illinois,  his 
birth  having  occurred  near  Henry,  in  Marshall 
county,  July  4,  1863.  He  comes  of  German  line- 
age, his  father,  William  Klein,  having  been  a  na- 
tive of  Prussia,  Germany.  He  made  his  way  to 
the  United  States  in  the  early  '50s  and  continued 
his  journey  into  the  interior  of  the  country,  set- 
tling at  Lacon,  where  he  resided  for  a  period  and 
then  removed  to  the  vicinity  of  Henry.  He  car- 
ried on  general  farming  in  Henry  township,  but 
died  about  eighteen  years  ago.  In  early  man- 
hood he  married  Gertrude  Petz,  who  was  also  a 
native  of  Germany,  in  which  country  their  wed- 
ding was  celebrated.  She  died  about  twenty-five 
years  ago.  Unto  them  have  been  born  six  chil- 
dren: Adolph,  who  is  now  living  retired  in  Hen- 
ry; Peter  W.,  who  carries  on  farming  in  Iowa; 
Michael,  Katherine  and  William,  all  of  whom  are 
now  deceased ;  and  Charles  L.,  of  this  review. 

In  his  father's  home  Charles  L.  Klein  spent 
the  days  of  his  boyhood  and  youth  and  at  the 


132 


PAST  AND   PEESENT    OP  MAESHALL    AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


usual  age  began  his  education  in  the  district 
schools.  He  afterward  attended  the  schools  of 
Henry  and  acquired  a  good  education  to  fit  him 
for  life's  practical  and  responsible  duties.  Dur- 
ing the  periods  of  vacation  and  after  putting  aside 
his  text  books  he  worked  upon  the  home  farm 
until  his  father  retired.  He  then  began  farming 
on  his  own  account  and  has  been  carrying  on  gen- 
eral agricultural  pursuits  in  his  own  interests  for 
twenty-two  years.  He  leases  four  hundred  and 
forty  acres  of  land  on  section  28,  Whitefield 
township,  and  his  fields  are  well  tilled.  He  owns 
eighty  acres  of  land  in  Kansas  and  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  in  Nebraska.  In  his  business 
transactions  he  has  never  been  known  to  take 
advantage  of  the  necessities  of  his  fellowmen,  but 
has  made  a  straightforward,  honorable  business 
record  that  commends  him  to  the  confidence  and 
good  will  of  all  concerned.  He  now  carries  on 
farming  quite  extensively  and  is  accounted  one 
of  the  leading  representatives  of  agricultural  in- 
terests in  his  part  of  the  county. 

In  1885  Mr.  Klein  was  married  to  Miss  Mary 
S.  Heinrich,  a  native  of  Henry  and  a  daughter 
of  Charles  Heinrich.  This  union  has  been 
blessed  with  ten  children:  Daniel,  who  is  now 
living  on  the  home  farm;  Cora;  Minnie;  May 
Ella;  Leo;  Walter;  Lena;  Charles;  Leslie;  and 
Lillian.  The  family  circle  yet  remains  unbroken 
by  the  hand  of  death  and  all  are  still  under  the 
parental  roof. 

Mr.  Klein  is  prominent  and  popular  socially. 
He  holds  membership  with  the  Modern  Woodmen 
camp  at  Sparland  and  he  belongs  to  the  Catholic 
church.  He  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  leading 
representatives  of  democracy  in  this  locality  and 
in  the  spring  of  1906  was  appointed  and  after- 
ward elected  supervisor  of  his  township,  while 
for  several  years  he  had  held  the  office  of  col- 
lector, discharging  his  duties  with  promptness 
and  fidelity.  He  is  successful  in  his  business  in- 
terests and  his  labors  have  been  carefully  man- 
aged, so  that  he  has  produced  the  best  possible 
results. 


WILLIAM  A.  KAYS. 

William  A.  Kays,  a  resident  of  Putnam  county 
for  more  than  a  half  century,  was  born  in  Indiana, 
September  2,  1828,  a  son  of  William  Kays,  a 
native  of  Kentucky,  who  came  to  Illinois  in  1835, 


locating  in  Knox  county,  where  his  subsequent 
years  were  passed.  William  Kays,  Sr.,  the  grand- 
father of  our  subject,  lived  for  several  years  in 
Putnam  county,  dying  at  the  home  of  his  son 
Henry,  near  Magnolia. 

William  A.  Kays  was  a  youth  of  only  seven 
years  when  his  parents  removed  from  Indiana  to 
Illinois,  and  his  boyhood  days  were  spent  upon  the 
home  farm  in  Knox  county,  while  in  the  country 
schools  he  acquired  his  early  education  and  later 
attended  a  Presb3'terian  high  school.  When  twen- 
ty-one years  of  age  he  became  a  factor  in  commer- 
cial life  by  establishing  a  grocery  business,  which 
he  conducted  at  Saluda,  Illinois,  for  about  three 
years.  Prior  to  this  he  made  a  trip  to  the  west, 
traveling  through  Kansas,  and  slept  one  night  in 
the  home  of  John  Brown,  the  noted  abolition 
leader,  who  was  then  living  between  St.  Louis 
and  Kansas  City.  In  1850  Mr.  Kays  arrived  in 
Putnam  county  in  company  with  an  uncle,  Henry 
Kays,  and  in  the  succeeding  winter  made  for  him 
eleven  thousand  rails.  He  then  rented  land  and 
engaged  in  farming  on  his  own  account,  and  when 
his  labors  had  brought  to  him  sufficient  capital  he 
made  purchase  of  eighty  acres  of  land,  upon  which 
he  resided  until  about  twelve  years  ago,  when  he 
sold  out  and  bought  one  hundred  acres  where  he 
now  lives  in  Hennepin  township.  Throughout  the 
period  of  his  residence  in  this  county  he  has  car- 
ried on  general  agricultural  pursuits,  which  he  has 
found  to  be  a  profitable  source  of  income,  as  his 
labors  have  been  directed  by  sound  judgment  and 
characterized  by  unremitting  diligence. 

In  1850  Mr.  Kays  was  married  to  Miss  Olive 
Haley,  a  native  of  Putnam  county,  who  died  April 
29,  1900.  He  later  wedded  Miss  Nancy  Mills,  of 
Putnam  county,  who  still  survives.  By  the  first 
marriage  there  were  eight  children:  Ellen,  now 
deceased :  Mrs.  Sarah  Purviance,  now  living  in 
Kansas;  James  B.,  of  Missouri;  Mrs.  Amanda 
Burns,  of  Kansas;  Alice,  the  wife  of  H.  H.  Ed- 
wards, of  Hennepin  township ;  William  H.,  of 
Tonica,  Illinois;  Olive,  the  wife  of  J.  B.  Davis, 
of  Peoria,  this  state;  and  Mary  Belle,  deceased. 
By  the  second  marriage  there  is  one  son,  Wesley 
Kays. 

In  early  life  Mr.  Kays  joined  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church,  and  has  ever  endeavored  to  fol- 
low closely  the  principles  and  precepts  of  Chris- 
tianity. For  thirty-two  years  he  has  been  secre- 
tary of  the  Mineral  Springs  Association,  which 


W.  A.  KAYS. 


PAST   AND   PBESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


135 


holds  a  camp  meeting  at  McNabb  each  year.  He 
purchased  the  land  for  this  purpose  through  an 
order  of  the  conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal church  and  held  it  until  the  association  was 
able  to  repay  him.  He  has  always  been  very  active 
in  religious  and  political  life.  His  first  presiden- 
tial vote  was  cast  for  Franklin  Pierce,  and  he  has 
always  been  a  stanch  democrat  where  national  is- 
sues are  involved,  yet  at  local  elections  often  casts 
an  independent  ballot.  He  is  now  and  has  been 
for  forty-seven  years  chairman  of  the  democratic 
county  central  committee,  and  has  done  effective 
work  in  behalf  of  the  party,  being  recognized  as 
one  of  its  leading  representatives  in  this  part  of 
the  state.  He  was  also  chairman  of  the  central 
committee  while  living  in  Knox  county,  and  was 
on  the  stage  with  Lincoln  and  Douglas  when  they 
held  their  joint  debate  in  Galesburg. 

His  father  enlisted  and  fought  in  the  Mexican 
war,  and  at  the  time  of  the  trouble  with  the 
Mormons  in  Illinois  William  A.  Kays  enlisted  and 
served  for  four  months  with  the  company  that 
fought  Joseph  Smith  and  compelled  him  to  come 
to  Peoria  for  trial  and  later  to  leave  Illinois.  At 
the  time  of  the  Civil  war  he  drilled  for  three 
months,  intending  to  join  an  Illinois  regiment, 
but  the  troops  were  gone  when  he  arrived  at  Gales- 
burg  and  he  did  not  therefore  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  going  to  the  front.  He  has  in  his  pos- 
session an  adz  used  by  a  man  of  the  name  of 
Humiston  in  trying  to  find  the  stone  tablets  left 
by  the  Mormons.  Mr.  Kays  has  closely  followed 
the  golden  rule,  doing  unto  others  as  he  would 
have  them  do  unto  him,  and  no  man  is  spoken 
of  in  higher  terms  by  his  neighbors  than  the  sub- 
ject of  this  review.  He  receives  the  respect  and 
veneration  which  should  ever  be  accorded  to  a  man 
of  his  years  whose  life  has  been  exemplary  and 
whose  principles  have  been  most  commendable. 


WILLIAM  EDWARD  HAWTHORNE. 
William  Edward  Hawthorne,  editor  and  pro- 
prietor of  the  "Echo,"  at  Granville,  his  native 
city,  was  born  June  7,  1859.  His  ancestral,  lineal 
and  collateral  branches  have  for  various  genera- 
tions been  distinctly  American  and  prior  to 
that  time  was  of  English,  Scotch  and  Irish  line- 
age. Research  into  family  records  brings  to  light 
the  fact  that  the  Mayflower  brought  to  America 
the  progenitor  of  the  Hawthorne  family,  of  which 


William  Edward  Hawthorne  is  a 
In  correspondence  with  Julian  Hawthorne,  son  of 
Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  it  is  found  that  this  Con- 
cord man  of  letters  is  a  representative  of  another 
branch  of  the  same  family.  There  is  also  an  Irish 
strain  in  the  ancestry  and  when  Mr.  Hawthorne 
met  the  famous  Irishman,  Michael  Davitt,  who 
was  then  touring  the  United  States,  said  to  him 
in  the  course  of  conversation  that  he  traced  his 
ancestry  back  to  the  McFaddens,  Davitt  replied, 
"McFadden,  McFadden,  they'd  throw  no  stones 
at  ye  in  County  Cork.  The  McFaddens  are  a 
great  clan." 

William  Hawthorne,  father  of  William  Edward 
Hawthorne,  and  the  fourth  in  the  line  of  descent 
to  bear  that  name,  was  a  farmer  by  occupation 
and  on  removing  to  the  middle  west  entered  land 
from  the  government  four  miles  southeast  of 
Granville.  He  paid  for  this  tract  a  dollar  and  a 
quarter  per  acre  and  today  it  is  worth  two  hun- 
dred dollars  per  acre.  He  married  Susan  Findley, 
who  died  when  their  son,  William  E.,  was  six 
years  of  age,  after  which  the  little  lad  spent  four 
years  with  his  grandmother,  Mrs.  Margaret  (Haw- 
thorne) Moore,  who  was  one  of  the  early  pioneer 
residents  of  Granville  township.  William  Haw- 
thorne, Sr.,  was  born  in  Ohio  and  was  only 
three  years  of  age  when  brought  by  his  parents 
to  Putnam  county,  Illinois.  Following  the  loss 
of  his  first  wife  he  married  again  and  removed 
with  his  family  to  Normal,  Illinois,  where  his 
son  and  namesake  attended  school  for  three  or  four 
years.  The  father  then  removed  to  Indiana  and 
William  Edward  Hawthorne  was  upon  the  home 
farm  in  Porter  county  between  the  ages  of  twelve 
and  twenty-one  years.  He  attended  the  public 
schools  and  pursued  a  scientific  course  in  the 
Northern  Indiana  Normal  School  at  Valparaiso. 
In  early  manhood  he  engaged  in  teaching  school 
successively  in  Michigan,  Indiana  and  Illinois, 
after  which  he  returned  to  Michigan.  He  was 
never  graduated  from  any  educational  institution 
but  has  always  been  a  student  of  men  and  litera- 
ture and  his  special  text-books  have  been  the  Bible, 
Shakespeare  and  the  American  classics.  These  cer- 
tainly are  sufficient  to  give  a  man  broad  knowl- 
edge and  familiarity  with  the  best  that  has  been 
produced  by  the  writers  of  the  ages.  His  pur- 
suits in  early  life  were  similar  to  those  of  most 
boys  who  are  reared  upon  a  farm.  He  remembers 
of  his  stepmother  requiring  him  to  stay  up  most 


13G 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


of  the  night  studying  the  catechism.  At  the  time 
of  her  second  marriage  she  was  the  widow  of  a 
Presbyterian  minister  and  was  a  most  excellent 
and  superior  lady,  to  whom  Mr.  Hawtiiorne 
ascribes  the  credit  for  the  cultivation  of  his  taste 
for  things  of  refinement.  The  desire  for  knowl- 
edge being  awakened  in  him  he  improved  his  op- 
portunities for  the  acquirement  of  a  broader  edu- 
cation than  the  public  schools  afforded  and  he 
paid  his  tuition  with  money  which  he  had  himself 
earned,  never  receiving  a  dollar  from  any  one  ex- 
cept to  return  it  when  his  labors  as  a  teacher 
made  the  discharge  of  the  financial  obligations 
possible. 

On  attaining  his  majority  Mr.  Hawthorne  went 
to  Michigan  and  worked  for  his  elder  brother  in 
a  grain  elevator  at  Marengo.  It  was  there  that 
he  taught  his  first  school,  and  after  his  return  to 
Indiana  he  engaged  in  teaching  in  that  state  for 
a  year  prior  to  his  removal  to  Florid,  Putnam 
county,  Illinois.  He  afterward  went  to  Vermont- 
ville,  Michigan,  where  he  held  his  first  principal- 
ship  for  two  years.  He  taught  his  last  school  at 
Essexville,  Michigan,  a  suburb  of  Bay  City.  Each 
year  during  his  experience  as  a  teacher  brought 
him  an  advance  in  salary,  indicating  his  growing 
ability  in  the  profession.  In  the  fall  of  1884  he 
took  charge  of  a  general  store  in  Granville,  Illi- 
nois, for  H.  Bateman  and  in  the  following  autumn 
in  connection  with  G.  L.  Brando  he  established 
a  hardware  and  grocery  store  in  the  building  for- 
merly used  as  the  Granville  Academy.  For  fifteen 
years  he  was  thus  engaged  in  merchandising  and 
retired  from  that  line  of  activity  two  years  after 
his  election  to  the  office  of  superintendent  of 
schools  in  Putnam  county,  which  office  he  occupied 
for  eight  years,  during  which  time  through  his 
efforts,  the  standard  of  public  instruction  was 
greatly  raised  and  the  schools  were  placed  upon  an 
excellent  working  basis.  He  was  also  town  clerk 
and  postmaster  while  engaged  in  merchandising 
and  likewise  served  as  village  treasurer  and  vil- 
lage clerk  during  that  period.  In  1901  he  organ- 
ized the  Granville  Mercantile  Company,  conduct- 
ing the  business  for  four  years,  and  in  1903  he 
established  the  Granville  "Echo,"  which  was  under 
the  management  of  his  brother-in-law,  B.  B.  Blos- 
ser,  until  1905,  when  Mr.  Hawthorne  abandoned 
the  field  of  mercantile  effort  and  took  control  of 
the  "Echo"  printing  business,  in  which  he  has 
since  continued. 


Aside  from  his  official  acts  while  an  incumbent 
of  political  positions  Mr.  Hawthorne  has  done 
much  important  public  service  as  a  private  citi- 
zen. He  has  given  his  cooperation  to  many  pro- 
gressive public  movements,  serving  as  secretary  of 
the  Granville  Lecture  Association,  while  for  the 
greater  part  of  twenty  years  he  has  been  secretary 
of  the  Granville  Cemetery  Association,  perform- 
ing the  duties  connected  therewith  with  satisfac- 
tion to  those  concerned  and  with  financial  success. 
In  politics  he  has  always  been  a  stalwart  repub- 
lican and  has  done  some  effective  campaign  work. 
He  has  never  been  connected,  however,  with  fra- 
ternal, political  or  social  organizations  or  clubs, 
his  relations  with  organized  bodies  being  restricted 
to  the  church.  When  yet  a  boy  he  became  a  church 
member  and  is  religiously  cosmopolitan,  having  be- 
longed at  different  times  to  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal, the  Christian,  the  Presbyterian  and  the  Con- 
gregational churches.  Wherever  he  has  lived  he  has 
connected  himself  with  the  orthodox  church  of  the 
community  and  has  been  Sunday-school  superin- 
tendent for  perhaps  twenty-five  years  of  his  life, 
while  in  one  way  or  another  he  has  been  connected 
with  church  work  for  a  long  period.  At  the  pres- 
ent time  he  holds  membership  with  the  Congrega- 
tional church  at  Granville,. but  occupies  no  office 
therein. 

Mr.  Hawthorne  was  married  March  14,  1882, 
to  Miss  Emma  Emelia  Opper,  of  Granville,  a 
daughter  of  C.  G.  and  Anna  Opper.  The  first  few 
years  of  their  married  life  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Haw- 
thorne attended  and  taught  school  together.  Nine 
years  following  their  marriage  twin  boys  came  to 
bless  their  home,  and  so  delighted  was  the  father 
that  he  hastened  to  his  office  and  had  the  follow- 
ing announcement  printed  and  distributed  among 
his  friends : 

Often  have  the  poets  told  us 
In  their  lyrics  of  the  deep, 
Awful  calms  are  but  the  presage 
Of  the  storms  that  o'er  them  sweep. 

Thus,  perhaps,  protracted  stillness 
On  a  calm  domestic  sea 
Signifies  that  force  is  gathering 
For  the  squalls  that  are  to  be. 

Weighed  we  anchor  on  life's  ocean 
Sunlight  flooding  iis  in  torrents, 
But   two   little   squalls   have   struck    us, 
William  Henrv  and  Orin  Lawrence. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


13-5 


In  1894  twin  daughters  blessed  the  home,  these 
being  Helen  and  Marie.  The  next  in  order  of 
birth  is  Charles  Findley,  who  bears  the  name  of 
President  Blanchard  of  Wheaton  College  as  well 
as  the  name  of  his  grandmother.  The  youngest  in 
order  of  birth  is  Edward  Everett,  who  was  born  in 
1902.  The  mother,  as  the  name  implies,  is  of 
German  ancestry,  and  as  she  speaks,  reads  and 
writes  the  German  language  she  is  likewise  edu- 
cating her  children  in  the  German  tongue.  Five 
of  the  children  are  now  attending  school. 

Mr.  Hawthorne  is  himself  a  twin,  his  brother 
being  0.  E.  Hawthorne,  a  resident  of  Marshall, 
Missouri,  who  is  agent  for  the  Chicago  &  Alton 
Railroad  Company.  He  is  married  and  has  a  son 
and  daughter,  Lucile  and  Ray,  who  are  still  with 
their  parents. 

Mr.  Hawthorne  believes  fully  in  the  principle 
expressed  by  the  Bard  of  Avon  when  he  said, 
"There  is  a  Divinity  that  shapes  our  ends,"  and 
while  he  recognizes  the  fact  that  he  has  perhaps 
not  improved  all  his  opportunities,  that  Divinity 
has  never  failed,  and  on  every  occasion  he  ex- 
presses himself  as  a  willing  devotee  at  the  throne 
of  that  Divinity.  Mr.  Hawthorne  was  blessed  with 
the  influence  of  Christian  parents,  and  to  this, 
combined  with  the  influence  and  encouragement 
of  his  excellent  wife,  gives  credit  for  the  position 
to  which  he  has  attained  in  the  moral,  business 
and  social  world.  He  bears  testimony  to  the  power 
of  associations  as  potential  in  forming  character. 
Next  to  his  wife,  no  one  has  so  influenced  his  life 
as  his  elder  brother  whom  he  considers  an  ideal 
man.  His  father's  example,  too,  has  always  been 
that  of  a  Godly  man,  while  his  intimate  friends 
have  been  ever  men  of  the  highest  noble  character. 
This  brief  sketch  of  the  writer  of  our  historical 
narrative  of  Putnam  county  does  not  pretend  to 
be  a  biography,  entering  into  detail  but  simply  a 
suggestive  outline,  leaving  the  completion  to  his 
future  biographers  after  the  records  are  all  in. 


FRANK  A.  BARR. 

Frank  A.  Barr  is  a  prominent  representative  of 
commercial  and  industrial  interests  in  Steuben 
township.  He  carries  on  merchandising  in  Spar- 
land  and  is  operating  extensively  in  coal,  thus  de- 
veloping the  rich  mineral  resources  of  the  county. 
His  ready  recognition  and  utilization  of  oppor- 
tunity have  been  important  elements  in  his  suc- 


cess and  he  belongs  to  that  class  of  representative 
American  men  who  while  advancing  individual 
interests  also  promote  the  general  prosperity.  He 
is  likewise  popular  and  prominent  in  political 
circles  and  he  has  made  a  record  which  is  indeed 
creditable  in  all  life's  relations. 

Mr.  Barr  was  born  in  Mercer  county,  Illinois, 
in  1858.  His  father,  Hamilton  Barr,  was  born 
in  Kentucky,  April  5,  1829,  and  on  coming  to  this 
state  took  up  his  abode  in  Mercer  county  but  sub- 
sequently removed  to  Hancock  county,  Illinois, 
where  he  engaged  in  the  practice  of  law  for  about 
twelve  years.  He  then  removed  to  Oskaloosa, 
Iowa,  and  spent  a  portion  of  his  time  in  the  city 
and  also  lived  part  of  the  time  upon  a  farm.  He 
afterward  removed  to  La  Harpe,  Hancock  county, 
Illinois,  where  he  conducted  a  hotel  for  four  years, 
after  which  he  came  to  Sparland.  Here  he  was 
elected  to  the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace,  fill- 
ing that  position  until  his  death,  which  occurred 
October  19,  1906,  his  incumbency  covering  a 
period  of  twelve  years,  while  his  service  was 
marked  by  the  utmost  fidelity  to  duty,  his  deci- 
sions being  strictly  fair  and  impartial.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1862.  His  political  alle- 
giance was  given  to  the  democracy  and  he  held 
membership  in  the  Methodist  church.  He  had 
been  married  twice,  first  wedding  Miss  Sarah 
Compton,  of  Kentucky,  on  December  17,  1848. 
For  his  second  wife  he  chose  Elizabeth  Cunning- 
ham. By  the  first  marriage  there  were  the  fol- 
lowing children:  Anna,  the  deceased  wife  of 
Philip  Fosbender,  of  Sparland;  Mary,  the  wife 
of  George  Riddell,  who  is  engaged  in  the  grocery 
business  in  Watseka;  Frank,  of  this  review; 
Louisa,  the  wife  of  Frank  Moor,  who  is  in  part- 
nership with  Mr.  Riddell  at  Watseka. 

Frank  A.  Barr  spent  his  childhood  days  in 
La  Harpe,  Illinois,  and  was  graduated  from  the 
high  school  there.  He  entered  upon  his  business 
career  as  a  clerk  in  the  employ  of  Charles  F.  Gill 
&  Company,  with  whom  he  remained  until  nine- 
teen years  of  age,  when  he  removed  to  Sparland 
and  for  two  years  conducted  the  elevator  here. 
With  the  assistance  of  T.  Gapen  and  Dr.  Tesmer 
he  opened  a  small  store  and  after  conducting  it 
for  two  years  was  enabled  to  discharge  his  finan- 
cial obligations  to  the  two  gentlemen  who  had 
assisted  him  and  to  whom  he  has  always  felt  deep 
gratitude  for  the  aid  which  they  rendered  in 
his  early  days  when  he  had  no  capital  of  his  own. 


138 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


When  he  had  discharged  his  indebtedness  he 
bought  a  building  and  with  renewed  energy  en- 
tered upon  the  work  of  building  up  a  store.  He  is 
now  proprietor  of  one  of  the  largest  general 
stores  of  the  county,  carrying  an  extensive  and 
well  selected  line  of  goods  which  meets  a  very 
ready  sale,  owing  to  his  reasonable  prices,  his 
fair  and  honest  dealing  and  his  earnest  desire 
to  please  his  patrons.  His  trade  is  constantly 
increasing  and  his  success  is  thereby  augmented. 
This  does  not,  however,  embrace  all  of  Mr.  Barr's 
business  interests,  for  he  is  operating  a  coal  mine 
a  mile  north  of  Sparland.  This  is  one  of  the  best 
drift  mines  in  the  state  and  he  owns  altogether 
about  nine  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  coal  land 
in  the  vicinity  of  Sparland,  employing  thirty-five 
teams  and  sixty  men  to  haul  the  coal  and  props 
and  work  in  the  mines.  Since  December,  1905, 
he  has  been  paying  out  on  an  average  of  ninety 
dollars  per  day  for  labor.  The  business  there- 
fore is  of  the  utmost  value  to  the  community  as 
well  as  to  himself,  for  it  furnishes  the  means  of 
livelihood  to  many  a  family. 

Mr.  Barr  was  married  at  the  age  of  twenty-one 
years  to  Miss  Clara  B.  Brassfield  and  unto  them 
have  been  born  three  children,  but  the  daughters, 
Eddie  B.  and  Mabel,  are  both  deceased.  They 
died  of  scarlet  fever  just  three  weeks  apart,  the 
former  at  the  age  of  five  years  and  the  latter 
at  the  age  of  three.  The  only  son,  Leslie,  who 
was  graduated  from  the  high  school  at  the  age 
of  eighteen  years,  is  now  conducting  the  Lacon 
electric  plant.  He  is  a  young  man  of  exceptional 
business  ability  and  enterprise,  of  whom  the  pa- 
rents have  every  reason  to  be  proud.  He  intends 
to  take  a  higher  course  in  electrical  engineering 
and  thus  fit  himself  for  a  responsible  position  in 
the  business  world. 

Mr.  Barr  is  a  stalwart  advocate  of  the  democ- 
racy and  was  first  elected  to  office  in  1885,  when 
he  was  chosen  township  collector.  He  has  served 
as  alderman  of  Sparland  for  nine  years,  exercis- 
ing his  official  prerogatives  to  advance  many  pro- 
gressive public  movements.  He  was  also  school 
director  for  twelve  years,  has  been  clerk  of  the 
school  board,  was  county  treasurer  for  four  years 
and  sheriff  for  four  years,  filling  the  last  named 
position  at  the  present  time.  He  is  also  again  a 
candidate  for  the  office  of  county  treasurer.  Fra- 
ternally he  belongs  to  the  Masonic  lodge  at  Spar- 
land  and  has  taken  the  degrees  of  Eoyal  Arch 


Masonry  in  Lacon.  He  is  likewise  connected  with 
the  Knights  of  Pythias  at  Lacon  and  with  the 
Independent  Order  of  Odd  Fellows,  the  Modern 
Woodmen  of  America  and  the  Mystic  Workmen, 
all  of  Sparland.  He  is  now  worthy  patron  of 
Star  chapter  at  Sparland  and  is  likewise  con- 
nected with  the  Rebekah  degree  of  Odd  Fellows 
here.  Over  his  public  record  and  private  life  there 
falls  no  shadow  of  wrong  or  suspicion  of  evil. 
He  has  become  a  leader  in  local  democratic  ranks 
and  is  one  whose  fidelity  and  loyalty  in  office 
have  ever  been  above  question.  In  his  business 
life  he  has  manifested  traits  of  character  which 
are  most  commendable  and  exemplary,  never  mak- 
ing engagements  that  he  has  not  kept  nor  incur- 
ring obligations  that  he  has  not  promptly  met. 
In  fact  his  is  a  record  which  any  man  might  be 
proud  to  possess  and  it  has  won  him  the  admira- 
tion and  respect  of  his  contemporaries. 


JUDGE    THOMAS    M.    SHAW. 

Judge  Thomas  M.  Shaw,  faultless  in  honor,  fear- 
less in  conduct  and  stainless  in  reputation,  left 
behind  him  a  record  which  is  an  honor  to  the 
bench  and  bar  of  Illinois  and  to  the  state  legis- 
lature, where  he  served  as  a  distinguished  mem- 
ber of  the  senate  for  four  years.  But  while  he 
won  distinction  and  honors  his  more  personal  at- 
tributes and  characteristics — his  kindly  disposi- 
tion, gentle  manner  and  consideration  for  others 
— gained  him  the  warmest  personal  regard,  so 
that  every  one  who  knew  him  was  his  friend,  and 
when  a  long  life  of  professional  activity  was 
ended  and  the  world  passed  judgment  upon  his 
record  the  consensus  of  opinion  was  altogether 
favorable. 

Like  many  another  man  who  has  risen  to  public 
prominence,  he  was  born  in  a  little  log  cabin  that 
stood  on  the  old  family  homestead  in  Roberts  town- 
ship, Marshall  county,  his  natal  day  being  August 
20,  1836.  At  that  time  Marshall  was  still  a  part 
of  Putnam  county  and  its  white  settlers  were  com- 
paratively few.  Indians  were  still  seen  in  the 
neighborhood,  although  four  years  had  passed  since 
the  close  of  the  Black  Hawk  war.  The  genealogical 
records  furnish  several  interesting  facts  about  the 
ancestors  of  Judge  Shaw.  His  grandmother  was 
a  cousin  of  George  Washington  and  his  father, 
George  H.  Shaw,  went  to  school  in  Kentucky 
with  a  bov  who  was  to  become  President  Buchanan. 


^a 


/? 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


143 


His  father,  George  H.  Shaw,  was  a  Kentucky 
planter,  who  after  liberating  his  slaves  came  to 
Illinois  in  1829  accompanied  by  his  young  bride, 
who  bore  the  maiden  name  of  Penelope  R.  Ed- 
wards. He  selected  as  their  home  a  tract  of 
government  land,  situated  about  eight  miles  from 
the  Illinois  river,  and  comprising  both  prairie 
and  wood  land.  A  point  of  grand  forest  trees, 
mostly  oaks,  extended  into  the  prairie  tract  and 
this  gave  occasion  for  the  naming  of  the  locality 
Shaw's  Point.  In  the  midst  of  the  forest  George 
Shaw  hewed  the  logs  and  built  the  cabin  in 
which  his  son  Thomas  was  born  and  where  he 
lived  for  many  years  with  his  brothers  and  sisters 
until  the  family  was  prosperous  enough  to  erect  a 
large  two-story  brick  residence  on  the  old  home- 
stead, the  work  being  done  by  the  sons  of  the 
family,  who  not  only  constructed  the  building, 
but  also  manufactured  the  brick.  This  resi- 
dence, which  is  one  of  the  landmarks  of  the  com- 
munity, is  now  occupied  by  George  H.  Shaw,  a 
brother  of  the  Judge,  who  saw  most  honorable 
service  as  a  lieutenant  in  the  Union  army  in  the 
Civil  war.  Mrs.  Penelope  Shaw  died  in  1840, 
when  her  son  Thomas  was  but  four  years  of  age, 
but  the  father  reached  the  age  of  eighty  years, 
passing  away  on  the  old  homestead,  February 
2.  1877. 

The  usual  description  of  pioneer  life  would 
present  a  picture  of  the  environments  of  Judge 
Shaw  in  his  boyhood  days,  when  there  were 
forest  trees  to  fell,  a  virgin  soil  to  till  and  prairie 
fires  to  fight.  Prom  his  work  in  the  forest  and 
fields  he  eagerly  turned  to  his  books,  his  favorite 
studies  being  mathematics  and  history,  and  he 
made  such  surprising  progress  in  his  education 
that  with  all  the  disadvantages  which  attended 
upon  its  acquirement  he  was  prepared  when  six- 
teen years  of  age  to  carry  on  the  work  as  a 
student  of  Judson  College  at  Mount  Palatine,  in 
Putnam  county,  Illinois,  then  the  leading  educa- 
tional institute  of  the  central  portion  of  this 
state.  A  year  later,  however,  in  1854,  the  school 
svas  obliged  to  suspend,  and  Judge  Shaw  became 
a  student  in  Mount  Morris  Academy.  Ambitious 
to  enter  a  field  of  labor  demanding  intellectual 
prowess,  he  became  a  law  student  in  the  office  of 
William  D.  Edwards,  his  cousin,  and  at  that  time 
the  leading  attorney  of  Lacon,  in  1855.  The 
same  thoroughness  which  characterized  his  gen- 
eral school  work  was  manifest  in  his  efforts  to 


master  the  principles  of  jurisprudence,  and  in 
later  years  when  he  had  earned  an  assured  posi- 
tion as  a  lawyer  and  judge,  those  who  had  the 
privilege  of  studying  in  his  office  and  afterward 
of  following  his  professional  career  and  private 
life,  enthusiastically  testified  to  his  broad  under- 
standing and  impartial  interpretation  of  the  law, 
his  intellectual  cultivation,  his  manly  integrity 
and  his  firmness  and  courage,  coupled  with  a 
tenderness  which  was  essentially  womanly  in  its 
type. 

When  twenty  years  of  age  Judge  Shaw  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  and  located  for  practice  at 
Hennepin,  where  he  remained  for  five  years.  In 
1873  he  was  also  admitted  to  practice  before  the 
United  States  supreme  court.  He  became  a  resi- 
dent of  Lacon  in  1862,  but  had  previously  en- 
listed for  service  in  the  Civil  war  at  Hennepin. 
He  had  been  chosen  captain  of  the  company,  but 
was  afterward  rejected  on  account  of  an  accident 
in  boyhood,  which  deprived  him  of  the  use  of 
an  eye.  Removing  to  Lacon,  he  became  a  partner 
of  Judge  Mark  Bangs  \mder  the  firm  style  of 
Bangs  &  Shaw,  a  connection  that  was  maintained 
for  seventeen  years,  and  the  firm  was  regarded  as 
one  of  the  strongest  at  the  bar  of  central  Illi- 
nois. It  is  said  the  two  made  an  excellent  com- 
bination, the  studious  habits  and  close  applica- 
tion of  Mr.  Shaw  being  supplemented  by  the 
oratorical  powers  of  Mr.  Bangs,  who  was  always 
effective  in  jury  trials.  The  dissolution  of  the 
firm  came  with  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Bangs 
to  the  office  of  the  United  States  district  attorney, 
with  headquarters  in  Chicago.  In  the  meantime, 
in  1874,  R.  B.  Edwards,  a  cousin  of  Judge  Shaw, 
had  been  received  into  partnership,  so  that  upon 
the  retirement  of  Mr.  Bangs  the  firm  became  Shaw 
&  Edwards,  and  was  tiros  maintained  until  Mr. 
Shaw's  election  in  1885  as  one  of  the  three  cir- 
cuit judges  of  the  tenth  judicial  district.  He 
went  to  the  bench  well  qualified  for  the  arduous 
duties  that  are  called  for  in  the  impartial  ad- 
ministration of  the  law,  and  his  record  on  the 
bench  was  in  harmony  with  his  record  as  a  man 
and  lawyer,  being  distinguished  by  irreproach- 
able integrity  and  a  masterful  grasp  of  every 
problem  that  was  presented  for  solution.  In  1891 
and  again  in  1897  Judge  Shaw  was  elected,  but 
died  April  15,  1901,  during  the  sixteenth  year 
of  his  service.  He  had  the  highest  respect  of  the 
members  of  the  bar  and  his  decisions  were  model? 


144 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


of  judicial  soundness.  He  had  the  faculty  to  a 
remarkable  degree  of  losing  all  personal  prejudice 
and  peculiarities  in  the  equity  and  justice  of 
the  case,  and  he  was  seldom,  if  ever,  at  error  in 
the  application  of  a  legal  point  to  the  question  at 
issue.  There  are  few  men  who  have  had  so  small 
a  number  of  decisions  reversed.  While  quick  to 
grasp  a  point  and  with  a  breadth  of  perception 
enabling  him  to  view  a  case  from  every  stand- 
point, he  must  also  feel  assured  that  he  was 
right  before  a  decision  was  rendered.  His  im- 
partiality and  absolute  fairness  were  acknowl- 
edged by  every  member  of  the  bar  comprising 
the  district  and  none  feared  to  leave  a  decision 
of  a  case  in  his  hands.  He  was  often  urged  by 
his  -professional  friends  to  become  a  candidate 
for  judge  of  the  state  supreme  court,  and  Kis 
name  was  prominently  mentioned  in  connection 
with  gubernatorial  honors. 

Judge  Shaw  was  a  recognized  leader  in  the 
ranks  of  the  democracy,  and  although  while  on 
the  bench  he  took  little  part  in  political  affairs 
and  never  allowed  partisan  feeling  to  affect  him 
in  any  way  in  the  discharge  of  his  multitudinous 
delicate  duties,  prior  to  the  time  when  he  was 
called  to  the  bench  he  was  an  influential  factor 
in  democratic  circles.  He  was  twice  elected  and 
served  as-  mayor  of  Lacon,  and  was  also  a  member 
of  the  school  board.  He  was  once  the  candidate 
of  his  party  for  congress  and  in  1880  he  was 
elected  to  represent  his  district,  comprising  Mar- 
shall, Woodford  and  Putnam  counties,  in  the 
state  senate.  He  had  very  ably  represented  his 
district  during  the  thirty-second  and  thirty-third 
sessions  of  the  legislature,  and  at  the  latter  had 
been  honored  with  the  unanimous  vote  of  the 
senators  of  his  party  for  the  position  of  presi- 
dent pro  tern.  He  was  next  elected  to  the  bench, 
although  he  never  sought  office. 

Judge  Shaw  was  married  on  the  24th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1863,  to  Miss  Nellie  F.  Hirsch,  of  Metamora, 
Woodford  county,  Illinois,  considered  one  of  the 
beautiful  belles  of  that  locality.  She  is  a  native 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  is  one  of  the  five  chil- 
dren born  to  Frederick  F.  and  Caroline  (Starrett) 
Hirsch.  Her  mother  was  also  born  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  died  in  Metamora,  Illinois,  October  8, 
1866,  while  her  father  was  born  in  Lowell,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  died  in  Metamora,  April  22,  1901, 
at  the  age  of  eighty-five  years.  He  was  pre- 
paring to  -attend  the  funeral  of  Judge  Shaw  the 


day  after  the  latter's  death  and  died  six  days 
later.  This  double  sorrow  to  Mrs.  Shaw  was  a 
strain  to  the  heart  strings  which  few  women 
would  have  borne  without  utter  collapse.  She 
was  only  ten  years  of  age  when  the  family  re- 
moved from  the  east  to  Woodford  county,  Illi- 
nois. Besides  Mrs.  Shaw,  the  aged  father  left 
three  married  daughters:  Mrs.  Carrie  S.  Irving, 
of  Metamora;  Mrs.  Lutie  C.  Myers,  of  the  same 
place;  and  Mrs.  Narietta  A.  Cassell,  of  Denver, 
Colorado.  The  maternal  great-grandfather  of 
Mrs.  Shaw  was  an  officer  in  the  British  army. 
His  real  name  was  Stuart,  and  he  was  related  to 
Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.  While  in  England  he  fell 
in  love  with  an  English  lady  of  nobility,  but 
their  marriage  was  opposed  on  account  of  his 
Scotch  connections.  The  young  couple  eloped  to 
America  and  were  married  on  their  arrival  in 
New  England.  To  hide  his  identity  he  changed 
his  name  from  Stuart  to  Starrett  and  eventually 
settled  in  New  Hampshire. 

Judge  and  Mrs.  Shaw  never  had  any  children 
of  their  own,  but  reared  an  adopted  doughter, 
Daisy,  and  upon  her  Judge  Shaw  lavished  the 
love  of  the  ideal  father.  The  domestic  life  was 
everything  that  might  be  expected  when  one  con- 
siders the  deeply  affectionate,  the  strong,  the 
considerate,  and  the  well  balanced  character  of 
the  Judge.  At  home  he  cast  aside  his  legal  and 
judicial  cares.  He  loved  music  and  sang  in  a 
deep  mellow  voice,  and  he  delighted  in  the 
musical  talent  of  his  daughter.  A  lover  of  art, 
he  visited  in  his  travels  many  noted  galleries. 
He  loved  nature  even  more  and  its  beauties — 
and  he  could  always  find  beauty  therein — were  a 
constant  delight  to  him.  He  took  little  interest 
in  games  of  chance  even  for  amusement,  but  such 
as  whist  and  chess,  which  call  for  the  applica- 
tion of  memory,  intellectual  action,  decision,  pa- 
tience and  mental  stamina,  he  always  played  with 
enjoyment  and  skill.  He  was  very  fond  of  travel, 
both  as  a  means  of  recreation  and  improvement, 
and  in  his  trips  in  his  native  land  and  abroad 
he  was  always  accompanied  by  his  wife  or  his 
daughter  or  both,  the  measure  of  his  enjoyment 
being  never  completed  unless  he  could  share  it 
with  others.  His  membership  relations  were  with 
the  Order  of  Elks  and  with  the  State  Bar  Asso- 
ciation. There  is  no  better  estimate  of  character 
and  of  accomplishment  than  that  which  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  words  of  friends  who,  without 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


145 


thought  of  eulogy,  voice  their  true  sentiment  in 
regard  to  an  individual.  His  large  and  lovable 
qualities  as  a  man  have  been  a  frequent  theme 
of  discussion  by  those  who  knew  him  best.  Judge 
S.  S.  Page,  one  of  his  co-workers  in  the  circuit 
court,  wrote :  "AVe  all  feel  that  we  have  lost  one 
of  the  best  and  most  lovable  men  we  have  ever 
known.  The  bench  and  bar  alike  will  mourn 
his  loss.  I  never  knew  a  man  who  seemed  to 
possess  more  of  a  sweet  and  womanly  disposition." 
While  Judge  Leslie  Puterbaugh,  of  Peoria,  said: 
"No  one  can  more  fully  than  I  appreciate  your 
irreparable  loss.  While  I  had  known  Judge  Shaw 
since  my  boyhood  and  had  always  respected  and 
admired  him  as  a  lawyer  and  jurist,  my  close  offi- 
cial and  personal  relations  of  recent  years  had 
led  me  to  know  and  love  him  almost  as  a  father. 
I  feel  that  I  have  lost  one  of  my  best  friends, 
and  shall  long  miss  his  genial  companionship 
and  wise  counsel."  Ex- Vice  President  Adlai  E. 
Stevenson,  who  spoke  at  his  funeral,  referred  to 
him  as  his  life-long  friend,  as. not  only  an  able 
lawyer  and  upright  judge,  but  so  true  a  man  in  all 
the  relations  of  life  as  to  have  fairly  earned  the 
immortality  spoken  of  by  the  poet: 

"To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind, 
Is  not  to  die." 

A  more  general  tribute  of  affection  and  esteem 
was  presented  in  these  resolutions  spread  upon 
the  records  of  the  circuit  court  of  Peoria  county 
by  the  members  of  the  Peoria  Bar  Association : 

Whereas,-  Thomas  M.  Shaw,  one  of  the  judges 
of  the  Tenth  Judicial .  Circuit  of  Illinois,  has 
been  suddenly  called  away  in  the  midst  of  his 
usefulness,  the  members  of  the  bar  practicing 
before  him  in  Peoria  and  adjoining  counties,  de- 
sire to  place  on  record  their  appreciation  of  him 
as  a  judge  and  a  man. 

Faithful  in  all  his  dutia«,  widely  and  profound- 
ly learned  in  the  law,  he  brought  large  abilities 
to  the  work  of  the  jurist.  Kindly,  patient  and 
serene,  his  great  endeavor  was  to  mete  out  jus- 
tice through  the  rules  of  law.  He  has  not  only 
the  respect  and  admiration  of  the  bar,  but  the 
love  of  its  members  also.  "Justice,  tempered  by 
mercy."  was  his  motto. 

.  In  social  intercourse  he  was  modest  and  un- 
ohtrusivo,  hut  always  approachable  and  pleasant. 
Ho  weighed  social,  moral,  and  religious  ques- 
tions with  the  same  calm,  judicial  spirit  that 
he  brought  to  legal  ones.  As  a  friend  he  was 


reliable;  always  the  same.  When  he  approached 
any  question,  principles  rather  than  persons  guid- 
ed him. 

Thus  he  won  the  confidence  of  the  people.  For 
the  sixteen  years  they  kept  him  on  the  bench 
he  grew  in  that  confidence.  They  felt  their  rights 
were  safe  in  his  hands. 

To  his  afflicted  family  we  tender  our  heartfelt 
sympathy,  knowing  that  the  beautiful  picture  of 
his  life  will  abide  with  them  so  long  as  memory 
shall  endure. 

To  the  people  of  this  judicial  district  his  de- 
parture is  a  great  loss,  but  the  effect  and  memory 
of  his  service  on  the  bench  endure  as  a  great 
gain.  A  model  judge,  an  upright  citizen,  a  lov- 
able man  has  gone  from  us.  We  ask  that  this 
imperfect  memorial  of  him  be  placed  on  the 
records  of  Peoria  county. 

Says  Rev.  Theodore  Clifton,  western  field  sec- 
retary of  the  Congregational  Educational  Society : 
"I  knew  Judge  Shaw  long  and  well,  only  to  love 
and  honor  him.  The  news  of  his  death  was  a 
great  surprise  to  me,  and  came  with  a  distinct 
sense  of  personal  loss.  When  I  first  met  the 
judge,  nearly  thirty  years  ago,  he  was  a  young 
lawyer  in  Lacon,  Marshall  county.  From  that 
day  to  the  day  of  his  death  he  grew  upon  me,  not 
only  as  a  lawyer,  but  as  a  man,  a  citizen  and  a 
personal  friend.  Judge  Shaw  possessed  a  fine 
legal  mind  and  his  career  as  a  lawyer  and  a  judge 
wag  an  honor  to  the  state  as  well  as  to  himself. 
Illinois  did  not  confer  honor  upon  him  so  much 
as  he  conferred  honor  upon  Illinois.  A  quiet, 
unassuming  man,  he  did  not  realize  his  own  great 
worth  or  his  own  great  influence.  He  was  a  man 
of  few  words,  but  whether  before  a  jury,  on  the 
bench  or  in  the  social  circle,  his  words  were 
always  listened  to  and  carried  weight.  It  was 
the  weight  of  a  noble  manhood,  a  mature  and 
accurate  judgment,  and  an  unsullied  life." 

J.  Cassner  Irving,  a  brother-in-law  of  Judge 
Shaw,  draws  the  following  reminiscent  picture 
of  his  many-sided  personality:  "Judge  Shaw  was 
wedded  to  his  profession,  and  once  said  to  me : 
'I  had  rather  feel  that  I  was  qualified  to  fill  the 
position  of  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illi- 
nois than  be  president  of  the  United  States.' 
He  loved  nature  and  lived  as  near  to  it  as  his 
environment  would  permit.  He  was  a  plain,  un- 
obtrusive man,  meeting  pomp  and  pride  and  show, 
but  never  seeking  it.  He  loved  art  for  art's 


146 


PAST    AM)    1'KKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    ITTXAM    COUNTIES. 


sake,  and  said:  'It  is  nature's  first  cousin,  and 
music,  sweet  music,  is  its  soul.'  Gentle  and 
kind ;  always  regarding  the  rights  of  others ; 
knightly  and  respectful  to  women  wherever  he 
met  them;  loving  his  home  and  those  within  it, 
it  was  a  joy  to  him  to  return  to  it  when  his  day's 
work  was  done.  He  lived  for  others,  and  espe- 
cially those  he  loved.  Firm  as  a  rock  when  con- 
vinced he  was  right,  conscientious  to  an  exces- 
sive degree,  he  worked  harder  to  do  justice  and 
right  than  any  man  I  ever  knew.  I  was  very 
close  to  him  in  some  of  his  campaigns  for  office, 
and  knew  much  of  what  he  did  and  wanted  done. 
Once  during  his  second  judicial  campaign  Luther 
Dearborn,  of  Chicago,  came  to  me  and  said : 
'Now,  young  man,  I  met  a  party  of  lawyers  in 
Peoria  last  night,  and  the  three  democratic  can- 
didates for  judges  were  there,  and  I  was  told 
you  had  the  practical  management  of  their  cam- 
paign in  hand  and  at  heart.  Do  your  best,  but 
be  sure  that  Shaw  is  elected.'  I  saw  Judge  Shaw 
a  few  days  afterward  and  told  him  of  the  inci- 
dent. He  said :  'Cass,  do  your  best ;  but  do  not 
push  me  past  the  other  boys,  for  I  had  rather 
be  defeated  than  to  have  them  think  I  had  not 
sailed  fair  with  them.'  He  lived  for  others,  and 
in  the  years  to  come- — in  that  mysterious,  sweet 
unknown,  when  mists  and  clouds  and  darkness 
and  doubts  have  been  dispelled,  I  only  hope  to 
meet  my  friend,  Judge  Shaw." 

It  falls  to  the  lot  of  but  few  in  this  world  to 
fiilly  and  yet  humbly  respond,  throughout  a  long 
life  of  practical  and  professional  activity,  to  the 
impressive  call  of  the  immortal  Bryant: 
"So  live,  that  when  thy  summons  conies  to  join 
The  innumerable  caravan  that  moves 
To  that  mysterious  realm  where  each  shall  take 
His  chamber  in  the  silent  halls  of  death, 
Thou  go  not,  like  the  quarry-slave  at  night, 
Scourged    to    his    dungeon,    but    sustained    and 

soothed 

By  an  unfaltering  trust,  approach  thy  grave 
Like  one  that  draws  the  drapery  of  his  couch 
About  him,  and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams." 


DAVID  B.  MOOEE. 

David  B.  Moore,  who  derives  his  income  from 
a  valuable  fanning  property  of  two  hundred  and 
ten  acres  in  Hennepin  township,  is  now  living 
retired  from  business  cares  in  the  village  of  Gran- 


ville.  His  life  occupation  was  that  of  farming, 
and^when  his  labors  had  brought  him  a  comfort- 
able competence  he  put  aside  the  more  arduous 
duties  of  life  to  enjoy  his  remaining  days  in  rest 
from  further  labor.  He  was  born  in  the  town  of 
Independence,  Washington  county,  Pennsylvania, 
February  7,  1831.  His  father,  James  Moore,  a 
native  of  old  Virginia,  was  a  miller  and  wheel- 
wright in  early  life  and  subsequently  located  on  a 
farm  in  Washington  county,  Pennsylvania.  He 
was  born  in  1800  and  died  at  the  age  of  forty- 
eight  years,  while  his  wife,  Nancy  Boyd,  who  was 
born  in  the  Keystone  state,  lived  to  be  eighty-four 
years  of  age  and  passed  away  on  the  old  homestead 
farm  in  Washington  county. 

David  B.  Moore  is  indebted  to  the  public-school 
system  of  his  native  county  for  the  educational 
privileges  that  fitted  him  for  life's  practical  and 
responsible  duties.  He  remained  at  home  with  his 
parents  until  twenty-three  years  of  age,  and  then, 
ambitious  to  engage  in  business  on  his  own  ac- 
count, he  started  fer  Illinois,  making  his  way  down 
the  Ohio  river  and  up  the  Mississippi  and  Illinois 
rivers  to  Hennepin,  where  he  landed  in  the  fall 
of  1853.  He  was  a  poor  man  with  no  reserve 
capital,  and  as  necessity  rendered  it  expedient  that 
he  find  immediate  employment  he  began  work  at 
husking  corn.  He  and  his  brother  John  after- 
ward engaged  in  chopping  wood  in  the  first  win- 
ter. They  were  strangers,  and  as  they  had  little 
money  they  had  to  purchase  their  supplies  on 
credit.  They  tried  to  buy  an  ax  in  Granville  on 
time,  but  the  merchant  would  not  trust  them. 
Finally  Moses  Chapman,  an  early  settler  and 
blacksmith  in  Granville,  went  security  for  them 
until  they  could  earn  the  money  to  pay  for  the 
tools.  They  made  the  payments  out  of  the  first 
money  earned,  and  from  that  time  on  always  had 
good  credit  and  were  recognized  as  honest  men. 
By  the  succeeding  spring  David  B.  Moore  had 
saved  enough  to  purchase  a  team  and  tools  and 
then  began  farming  on  his  own  account  on  rented 
land  on  Hennepiii  Prairie.  He  had  good  crops 
and  in  this  way  made  a  start. 

On  the  30th  of  August,  1855,  he  secured  a  com- 
panion and  helpmate  for  life's  journey  through 
his  marriage  to  Miss  Martha  Moore,  who  though 
of  the  same  name  was  not  a  relative.  She  was 
born  in  Putnam  county,  June  20,  1836,  a  daugh- 
ter of  Robert  Moore,  one  of  the  early  settlers.  Mr. 
Moore,  of  this  review,  following  his  marriage 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OP    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COrNTlKS. 


1  1!) 


rented  land  of  his  father-in-law  and  put  in  eighty 
acres  of  fall  wheat,  which  averaged  thirty-eight 
bushels  per  acre.  Wheat  was  then  worth  about 
thirty-five  cents  per  bushel,  and  not  desiring  to 
sell  at  that  low  figure  he  built  a  bin  and  stored 
his  wheat,  later  hauling  it  to  Peru,  where  he  sold 
it  for  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  per  bushel.  This 
placed  him  in  comparatively-  easy  financial  cir- 
cumstances, and  with  the  proceeds  of  his  crop  he 
purchased  the  following  year  ninety  acres  of  land 
in  Hennepiii  township  near  the  old  Union  Grove 
church.  A  log  stable  and  a  one  story  frame 
house  were  the  only  improvements  upon  the  farm, 
but  with  characteristic  energy  he  began  its  further 
development  and  soon  placed  it  under  cultivation. 
He  worked  earnestly  and  persistently  year  after 
year,  and  as  he  found  it  possible  to  make  other 
purchases  he  added  to  the  farm,  until  it  now  com- 
prises two  hundred  and  ten  acres  of  very  rich  and 
productive  land  in  Hennepin  township.  He  also 
owns  sixty  acres  near  the  village  of  Granville  and 
a  beautiful  home  in  the  town.  He  continued  to 
reside  upon  the  farm  until  1902,  when,  satisfied 
with  the  competence  that  he  had  already  acquired, 
he  put  aside  the  more  active  duties  of  business 
life  and  retired  to  Granville,  where  he  has  erected 
and  now  occupies  a  neat  cottage  on  East  Hopkins 
avenue. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Moore  have  been  born  six 
children,  all  of  whom  are  living:  Wilson,  who 
follows  farming  in  Hennepin  township ;  Fannie 
Evaline,  the  wife  of  John  WTintcrsheid,  a  resident 
o.f  Coffey  county,  Kansas ;  Harry,  who  wedded  Eva 
Pangburn  and  lives  upon  the  old  home  farm; 
Minnie,  the  wife  of  Milton  Pord,  who  is  farming 
in  Granville  township ;  Perry,  who  is  married  and 
lives  at  Florid;  and  Howard,  who  is  married  and 
resides  in  the  west. 

Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Moore  have  for  many  years 
been  zealous  and  devoted  members  of  the  Presby- 
terian church.  In  1857  he  commenced  Bible 
work  in  his  school  district  in  Hennepin  township 
and  was  local  agent  until  1862,  since  which  time 
he  has  been  a  county  worker,  and  from  1892  until 
tlic  ]> resent  time,  in  1906,  he  has  been  president 
of  the  Putnam  County  Bible  Association.  He  was 
reared  in  the  faith  of  the  democracy  and  followed 
in  his  father's  political  footsteps  in  early  days, 
voting  for  Pierce  and  Buchanan,  but  when  the 
1 1  in 'stiii n  of  slavery  became  the  dominant  issue  be- 
fore the  people  and  the  republican  party  was 


formed  to  prevent  its  further  extension  he  joined 
its  ranks,  cast  his  ballot  for  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
has  voted  for  each  presidential  nominee  of  the 
party  since  that  time.  For  thirty-two  years  he 
filled  the  office  of  school  director  and  has  always 
been  an  authority  on  school  laws  of  the  state.  The 
cause  of  education  finds  in  him  a  very  stanch 
friend,  and  he  is  also  interested  in  the  material, 
political  and  moral  progress  of  his  community. 
He  is  an  entertaining  gentleman,  a  fluent  con- 
versationalist, who  though  denied  broad  educa- 
tional privileges  in  youth  has  read  widely  and 
thought  deeply  and  in  the  school  of  experience  has 
learned  many  valuable  lessons.  He  relates  most 
entertainingly  incidents  of  the  early  days  in  this 
county  and  of  the  hardships  and  privations  en- 
countered in  his  own  business  career,  and  he  de- 
serves and  receives  the  admiration  and  respect  of 
his  fellowmen  by  reason  of  what  he  has  accom- 
plished, while  his  present  honorable  retirement  is 
the  fitting  reward  of  his  life  of  former  toil. 


ST.  MARY'S  CATHOLIC  CHURCH. 
St.  Mary's  Catholic  church  of  Henry  practically 
had  its  beginning  in  1850,  when  the  Henry  mis- 
sion was  formally  opened,  although  priests  had 
previously  visited  this  neighborhood.  Hitherto 
the  few  and  scattered  Catholics  of  this  county 
had  been  attended  by  zealous-  missionaries  who 
rode  through  the  district,  baptizing  the  children, 
instructing  the  Catholic  settlers  and  burying  their 
dead.  Mass  was  occasionally  read  in  the  houses 
of  the  faithful  and  there  the  sacraments  were  ad- 
ministered. In  1851  the  question  of  building  a 
church  was  agitated  in  Henry  and  in  1852  the 
corner  stone  of  St.  Mary's  church  was  laid  by 
Father  John  O'Rielly,  of  La  Salle.  Fathers  Gip- 
perich,  Kramer,  Lynch,  Meehan  and  W.  H.  Pow- 
ers attended  the  church  until  the  arrival  of  the 
first  resident  pastor,  Rev.  Thomas  O'Gara,  in% 
1856.  He  immediately  sought  and  obtained  a 
suitable  rectory,  and  thoroughly  organized  the  new 
parish.  In  June,  1860,  he  left  for  other  fields 
of  labor  and  was  followed  siiccessively  by  Fathers 
Cartuyvels,  Delahanty  and  Lightner,  who  pre- 
ceded Rev.  Henry  Koehn  in  July,  1863.  The 
last  named  built  and  furnished  the  large  two-story 
brick  school  house  in  1869.  Father  Reck  became 
pastor  in  1869  and  in  1873  '  was  succeeded  by 
Rev.  Schreiber  and  he  in  turn  by  Revs.  Max  Al- 


150 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


brecht  and  Von  Schwedler.  Rev.  William  Scha- 
moni  arrived  in  1877  and  remained  as  pastor  un- 
til his  death  in  1882.  Rev.  C.  Hout  was  his 
successor  and  he  it  was  who  built  the  present 
substantial  two-story  brick  rectory.  Rev.  B.  Baak 
was  appointed  to  take  charge  of  St.  Mary's  in 
1886,  Rev.  P.  J.  Gerhardy  in  1894  and  the  pres- 
ent pastor,  Leonz  Zumbuehl,  in  June,  1899.  The 
last  named  has  since  remained  in  charge  and  the 
church  has  made  steady  progress  under  his  min- 
istration, its  various  departments  being  in  good 
working  order. 

FATHER  LEONZ  ZUMBUEHL. 
Father  Leonz  Zumbuehl  was  born  in  Luzerne, 
Switzerland,  May  11,  1846,  where  he  passed  his 
boyhood  years,  roaming  amidst  the  beautiful  scen- 
ery of  that  romantic  land,  and  breathed,  while 
obtaining  his  fundamental  training,  its  pure  air 
of  freedom.  Later  he  entered  St.  Mary's  college 
in  Schwitz  as .  a  preparation  for  the  famous  uni- 
versity of  Freiburg,  Baden.  Here  he  graduated 
with  honor  in  the  philosophical  course,  choosing 
the  ecclesiastical  profession.  We  next  find  him 
studying  theology  in  the  seminary  at  Chur.  April 
19,  1870,  he  was  ordained  for  the  missions  of  the 
United  States.  The  same  year  he  sailed  for  the 
field  of  his  future  labors  with  Rt.  Rev.  Amadeus 
Rapp,  the  first  bishop  of  Cleveland.  He  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  professorship  of  philosophy  in  the 
seminary  of  that  city,  which  position  he  satis- 
factorily filled  until  1877,  when  he  was  called 
by  the  newly  consecrated  bishop  of  Peoria  to  ful- 
fill pastoral  duties  in  this  diocese,  then  greatly  in 
need  of  priests.  Bishop  Spalding  appointed  him 
to  the  pastorate  of  Warsaw,  where  he  soon  cleared 
the  church  of  a  burdensome  debt.  Later  he  la- 
bored faithfully  at  Richland,  Kickapoo  and  Otta- 
wa. For  the  past  seven  years  he  has  been  in 
charge  of  St.  Mary's,  Henry,  where  with  his  usual 
zeal,  he  has  succeeded  in  paying  off  several  hun- 
dred dollars  debt  and  renovated  the  church  by 
painting  it  on  the  outside  and  frescoing  it  within. 
He  is  now  endeavoring  to  raise  a  fund  to  build 
a  handsome  church  edifice,  and  no  doubt  this, 
his  crowning  work,  will  soon  be  accomplished,  if 
he  is  spared  to  labor  a  few  more  years. 


HON.  JOEL  WILLIS  HOPKINS. 
•  In  the  death  of  Joel  Willis  Hopkins,  Putnam 
county   mourned  the   loss   of   one   whom   it   had 
grown   to    esteem    and    honor   by    reason    of   his 


genuine  personal  worth.  No  history  of  Putnam 
county  would  be  adequate  that  did  not  take  into 
account  his  great  influence  in  molding  the  char- 
acter of  its  people,  in  shaping  the  policy  of  the 
county  and  in  promoting  public  interests  along 
the  lines  of  progress,  good  order  and  moral  and 
religious  development.  He  was  active  in  public 
affairs  of  the  county,  state  and  nation  and  at  all 
times  he  stood  for  high  ideals. 

"His  life  was  noble,  and  the  elements 
So  mixed  in  him  that  Nature  might  stand  up 
And  say  to  all  the  world :  'This  was  a  man.'  " 
Mr.  Hopkins  became  a  resident  of  Putnam 
county  in  1835,  and  therefore  witnessed  its 
growth  and  development  for  almost  sixty-seven 
years,  his  death  occurring  on  the  16th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1902.  He  was  born  on  the  29th  of  July, 
1814,  at  Ripley,  Brown  county,  Ohio,  his  parents 
being  William  and  Jane  (Willis)  Hopkins,  the 
former  a  native  of  Virginia  and  the  latter  of 
South  Carolina.  When  young  people,  however, 
they  removed  to  Ohio  from  their  respective  states 
and  were  there  married.  In  1835  they  brought 
their  family  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  settling 
upon  the  farm  which  later  became  the  home  of 
their  son  Joel,  the  residence  which  now  stands 
there  occupying  the  site  of  the  first  log  cabin  of 
the  family. 

William  Hopkins  secured  land  of  the  govern- 
ment, to  the  cultivation  and  improvement  of  which 
he  devoted  his  energies  until  his  death  in  1842. 
His  wife  survived  him  for  about  seven  years.  One 
son  of  the  family,  Archibald  Wilson,  had  previ- 
ously come  to  Putnam  county,  locating  here  in 
1832,  and  while  here  participated  in  the  Indian 
war.  His  death  occurred  in  1839.  John  Craw- 
ford is  a  resident  of  Marshall  county,  Iowa. 
Stephen  D.,  who  was  an  invalid,  died  at  the  age 
of  forty-four  years.  George  B.,  who  lived  near 
Granville,  died  May  30,  1904.  Elizabeth,  who 
was  the  wife  of  Willis  Margrave,  died  May  24, 
1892,  at  Hiawatha,  Kansas.  Martha  married 
James  B.  McCord  and  died  June  24,  1881.  Mar- 
garet engaged  in  teaching  for  several  years  in 
Putnam  and  Grundy  counties,  Illinois,  and  died 
when  past  the  age  of  thirty  years.  Melinda  wedded 
Abbott  Barker,  of  Grundy  county,  and  died  May 
22,  1865.  The  parents  were  earnest  Christian 
people,  holding  membership  in  the  early  years  of 
their  residence  here  with  the  Union  Grove  Pres- 
byterian church,  while  in  later  life  they  assisted 


0 


PAST   AND    PRESENT' OF    MAESHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


in  the  organization  of  the  Congregational  church 
at  Granville. 

Joel  Willis  Hopkins,  the  second  son  of  his 
father's  family,  was  a  young  man  of  twenty-one 
years  at  the  time  of  the  removal  to  Illinois,  and 
he  assisted  in  the  arduous  task  of  developing  a 
new  farm,  sharing  in  the  hardships  and  privations 
incident  to  settlement  upon  the  frontier.  His 
preparation  for  having  a  home  of  his  own  was 
completed  in  1840  by  his  marriage  to  Miss  Eleanor 
Jane  Harrison,  a  sister  of  Stephen  Harrison.  She 
and  her  brother,  Eichard  D.  Harrison,  died  in  the 
same  week  in  1849,  and  in  1862  Mr.  Hopkins 
wedded  the  widow  of  the  latter,  Mrs.  Sarah  Har- 
rison, a  daughter  of  Alba  Smith,  who  was  one  of 
the  pioneer  settlers  of  Bureau  county,  Illinois, 
taking  up  his  abode  near  Princeton  in  1835.  Mrs. 
Hopkins  is  a  native  of  New  York  and  was  eleven 
years  of  age  when  she  accompanied  her  father  to 
this  state.  By  his  first  marriage  Mr.  Hopkins 
had  five  children,  of  whom  two,  Eveline  and  Jen- 
nie, died  in  childhood,  while  those  living  are 
Archibald  Wilson,  residing  upon  the  home  farm; 
Helen  De  Armand,  the  wife  of  Eev.  Bobert  Mc- 
Cord,  of  Lake  City,  Iowa;  and  Mary  Harrison, 
the  wife  of  Judge  W.  Wright,  of  Toulon,  Illinois. 
One  daughter  graced  the  second  marriage,  Martha 
Belle,  who  is  the  wife  of  Sidney  Whitaker.  By 
her  first  husband  Mrs.  Hopkins  had  one  son,  Eich- 
ard D.  Harrison,  who  is  living  in  Bureau  county, 
near  Princeton. 

Viewed  from  a  business  standpoint  the  life 
record  of  Mr.  Hopkins  was  a  distinguished  one, 
for  he  so  conducted  his  affairs  and  placed  his  in- 
vestments that  he  became  one  of  the  extensive 
landowners  of  this  section  of  Illinois.  Upon  the 
organization  of  the  Peru  National  Bank  Mr.  Hop- 
kins became  its  president  and  so  continued  until 
his  death.  The  safe,  conservative  policy  which  he 
inaugurated  made  this  one  of  the  strong  financial 
institutions  of  this  part  of  Illinois,  and  in  moneyed 
as  well  as  agricultural  circles  he  sustained  an  un- 
assailable reputation.  He  was  also  president  of 
the  Putnam  County  Bank  at  Hennepin  and  of 
the  Granville  Bank.  In  all  his  business  dealings 
he  manifested  a  fidelity  to  a  high  standard  of  com- 
mercial ethics  that  won  him  the  honor  and  ad- 
miration of  all. 

A  leading  and  popular  citizen,  Mr.  Hopkins 
was  called  upon  to  fill  various  important  positions 
of  honor  and  trust,  serving  as  supervisor,  while 


for  ten  years  he  was  county  judge.  He  resigned 
his  place  on  the  bench  in  order  to  become  a  mem- 
ber of  the  twenty-sixth  general  assembly,  to  which 
he  was  elected  on  the  republican  ticket.  He  was 
actively  and  helpfully  interested  in  political  ques- 
tions, giving  to  the  principles  in  which  he  believed 
a  firm  and  stalwart  support.  He  served  as  a  dele- 
gate to  the  convention  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  which 
nominated  Eutherford  B.  Hayes  for  the  presi- 
dency, and  he  was  frequently  a  delegate  to  the 
state  conventions  of  his  party.  During  the  dark 
days  of  the  Civil  war  he  assisted  in  raising  money 
for  substitutes  and  for  the  care  of  the  soldiers' 
widows  and  orphans,  and  upheld  to  the  fullest 
extent  the  administration  and  the  Union  cause. 
He  served  for  many  years  as  an  officer  in  the  Con- 
gregational church  at  Granville,  in  which  he  held 
membership.  He  died  February  16,  1902,  leaving 
a  valuable  estate  to  his  family,  chiefly  represented 
in  his  landed  interests.  In  his  character  there  was 
an  unusual  combination  of  qualities.  To  the 
world,  the  church,  his  neighbors  and  his  friends, 
he  was  a  tower  of  strength;  to  his  family  all  of 
that  and  a  world  of  tenderness  beside.  He  was  at 
ease  in  the  presence  of  the  highest  dignitaries  of 
the  nation,  and  was  so  simple  and  kindly  that  no 
one,  however  humble,  felt  abashed  in  his  presence. 
At  his  death  it  could  truly  be  said,  "Know  ye  not 
that  there  is  a  prince  and  great  man  fallen  this 
day  in  Israel  ?" 


JOHN  SPENCEE  BUET. 

The  press  has  not  only  recorded  the  story  of  ad- 
vancement, but  has  also  ever  been  the  leader  in 
the  work  of  progress  and  improvement — the  van- 
guard of  civilization.  The  philosopher  of  some 
centuries  ago  proclaimed  the  truth  that  "the  pen 
is  mightier  than  the  sword,"  and  the  statement  is 
continually  being  verified  in  the  affairs  of  life. 
In  molding  public  opin/on  the  power  of  the  news- 
paper cannot  be  estimated,  but  at  all  events  its 
influence  is  greater  than  any  other  single  agency, 
and  in  this  connection  John  Spencer  Burt,  as 
editor  of  the  Henry  Times,  has  done  much  to 
mold  public  thought  and  action. 

A  native  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  he  was  born 
on  the  16th  of  March,  1834,  and  is. a  son  of 
George  and  Jerusha  (Spencer)  Burt.  The 
father's  birth  occurred  in  Lansingburg,  New 
York,  January  26,  1806,  and  in  early  life  he 


154 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


learned  and  followed  the  trade  of  a  tanner  and 
currier.  He  became  a  good  workman  and  had  a 
large  business.  In  1833  he  married  Jerusha  Spen- 
cer, who  was  born  in  Hartford,  Connecticut,  in 
1800.  In  1846  they  removed  with  their  family 
to  Marshall  county,  Illinois,  and  here  the  father 
turned  his  attention  to  general  agricultural  pur- 
suits. He  was  a  representative  citizen  of  the 
pioneer  community  and  in  various  public  offices, 
such  as  school  director,  tax  assessor,  and  town 
clerk  he  rendered  capable  service  in  the  com- 
munity. He  also  held  office  in  the  Baptist  church, 
to  which  he  belonged  and  lived  an  upright,  honor- 
able life,  which  was  terminated  in  death  when  he 
was  eighty-two  years  of  age.  His  wife  was  always. 
a  devoted  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church  and 
her  death  occurred  in  1882. 

John  Spencer  Burt,  the  eldest  of  the  family  of 
five  children,  acquired  his  more  specifically  liter- 
ary education  as  a  student  in  Knox  College  and 
Lombard  University,  at  Galesburg,  Illinois.  He 
pursued  a  scientific  course,  but  did  not  graduate. 
He  was  only  twelve  years  of  age  when  he  accom- 
panied his  parents  on  their  removal  westward  to 
Illinois,  the  family  home  being  established  upon 
a  farm  in  Marshall  county  at  a  time  when  there 
were  not  more  than  a  half  dozen  settlers  in  the 
township.  He  assisted  in  the  farm  labor  until 
eighteen  years  of  age,  when  he  engaged  in  teach- 
ing school  through  the  winter  seasons,  while  in 
the  summer  months  he  aided  in  the  work  of  the 
fields.  Thus  his  time  and  attention  were  occu- 
pied until  his  marriage. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  he  responded  to  the 
country's  call  for  troops.  Hardly  had  the  smoke 
from  Fort  Sumter's  guns  cleared  away,  when,  in 
the  spring  of  1861,  he  offered  his  services  to  the 
government,  but  the  company  was  not  needed  at 
that  time  and  it  was  not  until  July,  1861,  that 
he  became  a  regular  soldier,  enlisting  in  the  First 
Illinois  Cavalry.  He  did  scouting  in  Missouri 
for  a  time  and  was  taken  prisoner  with  the  rest 
of  Colonel  Mulligan's  command  at  the  battle  of 
Lexington,  Missouri,  by  General  Sterling  Price. 
He  was  then  paroled  and  sent  home,  but  later  was 
called  into  service  again,  when  the  government, 
finding  him  and  his  comrades  were  paroled  men, 
however,  they  were  mustered  out. 

On  resuming  the  pursuits  of  civic  life  Mr.  Burt 
again  engaged  in  teaching,  which  profession  he 
followed  until  his  marriage.  In  1869  he  re- 


moved  to  Henry,  where  he  established  a  news, 
book  and  notion  store,  which  he  carried 
on  with  a  gratifying  measure  of  success 
until  1888.  He  then  bought  the  Times,  a 
weekly  newspaper,  which  he  has  since  published. 
The  office  has  been  greatly  improved  under  his  di- 
rection. The  Times  is  a  six  column  quarto,  all 
printed  in  the  office  on  a  large  Cranston  cylinder 
press  with  foundry  type  and  run  by  a  gasoline  en- 
gine. There  are  also  three  job  presses,  a  paper 
cutter,  perforator  and  a  full  equipment  of  type,  all 
of  which  have  been  put  in  since  Mr.  Burt  pur- 
chased the  office,  which  was  very  poorly  supplied 
when  it  came  into  his  possession.  In  his  journal- 
istic venture  he  has  also  met  with  gratifying  pros- 
perity. The  paper  which  he  is  publishing  is  vital, 
enthusiastic  and  progressive;  they  aim  to  advance 
the  interests  of  the  county,  to  aid  in  laying  fast 
and  sure  the  foundation  for  an  enlightened  com- 
monwealth, further  the  ends  of  justice  and  uphold 
the  banner  of  the  state  of  Illinois. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Burt  is  a  democrat 
and  through  the  columns  of  his  paper  stanchly 
supports  the  principles  of  that  party.  For  twelve 
years  he  served  as  county  surveyor,  but  otherwise 
has  sought  nor  held  public  office.  He  belongs  to 
the  Odd  Fellows'  society,  of  which  he  is  treas- 
urer, and  to  Lookout  Mountain  Post,  No.  84,  G. 
A.  R.,  of  which  he  is  adjutant.  He  is  also  a 
member  of  the  Illinois  State  Editorial  Associa- 
tion and  attends  most  of  its  meetings. 

Mr.  Burt  was  married  in  Henry,  April  12,  1868, 
to'  Miss  Julia  Chapman,  the  eldest  daiighter  of 
Hiram  and  Eleanor  (Rogers)  Chapman.  They 
have  one  child,  a  son,  Robert  F.,  who  was  born  in 
1869,  and  married  Miss  Elizabeth  Smith,  by 
which  union  there  is  one  son,  Robert,  born  No- 
vember 24,  1903.  The  son  has  been  associated 
with  his  father  in  biisiness  for  the  past  eleven 
years  under  the  name  of  J.  S.  Burt  &  Son,  which 
is  a  strong  business  combination,  while  their  abil- 
ity in  the  field  of  newspaper  work  is  well  known 
to  the  many  readers  of  the  Times. 


GEORGE  \V.  HUNT. 

George  W.  Hunt,  superintendent  of  schools  of 
Putnam  county,  has,  although  a  young  man,  at- 
tained considerable  prominence  as  a  representative 
of  the  system -of  public  instruction  in  Illinois,  and 
his  abilities,  natural  and  ar<|inred.  are  an  Indira- 


GEORGE  W.  HUNT. 


PAST   AND    PBBSENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


157 


tion  that  still  further  advancement  awaits  him. 
Born  in  Fulton  county,  Illinois,  May  8,  1875,  he 
is  a  son  of  Hiram  and  Catherine  Hunt,  both  now 
deceased.  The  father,  a  farmer  by  occupation, 
was  born  in  New  York  and  came  to  this  state  in 
the  '30s.  His  wife  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  and 
with  a  sister  and  two  brothers  came  to  America. 
Mrs.  Hunt  took  up  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
of  land  near  Havana,  Illinois,  and  the  deed,  signed 
by  President  Buchanan,  has  never  been  transferred 
only  to  the  heirs. 

George  W.  Hunt  was  reared  under  the  parental 
roof  to  the  age  of  seventeen  years,  and  during  that 
period  acquired  a  district-school  education.  Am- 
bitious for  further  intellectual  progress,  he  then 
attended  the  State  Normal  School  at  Normal,  Illi- 
nois, and  alternately  devoted  his  time  and  energies 
to  teaching  and  study  until  he  entered  the  State 
University  in  1901.  In  1898  he  came  to  Putnam 
county  as  teacher  of  the  Center  district  school, 
near  Magnolia.  For  three  years  he  was  principal 
of  the  Granville  high  school,  and  in  the  fall  of 
1903,  while  yet  a  student  in  the  State  University, 
was  elected  superintendent  of  schools  for  Putnam 
county.  In  February,  1904,  he  came  to  Granville 
and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  this  office,  in  which 
capacity  he  is  now  serving.  Although  he  was  thus 
forced  to  relinquish  his  class  work  he  continued 
his  studies,  returning  to  the  university  to  take  all 
of  the  examinations,  and  was  graduated  therefrom 
in  1904  with  the  degree  of  L.  L.  B.  In  1905  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  has  since  successfully 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  law.  His  work  in  be- 
half of  the  schools  has  been  notable  and  has  won 
him  more  than  local  distinction.  In  April,  1906, 
he  rendered  a  decision  in  favor  of  the  consolidation 
of  three  school  districts  into  one.  This  was  a  new 
departure  in  the  school  work  of  Illinois,  but  had 
been  tried  successfully  in  other  states.  The  argu- 
ments Mr.  Hunt  presented  in  a  neat  eight  page 
pamphlet,  which  shows  his  ability  as  a  writer  and 
as  a  logical  thinker  and  indicates  that  much  time 
and  study  was  spent  in  its  preparation.  Having 
himself  been  a  student  in  the  district  schools  and 
in  the  State  Normal  and  a  teacher  in  the  district 
schools,  he  was  well  qualified  to  know  the  condi- 
tions of  the  country  schools  and  the  limited  op- 
portunity its  pupils  had  in  a  chance  for  entering 
a  high  school  or  college.  Mr.  Hunt's  opinions  are 
largely  considered  authority  on  public-school  ques- 


tions in  this  part  of  Illinois,  and  he  justly  merits 
the  position  of  prominence  that  he  has  won  in 
educational  circles.  His  own  broad  intellectual 
culture  and  natural  ability,  combined  with  his  un- 
faltering diligence,  have  made  him  recognized  as 
one  of  the  able  educators  of  the  state.  He  is  a 
most  entertaining  conversationalist  and  a  fluent 
writer,  and  is  continually  broadening  his  knowl- 
edge through  reading  and  investigation.  At  the 
last  election  he  was  re-elected  to  the  office  of 
county  superintendent  without  opposition. 

Fraternally  he  is  connected  with  the  Woodmen 
and  with  the  Odd  Fellows,  and  his  religious  faith 
is  indicated  in  his  membership  in  the  Congrega- 
tional church. 


WILLIAM  SALISBUEY. 

William  Salisbury,  an  esteemed  resident  of 
Henry,  who  since  1900  has  lived  retired  from 
active  farm  work,  which  he  made  his  life  occu- 
pation, was  born  in  the  county  of  Shropshire, 
England,  July  9,  1826,  his  parents  being  William 
and  Ann  (Butler)  Salisbury,  who  were  also  na- 
tives of  that  place.  The  father  was  a  game- 
keeper for  Sir  Andrew  Vincent  Corbett.  They 
had  twelve  children. 

William  Salisbury,  the  sixth  in  order  of  birth, 
came  to  the  United  States  in  1856,  when  thirty 
years  of  age,  and  settled  in  Lacon,  Illinois,  where 
he  spent  the  winter.  He  was  afterward  employed 
at  farm  labor  in  Prairie  township  for  several  years 
and  when  his  industry  and  economy  had  brought 
him  sufficient  capital  he  purchased  a  farm  in 
Saratoga  township,  Marshall  county,  whereon  he 
remained  for  thirty-seven  years.  He  was  an  en- 
ergetic, wideawake,  progressive  and  successful 
agriculturist  and  he  remained  upon  the  farm  until 
1900,  when  he  put  aside  the  active  work  of  the 
fields  and  is  now  living  in  Henry.  He  owns  one 
hundred  acres  of  valuable  land  in  Saratoga  town- 
ship and  this  returns  to  him  a  gratifying  income. 

Mr.  Salisbury  was  married  in  1864  to  Miss 
Margaret  J.  Jacobs,  who  was  born  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, August  1,  1845,  and  is  a  daughter  of 
George  Jacobs,  who  came  to  Illinois  in  1856,  lo- 
cating on  a  farm  in  Peoria  county.  Unto  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Salisbury  have  been  born  nine  children: 
Martha,  now  the  wife  of  Charles  Durling,  a  resi- 
dent of  Saratoga  township;  Ann,  the  wife  of 
George  McAtee,  who  is  living  in  Pocahontas 


158 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


county,  Iowa;  Jane,  the  wife  of  Henry  Seelye,  a 
resident  of  Minnesota;  William,  of  Bureau  coun- 
ty ;  Sarah,  the  wife  of  Albert  Newman,  of  White- 
field  township;  Thomas,  who  is  on  the  homestead 
farm  in  Saratoga  township;  Charles,  also  of 
Whitefield  township ;  Maude,  the  wife  of  Thomas 
Cain,  of  Saratoga  township;  and  Clara,  who  com- 
pletes the  family.  There  are  also  twenty-two 
grandchildren, 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Salisbury  are  devoted  members 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and  have  lived 
lives  in  consistent  harmony  with  their  profession. 
His  political  views  accord  with  the  principles  of 
the  republican  party  and  he  has  served  as  school 
director  for  twenty-one  years  and  as  road  com- 
missioner for  eleven  years.  His  long  continuance 
in  office  was  an  indication  of  his  capability  and 
fidelity  and  of  the  confidence  reposed  in  him  by 
his  fellow  townsmen.  He  has  made  an  enviable 
record  in  business  circles,  for  when  he  came  to 
America  at  the  age  of  thirty  years  he  had  no 
capital,  but  was  dependent  entirely  upon  his  own 
resources  for  a  livelihood.  Working  as  a  farm 
laborer  he  made  a  start,  and  later  invested  judi- 
ciously in  property.  Then  in  his  farm  work  he 
displayed  untiring  industry  and  enterprise  and 
as  the  years  passed  he  added  to  his  possessions 
and  became  one  of  the  properous  citizens  of  his 
community,  his  competence  being  now  sufficient 
to  enable  him  to  enjoy  the  necessities  and  com- 
forts of  life  without  recourse  to  further  labor. 
Moreover  his  actions  have  been  so  honorable  that 
no  word  of  blame  has  ever  been  uttered  against 
his  business  career.  On  July  9.  1906,  he  cele- 
brated his  eightieth  birthday  and  nearly  all  his 
children  and  grandchildren  were  present  on  this 


J.  W.  HOLTON. 

J.  W.  Holton  is  the  owner  of  an  excellent  farm 
of  one  hundred  and  forty  acres  on  section  21, 
Evans  township,  and  in  the  control  of  his  busi- 
ness interests  is  displaying  excellent  executive 
ability  and  keen  sagacity.  His  life  record  began 
in  Muskingum  county,  Ohio,  on  the  23d  of  April, 
1845,  his  parents  being  Francis  H.  and  Hannah 
(Cockerell)  Holton.  .  The  father  was  of  Scotch 
descent  and  was  born  in  Muskingum  county, 
Ohio,  in  1818.  It  was  there  that  he  wedded  Miss 
Cockerell,  whose  birth  occurred  in  Loudoun  coun- 
ty, Virginia,  in  1814,  her  parents  being  Elia? 


and  Sarah  (Butler)  Cockerell,  who  removed  with 
their  family  to  Muskingum  county,  Ohio,  in  1824. 
Upon  a  farm  in  that  county  Francis  H.  Holton 
and  his  wife  began  their  domestic  life  and  resided 
until  1856.  That  year  witnessed  their  removal 
to  Iowa  but  in  the  following  year  they  came  to 
Marshall  county,  Illinois,  where  for  six  years  Mr. 
Holton  operated  a  rented  farm.  The  money  which 
he  had  saved  from  his  earnings  was  then  invested 
in  a  farm,  now  owned  by  the  heirs  of  John  Kane. 
The  land  at  that  time  was  wild  and  unimproved 
but  lie  placed  it  under  cultivation  and  continued 
its  development  until  his  removal  to  Vermilion 
county,  this  state.  He  then  lived  a  comparatively 
retired  life  upon  his  farm  there  until  he  was 
called  to  his  final  rest  on  the  4th  of  April,  1888, 
while  his  wife  passed  away  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
five  years.  Both  were  earnest  and  consistent  mem- 
bers of  the  Methodist  church  and  Mr.  Holton 
took  a  very  active  part  in  the  work  of  the  Sunday- 
school,  believing  with  the  psalmist  that  "train  a 
child  up  in  the  way  he  should  go  and  when  he  is 
old  he  will  not  depart  therefrom."  In  the  family 
were  five  children,  of  whom  three  reached  years 
of  maturity:  Edith,  now  the  deceased  wife  of 
Jacob  M.  Brenn ;  J.  W.,  of  this  review ;  and 
George  H.,  who  is  living  in  Omaha,  Nebraska, 
and  who'  married  Lizzie  Ogle. 

When  a  youth  of  twelve  years  J.  W.  Holton 
accompanied  his  parents  on  their  removal  to  Mar- 
shall county,  Illinois.  His  early  education,  ac- 
quired in  the  district  schools,  was  supplemented 
by  study  in  the  old  seminary  in  Wenona  and  after 
putting  aside  his  text-books  he  continued  to  aid 
in  the  work  of  the  home  farm  until  he  attained 
his  majority.  He  then  made  arrangements  for 
having  a  home  of  "his  own  by  his  marriage,  on  the 
1st  of  April,  1869,  to  Miss  Edith  Olive,  who  was 
born  in  Muskingum  county,  Ohio,  in  1846  and 
died  in  1872,  leaving  two  children,  of  whom  Wal- 
ter 0.  is  now  following  farming  in  Vermilion 
county,  Illinois.  The  other  son,  Jesse  M.,  is  de- 
ceased. On  the  31st  of  January,  1876,  Mr.  Hol- 
ton was  joined  in  wedlock  to  Mrs.  Susan  Gage, 
a  daughter  of  Ira  F.  Washburn.  who  was  born 
at  Sacketts  Harbor,  New  York,  in  1813  and  be- 
came one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Rock  county, 
Wisconsin.  In  the  place  of  his  nativity  Mr.  Wash- 
burn  wedded  Jane  E.  Pratt,  who  was  born  in  the 
same  county  in  1824.  Emigrating  to  Wisconsin, 
he  there  opened  up  a  new  farm.  His  death  oc- 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


159 


curred  October  31,  1889,  and  his  wife 
away  April  29,  1878.  They  held  membership 
with  the  Baptist  church,  taking  an  active  part 
in  its  work,  while  Mr.  Washburn  served  as  one 
of  its  deacons.  The  family  numbered  four  chil- 
dren, namely :  Louisa,  now  the  wife  of  James  A. 
Millett,  a  resident  of  Nebraska,  by  whom  she 
has  five  children;  George  W.,  who  was  one  of 
the  soldiers  of  the  Civil  war  in  the  Union  army 
and  is  also  living  in  Nebraska;  Mrs.  Holton;  and 
Frank  F.,  of  Arkansas,  who  is  married  and  has 
two  children. 

Mrs.  Holton  was  born  in  Rock  county,  Wiscon- 
sin, in  1846  and -is  indebted  to  the  district-school 
system  of  that  locality  for  the  early  educational 
privileges  she  enjoyed.  She  afterward  became 
a  student  in  the  seminary  at  Fulton,  Wisconsin, 
and  in  early  womanhood  she  gave  her  hand  in 
marriage  to  a  Mr.  Gage,  by  whom  she  had  one 
daughter,  Georgia  Leone,  now  the  wife  of  Eugene 
Cusac,  of  Bennington  township,  Marshall  county, 
and  the  mother  of  one  child,  Beulah.  Six  chil- 
dren have  been  born  unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Holton: 
Frank  A.,  Edward  W.  and  Edith  M.,  all  at  home; 
Edna  S.,  who  is  working  in  the  Bloomington 
Pantagrajfh  office;  Grace  E.,  who  is  a  graduate 
of  the  Wenona  high  school ;  and  Winifred  M.,  who 
is  also  a  graduate  of  the  high  school  of  Wenona. 

For  thirty-six  -years  Mr.  Holton  has  resided 
upon  his  present  farm,  which  was  a  tract  of  raw 
land  when  it  came  into  his  possession.  He  now 
owns  one  hundred  and  forty  acres  here  and  has 
brought  the*  farm  under  a  high  state  of  culti- 
vation, adding  to  it  all  modern  equipments  and 
accessories.  He  votes-  with  the  republican  party 
and  has  recently  been  elected  to  the  office  of  as- 
sessor. He  has  also  served  as  road  commissioner 
and  school  director  and  he  is  a  member  of  the 
Grangers  Association.  In  his  business  life  and 
public  relations  he  is  alike  trustworthy  and  de- 
serve? the  regard  of  all  with  whom  he  has  come 
in  contact.  Wherever  known  he  is  held  in  high 
<Mr,  MI  and  he  well  deserves  mention  in  this  vol- 
ume among  the  representative  citizens  of  Marshall 
county,  which  has  been  his  place  of  residence  for 
almost  a  half  centnrv. 


TIMOTHY  E.  GAPEN. 

One  of  the  most  prominent  business  men  of 
Sparland  and  Marshall  county  is  Timothy  E. 
Gapen,  who  is  well  liked  wherever  known  and  best 
liked  where  best  known — a  fact  indicative  of  many 


good  qualities  and  of  his  prominence  and  respon- 
sibility in  commercial  circles.  A  native  of  Illi- 
nois, he  was  born  in  Stephenson  county  in  1840, 
and  is  a  son  of  Charles  0.  and  Sarah  (Fort) 
Gapen,  the  former  a  native  of  Pennsylvania  and 
the  latter  of  Ohio.  The  father  was  born  July  17, 
1808,  and,  removing  to  Illinois  at  an  early  day 
in  the  history  of  this  state,  he  followed  black- 
smithing  at  Lacon  after  living  for  a  time  in 
Stephenson  county.  Subsequently  he  was  appoint- 
ed postmaster  at  Lacon  and  filled  that  office  for 
twelve  years,  after  which  he  retired  to  private 
life.  In  politics  he  was  an  inflexible  advocate  of 
the  republican  party  and  a  stalwart  champion  of 
its  principles.  He  held  membership  in  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  church  and  was  a  man  true  to  his 
principles  and  his  convictions.  His  death  occurred 
in  1898.  In  the  family  were  three  sons  and  a 
daughter:  William  T.,  who  married  Elizabeth 
Bailey,  and  is  now  engaged  in  the  harness  business 
in  Lacon;  Washington  F.,  who  married  Fannie 
Nelson,  and  lived  in  the  city  of  Washington  at  the 
time  of  his  death ;  Mary  A.,  the  wife  of  Theodore 
Blackman,  who  has  been  with  the  Avery  Manu- 
facturing Company  of  Peoria,  Illinois,  for  years; 
and  T.  E.,  of  this  review. 

Mr.  Gapen,  whose  name  introduces  this  record, 
spent  the  days  of  his  childhood  in  Lacon  and  there 
passed  through  successive  grades  in  the  public 
schools  until  he  was  graduated  from  the  high 
school.  He  was  one  of  the  first  pupils  of  the 
free  schools  of  that  city,  and  following  his  gradua- 
tion he  entered  business  life  as  a  clerk  in  the  drug 
store  of  Dr.  Boal,  with  whom  he  remained  for 
four  years.  Subsequently  he  engaged  in  clerking 
for  Dr.  Thompson  for  a  year  and  then  became  a 
partner  in  the  store.  In  1886,  leaving  the  store 
in  charge  of  a  clerk,  he  purchased  the  City  drug 
store  in  Ottawa,  where  he  conducted  business  for 
nine  years.  He  still  owns  the  Ottawa  store,  which 
is  conducted  under  the  firm  style  of  T.  Gapen  & 
Son.  In  1895,  however,  he  returned  to  Sparland, 
and  is  now  conducting  the  store  here  under  the 
firm  name  of  Gapen  &  Company,  having  a  well 
appointed  establishment  which  is  one  of  the  old 
landmarks  of  the  business  district  of  the  city. 
He  also  owns  sixty  acres  of  land  adjoining  the 
town  of  Sparland  on  the  north  and  has  six  hun- 
dred and  forty  acres  in  Hush  count v,  Kansas. 

Mr.  Gapen  was  married  in  1884  to  Miss  Mary 
Fisher,  who  was  born  in  Summit  county,  Ohio,  in 
1843.  They  have  one  son,  Charles  L.,  who  is  his 


160 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


father's  partner  and  is  conducting  the  drug  store 
in  Ottawa.  He  married  Grace  Bower,  and  they 
have  two  children :  Helen  and  Marian. 

Mr.  Gapen  is  a  citizen  whose  aid  can  always  be 
counted  upon  to  further  any  progressive  public 
measure,  and  Sparland  has  benefited  by  his  ef- 
forts in  her  behalf.  He  has  held  several  offices, 
including  those  of  supervisor  and  town  trustee, 
and  for  twelve  years  he  was  postmaster  of  Spar- 
land.  His  political  allegiance  is  given  the  repub- 
lican party,  and  he  is  a  stalwart  champion  of  its 
principles.  His  name  in  Sparland  and  Marshall 
county  is  a  synonym  for  business  integrity  and  for 
loyal  citizenship,  and  wherever  known  he  is  re- 
spected by  reason  of  his  many  excellent  traits  of 
character. 

JOHN  SWANEY. 

John  Swaney,  a  farmer  living  on  section  15, 
Magnolia  township,  where  he  owns  a  valuable  and 
well  improved  tract  of  land,  was  born  at  Harris- 
burg,  Pennsylvania,  October  8,  1824,  and  in  the 
paternal  line  comes  of  Irish  descent.  His  parents 
were  James  and  Nancy.  (Raley)  Swaney,  the 
former  born  on  the  Emerald  isle,  while  the  latter 
was  born  in  Washington  county,  Pennsylvania. 
Her  father,  Eli  Raley,  belonged  to  an  old  Virginia 
family,  and  was  a  member  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  or  Quakers.  The  parents  were  married 
in  the  Keystone  state  and  made  their  home  in 
Harrisburg  until  the  father's  death,  which  oc- 
curred in  1829.  Four  years  later  the  mother  re- 
moved with  her  family  to  Washington  county,  that 
state,  and  there  became  the  wife  of  James  Moffitt. 
In  1842  the  family  made  their  way  westward  to 
Illinois,  where  they  settled  on  a  farm  in  Mag- 
nolia township,  Putnam  county,  and  here  the 
mother  passed  away  in  1872.  By  her  first  mar- 
riage she  was  the  mother  of  three  sons :  John,  of 
this  review ;  David,  of  Nebraska ;  and  Barnett,  a 
resident  of  La  Salle  county,  Illinois.  By  her  mar- 
riage to  Mr.  Moffitt  she  had  one  son,  Eli  Moffitt, 
who  is  a  resident  of  Adrian,  Michigan.  Three  of 
the  sons  were  loyal  defenders  of  the  Union  cause 
during  the  Civil  war,  while  the  fourth  furnished 
a  substitute. 

John  Swaney,  whose  name  introduces  this  re- 
view, accompanied  his  maternal  grandfather,  Eli 
Raley,  to  Putnam  county  in  1840,  being  then  a 
youth  of  sixteen  years.  His  education,  begun  in 
his  native  state,  was  continue'd  in  a  log  school- 
house  near  the  home  of  his  grandfather  in  Put- 


nam  county,  his  teacher  being  the  late  Judge 
Burnes  of  Marshall  county,  this  state.  Mr. 
Swaney  was  reared  to  agricultural  life,  early  be- 
coming familiar  with  the  various  duties  which  fall 
to  the  lot  of  the  farmer,  and  in  early  life  he 
learned  the  wagonmaker's  trade,  serving  a  three- 
years'  apprenticeship,  after  which  he  followed  the 
trade  for  two  years.  In  1847  he  began  steamboat- 
ing  on  the  Illinois  river,  serving  as  second  clerk 
on  the  Anglo-Saxon,  running  from  St.  Louis  to 
La  Salle.  He  was  later  promoted  to  the  position 
of  first  clerk  and  served  in  that  capacity  until 
the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion,  being  employed 
on  various  boats  which  plied  the  Illinois,  Ohio  and 
upper  and  lower  Mississippi  and  Missouri  rivers. 

In  October,  1861,  his  patriotic  spirit  being 
aroused  by  the  continued  attempt  of  the  south  to 
overthrow  the  Union,  Mr.  Swaney  made  applica- 
tion to  enter  the  navy  at  St.  Louis  with  Commo- 
dore Rogers,  and  was  commissioned  as  acting 
master  and  ordered  to  the  receiving  ship,  Maria 
Denning,  where  he  began  his  naval  drill.  Later 
the  Maria  Denning  was  sent  to  Cairo,  Illinois, 
carrying  the  ordinance  to  equip  iron  clad  gunboats, 
built  at  St.  Louis.  After  the  battle  of  Fort  Don- 
elson  he  was  transferred  to  the  gunboat  Cairo, 
which  was  ordered  to  Nashville,  accompanying 
General  Nelson.  His  company  were  at  Pittsburg 
Landing,  later  at  the  bombardment  of  Fort  Pil- 
low above  Memphis,  in  which  they  took  part.  After 
the  naval  battle  at  Memphis,  where  the  rebel  gun- 
boats were  destroyed  or  captured,  they  were  or- 
dered back  to  Cairo.  Acting  Master  Swaney  was 
then  transferred  to  the  Conestoga,  under  command 
of  Lieutenant  Commander,  later  Admiral,  Self- 
ridge,  now  a  retired  rear  admiral  of  Boston,  and 
his  vessel  was  one  of  the  number  engaged  in  cruis- 
ing from  the  mouth  of  White  river  down  the  Mis- 
sissippi river  to  Columbia,  Arkansas,  a  distance 
of  sixty  miles,  the  river  being  divided  into  naval 
divisions  by  Admiral  Porter.  He  was  subse- 
quently transferred  to  the  United  States  steamer, 
Kenwood,  which  he  commanded  with  the  rank  of 
acting  volunteer  lieutenant  until  August,  1865, 
operating  on  the  Mississippi  river  from  the  mouth 
of  Red  river  to  Baton  Rouge  and  Donnellsonville. 
He  dismantled  his  steamer  at  Cairo  in  August, 
1865,  but  was  not  discharged  until  the  following 
October,  when  he  returned  home  after  four  years 
of  faithful  and  arduous  service. 

After  his  return  from  the  navy  Mr.  Swaney  re- 
sumed his  farming  operations,  taking  up  his  abode 


PAST    AM)    1'KKSKXT    OF    MAKSIIALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


165 


on  the  farm  which  has  since  continued  to  be  his 
home.  Through  a  long  period  he  was  actively  en- 
gaged in  farm  labor  and  has  been  an  active  and 
helpful  factor  in  the  development  and  upbuilding 
of  this  portion  of  the  state.  As  the  years  passed 
he  prospered  in  his  undertakings  so  that  he  added 
from  time  to  time  to  his  landed  possessions  and 
today  is  in  possession  of  a  valuable  and  well-im- 
proved farm,  on  which  he  still  makes  his  home, 
although  he  rents  the  land,  and  from  this  he  de- 
rives an  income  sufficient  to  supply  himself  and 
wife  with  all  the  comforts  and  many  of  the  luxu- 
ries of  life,  so  that  now  in  their  declining  years 
they  may  live  in  well  earned  ease. 

On  the  17th  of  May,  1846,  Mr.  Swaney  chose 
as  a  companion  and  helpmate  on  life's  journey 
Miss  Sarah  Griffith,  a  native  of  Cadiz,  Ohio,  born 
on  the  12th  of  October,  1830.  Her  parents, 
George  and  Sarah  (Kirk)  Griffith,  were  both  na- 
tives of  York  county,  Pennsylvania,  where  they 
were  reared  and  married,  and  on  leaving  the  Key- 
stone state  removed  to  Cadiz,  Ohio,  where  they 
made  their  home  for  a  few  years,  but  in  1836 
made  their  way  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  set- 
tling on  a  farm  on  section  15,  Magnolia  township, 
known  as  the  Whitaker  farm.  Their  first  resi- 
dence was  a  log  house,  which  was  later  replaced  by 
a  more  substantial  and  commodious  brick  resi- 
dence, the  brick  and  lime  for  its  construction  be- 
ing burned  by  Mr.  Griffith.  Mrs.  Griffith  passed 
away  May  24,  1838,  and  was  the  first  adult  buried 
in  the  Friends  cemetery.  She  had  become  the 
mother  of  ten  children,  but  with  the  exception  of 
two  all  are  now  deceased:  Isaac,  William  and 
Julia  Ann,  all  deceased ;  Martha  Jane,  residing  in 
Marshall  county,  Iowa;  Oliver  G.,  George  and 
John,  all  of  whom  are  deceased;  Sarah,  now  Mrs. 
Swaney ;  and  Eliza  and  Kuth,  deceased.  After 
the  mother's  death  the  father  was  married  again, 
his  second  union  being  with  Lydia  Comly,  and  he 
ia  still  living  and  was  ninety  years  old  November 
24,  1906.  To  this  union  four  childdren  were  born : 
Hiram,  of  Montana;  one  who  died  in  infancy; 
Frank,  also  residing  in  Montana;  and  Mrs.  Isa- 
bel Beck  of  Magnolia  township,  Putnam  county. 

Mr.  Swaney  first  gave  his  support  to  the  aboli- 
tion party  and  afterward  to  the  republican  party, 
but  is  now  a  prohibitionist,  thus  indicating  his 
views  on  the  temperance  question.  He  has  al- 
ways taken  a  very  deep  and  helpful  interest  in 
the  advancement  of  this  party  and  has  frequently 
attended  its  district,  state  and  national  conven- 


tions. In  1885  his  name  was  placed  before  the 
public  on  both  the  republican  and  prohibition 
tickets  as  a  candidate  for  state  senator,  but  as  his 
party  was  in  the  minority  at  that  time  he  was  de- 
feated in  election.  In  former  years  he  frequently 
contributed  to  agricultural  journals,  thus  taking  a 
deep  interest  in  the  agricultural  development  of 
his  part  of  the  state.  He  was  instrumental  in 
securing  the  postoffice  at  Clear  Creek,  which  was 
first  called  Whitaker,  and  for  twenty-one  years 
served  as  postmaster. 

In  1866  he  was  assistant  United  States  revenue 
assessor,  and  in  educational  affairs  has  taken  a 
helpful  interest.  For  many  years  he  served  as 
school  trustee  of  Magnolia  township,  and  in  1905 
he  donated  twenty-four  acres  of  land  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  new  consolidated  district  school, 
three  districts  uniting.  A  large  and  commodious 
brick  building  is  now  under  construction  and  when 
completed  will  be  one  of  the  finest  in  Putnam 
county.  Mr.  Swaney  employed  a  landscape  artist 
from  Chicago  to  lay  out  the  grounds  so  that  they 
are  most  beautifully  and  tastefully  arranged.  The 
children  are  taken  to  school  in  covered  wagons, 
which  have  been  built  expressly  for  that  purpose. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Swaney  is  a  warm 
friend  to  the  cause  of  education  and  his  efforts 
in  the  cause  of  educational  system  are  proving  of 
great  benefit  to  the  youth  of  this  community.  Mrs. 
Swaney,  like  her  parents,  is  a  devoted  member  of 
the  Society  of  Friends  and  both  she  and  her  hus- 
band are  charter  members  of  the  Magnolia  Grange, 
in  which  she  has  held  office,  while  he  has  filled 
all  of  the  chairs  in  the  organization.  He  has  also 
served  as  a  member  of  the  State  Grange  executive 
committee  and  was  also  identified  with  the  first 
organization  of  the  Grand  Army  post  at  Magnolia. 
Mr.  Swaney  has  now  passed  the  eighty-second 
milestone  on  life's  journey  and  has  lived  in  Put- 
nam county  for  sixty-six  years,  so  that  he  is  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  the  pioneer  conditions  which 
existed  in  this  community  at  that  early  day.  He 
and  his  wife  are  venerable  and  highly  respected 
people  of  this  portion  of  the  state  and  number 
their  friends  by  the  score. 


JOHN  I.  THOMPSON. 

John  I.  Thompson,  president  of  the  First  Na- 
tional Bank  of  Lacon,  is  a  representative  of  a 
family  that  has  long  figured  prominently  in  con- 
nection with  financial  interests  in  Marshall  coun- 
ty, and  the  record  is  one  of  unassailable  integrity, 


168 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


eight  years  lias  served  as  a  member  of  the  city 
council  and  has  also  been  mayor  of  Lacon.  His 
official  career  has  been  distinguished  by  unswerv- 
ing fidelity  to  the  public  good  and  by  a  stalwart 
championship  of  every  movement  that  he  deems 
will  prove  of  direct  benefit  to  the  city.  His  alle- 
giance is  given  to  the  democracy,  but  in  local  in- 
terests where  no  issue  is  involved  he  does  not  re- 
gard partisanship  and  at  all  times  places  the 
public  welfare  before  personal  aggrandizement. 

In  1890  Mr.  Thompson  was  united  in  marriage 
to  Miss  Maud  A.  Goodrich,  a  representative  of  one 
of  the  old  families  of  this  county,  and  unto  them 
were  born  two  children,  John  S.  and  Mildred. 
The  wife  and  mother  died  about  five  years  ago, 
and  her  death  was  deeply  regretted  by  reason  of 
her  social  prominence  and  her  many  good  quali- 
ties of  heart  and  mind,  which  had  endeared  her 
to  a  large  circle  of  friends.  Mr.  Thompson  has 
attained  prominence  in  Masonry,  belonging  to 
Lacon  lodge,  No.  61,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  Lacon  chap- 
ter, No.  123,  E.  A.  M.,  Peoria  commandery,  No. 
3,  K.  T.,  and  also  to  the  Mystic  Shrine  at  Peoria. 
While  he  entered  upon  a  business  already  estab- 
lished, many  a  man  of  less  resolute  and  cour- 
ageous spirit  would  have  faltered  in  carrying  it 
forward  and  in  enlarging  its  scope.  His  life  rec- 
ord is  another  indication  of  the  truth  that  success 
is  not  a  matter  of  genius  but  is  the  outcome  of 
clear  judgment,  experience  and  indefatigable  in- 
dustry. 


J.  C.  BACON. 

A  valuable  and  well  improved  farm  of  three 
hundred  and  twenty  acres  on  section  28,  Senach- 
wine  township,  Putnam  county,  is  the  property  of 
J.  C.  Bacon  and  in  the  midst  of  the  well  tilled 
fields  stands  his  fine  country  residence  and  sub- 
stantial farm  buildings,  the  entire  place  having  a 
neat  and  well  kept  appearance  which  indicates  the 
supervision  and  practical  methods  of  the  owner, 
whose  knowledge  and  experience  in  farming  mat- 
ters have  gained  him  a  foremost  place  among  the 
agriculturists  of  the  county.  This  farm  was  his 
birthplace,  his  natal  day  being  April  12,  1860. 
His  father,  Emory  C.  Bacon,  was  born  in  Huron 
county,  Ohio,  December  9,  1830,  and  came  to  Put- 
nam county,  Illinois,  with  his  father,  Samuel  C. 
Bacon,  at  an  early  day.  The  grandfather  pur- 
chased land  in  Senachwine  township — a  part  of  the 
farm  now  owned  by  our  subject — and  was  thus 


identified  with  farming  interests  in  pioneer  times. 
On  the  21st  of  January,  1854,  Emory  Bacon  was 
married  to  Susan  L.  Ash,  who  was  born  in  Henne- 
pin  township,  Putnam  county,  July  28,  1833,  a 
daughter  of  Joseph  Ash,  who  had  settled  in  that 
township  the  year  previous,  becoming  one  of  the 
earliest  residents  of  this  part  of  the  state.  Emory 
C.  Bacon  was  engaged  in  general  agricultural  pur- 
suits and  thus  provided  for  his  family  until  after 
the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  war,  when,  feeling  that 
his  country  needed  his  aid,  he  enlisted  in  defense 
of  the  Union  and  died  in  the  hospital  when  his 
son,  J.  C.  Bacon,  was  only  two  years  old.  His 
widow  afterward  married  Ambrose  Bacon,  a  dis- 
tant relative  of  her  first  husband,  but  both  are 
now  deceased.  Mrs.  Bacon  died  in  1871  upon  the 
farm  where  her  son  J.  C.  Bacon  now  resides.  Of 
the  six  children  of  the  family,  four  died  in  in- 
fancy. A  brother,  Clifford  Bacon,  lives  in  Tis- 
kilwa,  while  a  half  sister,  now  Mrs.  M.  B.  Drake, 
is  living  in  Helena,  Montana. 

J.  C.  Bacon  was  eleven  years  of  age  when  his 
mother  died.  He  then  went  to  live  with  an  uncle, 
Lawrence  Lippert,  who  resided  in  Hennepin  town- 
ship, and  with  whom  he  resided  until  he  attained 
his  majority.  He  attended  the  district  schools  and 
later  had  the  advantage  of  a  course  in  the  Illinois 
State  Normal.  When  twenty-one  years  of  age  he 
came  into  possession  of  the  old  home  farm  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  acres  by  buying  out  the  inter- 
ests of  the  other  heirs,  and  he  then  took  up 
farming  on  his  own  account  and  has  added  to  the 
place  until  he  now  owns  three  hundred  and  forty 
acres  of  land.  The  soil  is  rich  and  productive  and 
his  attention  is  given  to  the  cultivation  of  various 
cereals.  Well  tilled,  the  fields  bring  forth  abund- 
ant harvests  and  his  business  is  profitably  con- 
ducted. The  latest  improved  machinery  facili- 
tates the  work  of  the  fields  and  he  keeps  in  touch 
with  the  progress  made  along  scientific  lines  for 
the  benefit  of  the  farmer. 

Mr.  Bacon  was  married  April  12,  1882,  to  Miss 
Carrie  M.  Eead,  who  was  bom  in  Henry,  Marshall 
county,  a  daughter  of  E.  L.  and  Mary  A.  (Bro- 
caw)  Eead,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of  New 
Jersey.  Her  father,  who  has  been  a  carpenter  all 
of  his  life,  is  still  living  in  Henry,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-one  years.  At  the  time  of  the  gold  discov- 
eries in  the  west  he  went  to  Pike's  peak,  but  for 
many  years  he  has  made  his  home  in  this  portion 
of  the  state  and  in  earlier  years  was  closely  asso- 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


171 


elated  with  building  interests.  Mrs.  Bacon  was 
a  student  in  the  public  schools  of  Henry  and  later 
attended  the  State  Normal,  at  Normal,  Illinois. 
She  taught  school  in  both  Bureau  and  Putnam 
counties  prior  to  her  marriage.  Unto  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Bacon  have  been  born  six  children :  Samuel, 
Eugene,  Ralph,  Beryl,  Susa  and  Elsie.  All  are 
yet  with  their  parents  and  Beryl  is  attending  the 
State  Normal.  The  family  are  members  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church  at  Henry  and  the 
members  of  the  household  are  prominent  in  the 
social  circles  where  true  worth  and  intelligence  are 
received  as  the  passports  of  good  society.  Mr. 
Bacon  votes  with  the  republican  party.  He  has 
served  as  road  commissioner  one  term  and  is  now 
serving  for  the  third  year  as  assessor,  and  he  re- 
gards a  public  office  as  a  public  trust,  to  the  duties 
of  which  he  is  ever  most  faithful.  He  belongs 
to  the  Modern  Woodmen  camp  at  Putnam.  With 
little  assistance  at  the  outset  of  his  career  Mr. 
Bacon  has  made  steady  progress  on  the  highroad 
to  prosperity  by  utilizing  the  means  at  hand  and 
his  own  abilities  to  the  best  advantage.  The  duty 
which  has  come  to  him  each  day  he  has  performed 
and  has  thus  found  inspiration  and  encouragement 
for  the  labors  of  the  succeeding  day,  and  the  re- 
wards of  honorable  labor  are  now  his. 


GEORGE  LEWIS  WABEL. 
George  Lewis  Wabel,  deceased,  who  at  one  time 
was  connected  with  the  farming  interests  of  Mar- 
shall county,  was  born  in  Uniontown,  Fayette 
county,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  14th  of  February, 
1865.  His  parents  were  Andrew  Jackson  and 
Mary  Ann  (Dean)  Wabel,  both  of  whom  have 
passed  away,  the  father  having  died  on  the  30th 
of  September,  1904.  Following  the  removal  of 
the  family  from  Pennsylvania  to  Illinois  and  the 
establishment  of  the  family  home  near  Magnolia, 
George  Lewis  Wabel  pursued  his  education  in 
what  is  known  as  the  Dayton  school  in  that 
locality.  When  not  busy  with  his  text-books  he 
aided  his  father  in  the  work  of  the  home  farm 
and  thus  gained  practical  knowledge  of  the  best 
methods  of  tilling  the  soil.  He  worked  at  home 
until  seventeen  years  of  age,  when  he  started  out 
in  life  on  his  own  account,  being  employed  as  a 
farm  hand  for  about  three  years.  When  twenty 
years  of  age  he  rented  land,  securing  one  hundred 
and  twenty  acres  on  the  north  edge  of  Henry 


township.  He  devoted  his  time  and  energies  to 
general  fanning  and  stock-raising  throughout  his 
remaining  days  and  died  upon  the  .Dry  Hollow 
farm — a  stock  farm — which  he  was  renting  and 
which  belongs  to  Mrs.  Law.  He  lived  a  life  of 
industry  and  enterprise,  working  diligently  year 
after  year,  and  whatever  success  he  achieved  and 
enjoyed  was  attributable  entirely  to  his  own 
labors. 

Mr.  Wabel  was  married  on  the  22d  of  February, 
1887,  in  Whitefield  township,  Marshall  county, 
to  Miss  Alice  Blackburn,  a  daughter  of  J.  A. 
and  Sarah  (Clawson)  Blackburn.  Her  father 
was  at  one  time  a  farmer  of  Whitefield  township, 
but  is  now  living  in  Henry.  The  home  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Wabel  was  blessed  with  four  children: 
Gerald,  who  was  born  July  4,  1889 ;  Mildred,  bom 
April  4,  1892 ;  Marian,  born  August  2,  1897 ;  and 
Bernice,  bom  April  29,  1900.  Since  her  husband's 
death  Mrs.  Wabel  has  removed  to  the  farm  upon 
which  she  now  resides  and  which  is  being  operated 
under  her  direction.  She  is  a  lady  of  excellent 
business  ability,  executive  force  and  keen  discrim- 
ination and  is  carefully  managing  her  farming 
interests,  so  that  they  produce  a  good  living  for 
herself  and  children.  Mr.  Wabel  was  a  republican 
in  his  political  affiliation  and  was  recognized  as 
one  of  the  stalwart  supporters  of  the  party  in  his 
locality.  He  served  as  collector  of  Whitefield 
township  for  two  terms  and  at  the  time  of  his 
demise  was  filling  the  office  of  school  director  and 
of  road  commissioner.  He  led  a  busy  and  useful 
life,  and  all  who  knew  him  respected  him  for  his 
genuine  personal  worth,  so  that  his  death  was  the 
occasion  of  deep  and  widespread  regret,  not  only 
among  his  immediate  family,  but  also  among  his 
friends,  who  were  many. 


A.  W.  BETTS. 

A.  W.  Betts  is  living  on  section  32,  Whitefield 
township,  and  owns  a  good  farming  property  com- 
prising the  south  half  of  the  southeast  quarter  of 
section  32  and  also  eighty  acres  constituting  the 
west  half  of  the  southwest  quarter  of  section  33. 
He  is  one  of  the  native  sons  of  Whitefield  town- 
ship, where  his  birth  occurred  on  the  3d  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1855.  His  parents  were  John  and  Chris- 
tina (Grift)  Betts,  both  natives  of  Germany. 
The  father  was  born  in  Wurtemberg  and  came  to 
the  United  States  in  1848,  at  which  time  he  made 


172 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


his  way  into  the  interior  of  the  country  and  took 
up  his  abode  upon  a  farm  in  Whitefield  township. 
His  entire. life  has  since  been  given  to  general 
agricultural  pursuits  and  he  has  long  been  num- 
bered among  the  well  known  and  prominent  far- 
mers of  his  community.  It  was  after  his  arrival 
in  this  country  that  he  married  Christina  Grift 
and  unto  them  have  been  born  six  children,  of 
whom  four  are  yet  living,  namely :  A.  W.,  of  this 
review;  Margaret,  the  wife  of  John  Rheinbeck, 
a  resident  farmer  of  Saratoga  township ;  Amy,  the 
wife  of  Edward  Rheinbeck,  who  carries  on  farm- 
ing in  La  Prairie  township;  and  Henry,  who  is 
devoting  his  energies  to  general  agricultural  pur- 
suits in  Whitefield  township. 

Reared  under  the  parental  roof,  A.  W.  Betts 
early  became  familiar  with  the  work  of  the  farm 
and  when  the  labors  of  the  field  were  finished  for 
the  year  he  would  attend  the  district  schools  near 
his  father's  home.  He  continued  on  the  old  home- 
stead until  he  had  attained  his  majority  and  then 
began  farming  on  his  own  account,  removing  to 
his  present  place  of  residence  in  Whitefield  town- 
ship. Here  has  has  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
of  rich  and  arable  land  situated  on  sections  32  and 
33.  It  responds  readily  to  the  care  and  improve- 
ment placed  upon  it,  so  that  he  annually  harvests 
good  crops.  The  farm  is  also  improved  with  mod- 
ern equipments  and  in  all  of  his  work  he  is  pro- 
gressive and  enterprising,  being  thoroughly  fa- 
miliar with  the  best  methods  of  carrying  on  gen- 
eral agricultural  pursuits. 

On  the  29th  of  May,  1878,  Mr.  Betts  was  united 
in  marriage  to  Miss  Eliza  Doyle,  of  Saratoga,  a 
daughter  of  Thomas  Doyle,  and  they  are  now 
pleasantly  located  on  their  farm  in  Whitefield 
township.  Mr.  Betts  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic 
fraternity,  belonging  to  Sparland  lodge,  No.  441, 
A.  F.  &  A.  M.  His  political  allegiance  is  given 
to  the  democracy  and  while  he  has  never  been 
prominent  as  a  politician  in  the  sense  of  office 
seeking  he  served  as  assessor  for  Whitefield  town- 
ship in  1904. 


JOHN  A.  KAYS. 

On  the  roll  of  Putnam  county's  honored  dead 
we  find  the  name  of  John  A.  Kays,  who  was  born 
on  the  farm  in  Magnolia  township  where  his  widow 
now  resides,  his  natal  day  being  March  7,  1851. 
His  father,  Henry  B.  Kays,  was  a  native  of  In- 
diana, and  from  that  state  removed  to  Knox  coun- 


ty, Illinois,  but  later  came  to  Putnam  county, 
making  his  home  on  the  farm  just  mentioned  until 
his  death,  which  occurred  in  1877.  He  left  an  es- 
tate of  over  eight  hundred  acres.  His  wife,  who 
bore  the  maiden  name  of  Rachel  E.  Read,  was 
born  in  Indiana  in  1820,  and  is  also  now  deceased. 
In  their  family  were  seven  children,  but  Mrs.  Jane 
Bobbitt,  of  Magnolia;  M.  B.  Kays,  of  Tonica, 
Illinois;  and  Mrs.  Clara  Cole,  of  Ottawa,  are  the 
only  ones  now  living. 

During  his  boyhood  John  A.  Kays  attended  the 
district  schools  near  his  home  and  for  a  time  was 
a  student  in  the  old  academy  at  Henry,  after 
which  he  pursued  a  business  course  at  Poughkeep- 
sie,  New  York.  Having  thus  acquired  a  good 
practical  education  he  engaged  in  teaching  school 
for  several  years  and  later  turned  his  attention  to 
agricultural  pursuits,  becoming  a  most  progressive, 
enterprising  and  successful  farmer.  He  continued 
to  follow  that  occupation  throughout  the  remain- 
der of  his  life,  and  at  his  death,  which  occurred  on 
the  20th  of  February,  1906,  he  left  a  valuable 
farm  of  four  hundred  and  fifty-three  acres  sup- 
plied with  all  modern  improvements. 

In  1881  Mr.  Kays  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Mary  A.  Hartenbower,  who  was  born  in  Put- 
nam county,  and  still  survives  her  husband.  She 
is  a  daughter  of  Hon.  J.  H.  Hartenbower,  who 
was  born  in  Kentucky  in  1828  and  died  in  Wich- 
ita, Kansas,  October  28,  1903.  He  was  at  one  time 
a  very  prominent  citizen  of  Putnam  county  and 
was  a  prosperous  farmer.  In  1850  he  made  a  trip 
to  California,  and  after  spending  some  time  on  the 
Pacific  slope  returned  east  by  way  of  the  isthmus 
of  Panama.  For  twenty  years  he  lived  in  Kansas, 
but  previous  to  this  time  he  resided  in  Iowa  and 
Minnesota,  where  he  served  in  the  legislature.  He 
married  Miss  Anna  A.  McCaleb,  a  native  of  Put- 
nam county,  whose  parents  came  here  in  1832. 
She  died  in  Iowa  in  1867.  In  their  family  were 
seven  children.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kays  were 
born  six  children,  namely :  Victor  C.,  who  was 
for  two  years  a  student  at  Champaign  University 
and  was  called  home  by  the  death  of  his  father 
and  now  assists  in  the  operation  of  the  farm.  He 
takes  quite  an  active  interest  in  public  affairs, 
has  served  as  school  director  and  took  a  prominent 
part  in  the  consolidation  of  the  three  districts 
into  the  John  Swaney  school.  Lois  L.,  the  next 
of  the  family,  died  at  the  age  of  two  years.  Don- 
ald J.,  a  graduate  of  the  Northern  Illinois  Nor- 


JOHN  A  KAYS. 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


175 


mal  at  De  Kalb,  is  now  engaged  in  teaching  in  the 
high  school  at  Rockford.  Albert  R.  is  attending 
school  in  De  Kalb.  Mark  E.  and  Lora  G.  are  at 
home  with  their  mother. 

Mrs.  Kays  and  her  son,  Victor  C.,  now  carry  on 
the  farm,  and  are  meeting  with  excellent  success 
in  its  management.  The  family  is  one  of  prom- 
inence in  the  community  where  they  reside,,  and 
wherever  known  are  held  in  high  regard.  By  his 
ballot  Mr.  Kays  supported  the  men  and  measures 
of  the  democratic  party  and  took  a  very  active  part 
in  local  politics,  being  at  one  time  the  candidate 
for  county  judge  on  his  party  ticket.  He  was  one 
of  the  leading  and  influential  citizens  of  Magnolia 
township,  and  no  man  in  the  locality  was  held  in 
higher  esteem. 


ROBERT  DORAN. 

Robert  Doran,  who  after  many  years  of  active, 
honorable  and  successful  connection  with  the 
farming  interests  of  Marshall  county,  is  now  liv- 
ing retired  in  the  village  of  Henry,  was  born  in 
New  Brunswick,  March  7,  1844.  His  father, 
James  Doran,  was  a  native  of  County  Down,  Ire- 
land, and  on  leaving  the  place  of  his  nativity  re- 
moved to  the  Isle  of  Man,  whence  he  afterward 
emigrated  to  New  Brunswick.  He,  too,  followed 
the  occupation  of  farming  as  a  life  work.  In 
earlj'  manhood  he  wedded  Rebecca  Maxwell,  a 
native  of  County  Tyrone,  Ireland,  and  after  liv- 
ing for  some'  years  in  New  Brunswick  they  came 
to  Illinois,  the  father  purchasing  a  farm  in  La 
Prairie  township,  Marshall  county.  His  attention 
was  here  given  to  general  agricultural  pursuits 
for  a  time  and  he  then  retired  to  private  life, 
enjoying  throughout  his  remaining  days  a  well 
earned  rest.  He  died  in  1891  at  the  age  of  ninety 
years,  while  his  wife  reached  the  very  advanced 
age  of  ninety-six  years.  In  their  family  were  ten 
children,  of  whom  eight  are  yet  living. 

Robert  Doran,  whose  name  introduces  this  re- 
view, accompanied  his  parents  on  their  removal  to 
Illinois  when  seven  years  of  age  and  has  spent 
the  greater  part  of  his  life  in  Marshall  county. 
He  was  reared  upon  the  old  homestead  farm  in 
La  Prairie  township  and  acquired  his  education 
there  in  the  district  schools.  When  not  busy  with 
his  text-books  his  time  was  largely  occupied  with 
the  work  of  the  fields  and  he  continued  to  assist 
his  father  until  about  twenty  years  of  age,  when 


in  response  to  the  country's  need  he  enlisted  at 
Princeton  in  1864  as  a  member  of  the  One  Hun- 
dred and  Thirty-ninth  Illinois  Volunteer  Infan- 
try, with  which  command  he  saw  active  and  ardu- 
ous service  until  the  close  of  the  war.  After  re- 
ceiving an  honorable  discharge  he  returned  to  his 
home  in  La  Prairie  township  and  was  again  en- 
gaged in  work  on  his  father's  farm  until  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  when  he  was  married  to  Miss 
Amanda  Baker,  a  native  of  New  York.  They  be- 
gan their  domestic  life  upon  a  farm  in  this  county 
and  until  his  retirement  .from  business  cares  were 
continuously  identified  with  agricultural  interests 
in  this  locality  save  for  the  period  of  three  and 
one-half  years  spent  in  Kansas.  Mr.  Doran  went 
to  that  state  in  1886  with  his  family  and  was 
engaged  in  general  farming  there.  He  now  owns 
four  hundred  acres  of  land  in  Kansas  and  also 
has  a  valuable  farm  of  a  quarter  section  in  La 
Prairie  township.  These  property  interests  re- 
turn to  him  a  good  income,  enabling  him  to  live 
retired  and  yet  enjoy  the  comforts  and  some  of 
the  luxuries  of  life. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Doran  were  born  six  chil- 
dren, of  whom  two  have  passed  away.  Those 
still  living  are :  Clarence  Howard,  a  resident  of 
Chillicothe,  Illinois;  Charles  Clifford,  who  is  en- 
gaged in  the  undertaking  business  in  Henry;  and 
Robert  Clyde  and  Ira  Claude,  who  are  living  up- 
on the  home  farm  in  La  Prairie  township. 

Mr.  Dor'an  exercises  his  right  of  franchise  in 
support  of  the  men  and  measures  of  the  republi- 
can party,  with  which  he  has  been  associated  since 
he  attained  his  majority.  His  life  has  been  an 
honorable  and  upright  one,  in  harmony  with  his 
professions  as  a  member  of  the  Methodist  church, 
and  in  all  of  his  business  relations  he  has  been 
straightforward  and  honorable,  while  his-  duties 
as  a  citizen  have  been  promptly  met.  He  is  now 
managing  his  property  interests  but  otherwise  is 
living  retired,  occupying  a  pleasant  and  attractive 
home  in  Henry,  while  throughout  the  county  wher- 
ever he  is  known  he  is  held  in  warm  regard. 


JOHN  R.  BELSLY. 

John  R.  Belsly,  living  on  section  8,  Richland 
township,  was  born  in  Deer  Creek  township,  Taze- 
well  county,  Illinois,  May  29,  1863.  His  father, 
Christ  Belsly,  was  a  native  of  Woodford  county, 
this  state,  and  one  of  the  first  children  born  in 


176 


PAST   AM)    1MJKSKNT   OF   MAKSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


that  county.  He  is  now  living  at  .the  age  of 
seventy  years,  his  home  being  in  Tazewell  coun- 
ty, where  after  many  years  of  active  connection 
with  farm  life  he  is  now  retired.  His  farm  in 
Deer  Creek  township,  on  which  he  resides,  was 
purchased  about  forty  years  ago.  His  wife,  who 
bore  the  maiden  name  of  Mary  Schurtz,  was  born 
in  Butler  county,  Ohio,  and  is  also  living.  Of 
their  twelve  children  nine  survive,  namely :  Mrs. 
Kate  Engel,  whose  husband  is  a  farmer  and  bank- 
er of  Eureka,  Illinois ;  Joseph,  'who  is  living  on 
the  old  farm  of  his  grandfather  in  Woodford  coun- 
ty; John  E. ;  Samuel,  who  is  engaged  in  the 
real-estate  business  at  Deer  Creek ;  Mrs.  Anna  E. 
Anske,  of  Lacon;  Mrs.  Maggie  Phillips,  of  Hen- 
ry; Mrs.  Barbara  Chapman,  of  Deer  Creek; 
Frank,  who  is  engaged  in  the  banking  business  in 
Deer  Creek;  and  Mrs.  Emma  Davis,  of  Chilli- 
cothe,  Illinois. 

John  E.  Belsly  pursued  a  district-school  educa- 
tion in  his  native  township  and  remained  upon  the 
old  home  place  until  he  had  attained  adult  age. 
He  then  entered  upon  his  business  career  as  a 
clerk  in  a  general  store,  where  he  was  employed 
for  three  years,  after  which  he  located  upon  a 
farm  in  Eichland  township,  where  he  resided  for 
ten  years.  He  next  purchased  his  present  place, 
comprising  one  hundred  and  twenty  acras  of  land 
on  section  8,  Eichland  township.  He  likewise 
has  a  farm  of  four  hundred  and  ninety  acres  on 
sections  30  and  31  of  the  same  township,  so  that 
his  landed  possessions  now  aggregate  six  hundred 
and  ten  acres  of  very  valuable  property.  In  con- 
nection with  the  tilling  of  the  soil  he  is  engaged 
extensively  in  raising  stock  and  both  branches  of 
his  business  are  bringing  to  him  a  good  revenue. 
Moreover  he  is  connected  with  the  telephone  ex- 
change, having  forty  phones  upon  its  line. 

In  1887  Mr.  Belsly  was  married  to  Miss.  Alma 
Boss,  of  Joliet,  Illinois,  who  died  in  1895,  leaving 
three  children:  Eoscoe,  seventeen  years  of  age; 
Bruce,  who  died  in  1900 ;  and  Mark,  twelve  years 
of  age.  In  1896  was  clebrated  the  marriage  of 
Mr.  Belsly  and  Miss  Jennie  Chambers,  of  Eich- 
land township,  Marshall  county,  a  daughter  of 
Ch.irles  and  Minerva  Chambers,  the  former  a  far- 
mer of  this  county.  He  is  a  native  of  Illinois, 
while  his  wife  was  born  in  Pennsylvania  and  in 
their  family  were  three  children.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Belsly  also  have  three  children:  Frieda  and 
Cleota,  who  are  in  school ;  and  Aria.  Mr.  Belsly 


gives  his  political  support  to  the  democracy  but 
casts  an  independent  local  ballot.  He  was  elect- 
ed assessor  of  Eichland  township  in  1904  and  is 
now  filling  the  office  of  school  director.  Whatever 
tends  to  benefit  the  county  along  lines  of  material, 
intellectual  and  moral  progress  receives  his  en- 
dorsement and  co-operation.  He  is  regarded  as 
a  most  progressive  business  man  and  model  far- 
mer and  he  and  his  family  occupy  an  enviable 
social  position  in  the  locality  where  they  reside. 
He  has  steadily  worked  his  way  upward  in  his 
business  career  and  his  progress  has  been  the 
legitimate  outcome  of  the  concentration  of  his 
energies  upon  the  purposes  and  plans  in  hand. 


JOHN  HENRY  AUKLAND. 

John  Henry  Aukland,  who  owns  and  operates 
a  good  farm  of  one  hundred  and  nine  acres  on 
section  20,  Whitefield  township,  is  one  of  the  na- 
tive sons  of  this  township,  born  on  the  18th  of 
June,  1872.  His  father,  Thomas  Aukland,  was 
a  native  of  England  and  when  a  young  man  came 
to  the  United  States,  settling  first  in  Ohio,  where 
he  lived  for  a  time.  He  then  came  to  Illinois  and 
took  up  his  abode  in  Peoria  county,  where  he 
engaged  in  farming  forty  acres  of  land.  About 
1841,  however,  he  came  to  Marshall  county,  Illi- 
nois, where  he  spent  his  remaining  days,  passing 
away  about  sixteen  years  ago  when  sixty-nine 
years  of  age.  He  lived  here  during  an  early 
period  in  the  development  and  upbuilding  of  the 
county  and  was  thus  associated  with  its  pioneer 
interests  and  progress.  His  widow,  who  bore  the 
maiden  name  of  Elizabeth  Blankenship.  still  sur- 
vives him  and  is  now  living  with  her  daughter,- 
Mrs.  Bell,  in  Henry.  In  their  family  were  ten 
children :  William,  Elizabeth,  Mary,  James. 
Martha,  Sabinih.  Savanah,  Charles,  Henry  and 
Amanda. 

In  the  district  schools  John  Henry  Aukland 
pursued  his  education  and  received  ample  train- 
ing at  farm  labor  upon  the  old  homestead  where 
he  has  continuously  resided.  He  has  never  desired 
to  engage  in  other  lines  of  business  but  has  con- 
centrated his  time  and  energies  upon  the  work  of 
the  farm  and  is  today  cultivating  a  valuable  tract 
of  land  of  one  hundred  and  nine  acres.  The  place 
is  rich  and  arable  and  the  fields  yield  golden  harv- 
ests in  return  for  the  care  and  labor  bestowed  upon 
them.  Everything  about  the  place  is  kept  in  good 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF    .MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


177 


condition  and  the  I'arni  work  is  materially  ad- 
vanced through  the  practical  and  progressive  ef- 
forts of  Mr.  Aukland. 

In  1893  occurred  the  marriage  of  John  Henry 
Aukland  and  Miss  Hattie  Newman,  a  daughter  of 
Captain  James  Newman.  This  union  has  been 
blessed  with  five  children:  Willis,,  Leslie  and 
Howard,  aged  respectively  twelve,  ten  and  eight 
years  and  all  now  in  school ;  Oliver,  four  years  of 
age;  and  Marie,  a  little  daughter  one  year  old. 
Mr.  Aukland  votes  with  the  republican  party  and 
has  served  as  school  director.  He  belongs  to 
Whitefield  camp,  No.  1653,  M.  W.  A.,  and  he 
takes  a  most  active  and  helpful  interest  in  church 
work  and  is  serving  as  superintendent  of  the  Auk- 
land Methodist  Episcopal  Sunday-school.  All  who 
know  him  entertain  for  him  warm  regard  because 
investigation  into  his  life  history  indicates  his 
fidelity  to  high  principles. 


C.  E.  SMITH. 

C.  E.  Smith,  who  is  engaged  in  the  grocery 
business  in  Henry,  was  here  born  on  the  15th  of 
September,  1866,  his  parents  being  James  F.  and 
Margaret  M.  (Darnall)  Smith.  The  father,  a 
native  of  Maryland,  is  a  carpenter  by  occupation 
and  for  many  years  was  identified  with  building 
operations  in  Henry,  but  is  now  living  retired. 
He  wedded  Margaret  Melvina  Darnall,  whose  an- 
cestry can  be  traced  back  to  Henrietta  Maria  Neal, 
daughter  of  Captain  James  Neal  and  goddaughter 
of  Queen  Henrietta  Maria,  wife  of  Charles  I.  of 
England,  for  whom  she  was  named.  Her  first 
husband  was  Richard  Bennett,  Jr.,  one  of  the 
Puritans  who  founded  an  asylum  in  Maryland, 
and  who  was  the  son  of  Governor  Richard  Ben- 
nett. Richard  Bennett,  Jr.,  was  drowned,  leaving 
two  children — Richard  Bennett,  of  Bennett's 
Point,  Queen  Anne  county,  who  was  said  to  have 
been  the  wealthiest  man  in  Maryland ;  and  Su- 
sanna Maria  Bennett,  who  became  the  wife  of 
John  Darnall,  who  died  leaving  one  daughter. 
Her  second  husband  was  Henry  Lowe,  the  ances- 
tor of  Governor  Enoch  Louis  Lowe,  by  whom  she 
reared  a  large  family  of  sons  and  daughters. 
One  daughter,  Elizabeth  Lowe,  married  Henry 
Darnall.  Jr.,  of  Portland  Manor,  and  they  became 
the  groat-grandparents  of  Mrs.  Margaret  M. 
Smith.  Her  son,  Francis  Darnall,  and  his  wife 
Margaret  were  the  grandparents  of  Mrs.  Smith. 


\Vhen  the  old  courthouse  at  Portland  Manor  was 
destroyed  by  fire  all  the  records  and  wills  were 
burned  and  because  of  this  the  father  of  Mrs. 
Smith,  who  was  the  next  heir  to  Portland  Manor, 
was  cheated  out  of  his  patrimony.  His  name  was 
Henry  Bennett  Darnall  and  the  members  of  his 
family  were:  Francis  Henry;  Richard  Bennett; 
Nicholas  Lowe;  one  who  died  in  infancy;  Mar- 
garet Melvina,  who  became  Mrs.  Smith ;  and  Daw- 
son  Darnall,  the  last  named  being  so  called  be- 
cause Dawson  was  his  mother's  maiden  name. 

C.  E.  Smith,  whose  name  introduces  this  rec- 
ord, was  a  student  in  the  public  schools  of  Henry 
and  afterward  in  the  district  schools  of  White- 
field  township.  He  worked  upon  the  home  farm 
to  the  age  of  twenty-three  years  and  then  came  to 
Henry,  where  he  entered  the  employ  of  H.  Atkin- 
son, with  whom  he  remained  until  1892.  He  then 
purchased  a  half  interest  with  R.  E.  Hills  in  a 
grocery  business,  and  this  relation  was  maintained 
for  four  years,  at  the  end  of  which  time  Mr.  Smith 
purchased  his  partner's  interest  and  has  since 
been  alone  in  the  ownership  and  conduct  of  the 
store.  He  now  carries  a  large  and  well  selected 
line  of  goods  and  has  a  liberal  patronage,  being 
accounted  one  of  the  leading  merchants  of  the 
town. 

In  1893  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Mr. 
Smith  and  Miss  Lois  M.  Dunlap,  of  Whitefield 
township.  They  are  members  of  the  Methodist 
church  and  Mr.  Smith  is  a  stalwart  republican  in 
his  political  views.  He  has  served  as  a  member  of 
the  bridge  board  and  three  times  has  been  chosen 
alderman  from  the  second  ward,  in  which  con- 
nection he  has  exercised  his  official  prerogatives 
in  support  of  many  beneficial  public  measures.  His 
has  been  a  creditable  record  in  both  public  and 
private  life  and  in  Henry,  where  the  greater  part 
of  his  time  has  been  passed,  he  is  both  widely  and 
favorably  known. 


ALBERT  S.  NEWMAN. 
Albert  S.  Newman  controls  a  valuable  farm  of 
two  hundred  acres,  situated  on  section  17,  White- 
field  township,  belonging  to  his  father.  Here  he 
is  engaged  in  tilling  the  soil  and  also  in  raising 
cattle,  which  is  an  important  branch  of  his  busi- 
ness. It  was  upon  this  farm  that  his  birth  oc- 
curred on  the  13th  of  July,  1865,  his  parents 
being  Captain  James  R.  and  Mary  (Reinbeck) 


178 


PAST   AND   PKESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Newman.  The  parents  are  still  living  and  nine 
of  the  children  of  the  family  yet  survive. 

At  the  usual  age  Albert  S.  Newman  began  his 
education  by  attending  the  district  schools  of 
Whitefield  township,  and  when  not  busy  with  his 
text-books  his  hours  were  largely  employed  at 
farm  labor,  so  that  he  early  became  familiar 
with  the  work  of  field  and  meadow.  He  has 
sought  no  other  occupation  as  a  life  work,  but 
has  been 'content  to  devote  his  time  and  energies 
to  general  farming.  George  Washington  has  said 
that  agriculture  is  the  most  useful  as  well  as  the 
most  honorable  occupation  of  man.  That  Mr. 
Newman  leads  a  busy  life  is  indicated  by  the 
splendid  appearance  of  his  farm,  fle  has  two 
hundred  acres  of  land,  the  greater  part  of  which 
is  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation,  so  that  he 
annually  harvests  good  crops.  He  also  raises 
cattle  on  quite  an  extensive  scale,  having  good 
stock  upon  his  place. 

On  the  3d  of  January,  1894,  Mr.  Newman  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Sarah  M.  Salisbury,  of 
Henry,  and  unto  them  have  been  born  four  chil- 
dren: Everett  S.  and  Olen  E.,  who  are  now  in 
school ;  Levina  D. ;  and  one  died  in  infancy.  He 
is  connected  with  the  Modern  Woodmen  of 
America,  belonging  to  Whitefield  camp,  No.  1963. 
He  has  served  as  school  director  for  twelve  years 
and  believes  in  the  employment  of  competent 
teachers.  His  political  allegiance  is  given  to  the 
republican  party,  and  he  is  a  member  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church.  His  entire  life  has 
been  passed  in  this  county,  so  that  he  is  widely 
known  and  his  many  good  qualities  have  won  him 
the  favorable  regard  of  those  with  whom  he  has 
oeen  associated. 


ROBERT  PEINGLE. 

No  history  of  Marshall  county  would  be  com- 
plete without  mention  of  Robert  Pringle,  one  of 
the  most  venerable  citizens  of  La  Prairie  town- 
ship, where  for  more  than  a  half  century  he  has 
made  his  home.  Many  events  which  have  here 
occurred  and  are  to  others  matters  of  history  were 
to  him  matters  of  actual  experience  and  he  has 
watched  with  interest  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  the  county  as  it  has  emerged  from  fron- 
tier conditions  to  take  on  all  of  the  evidences  of 
a  modern  and  progressive  civilization. 

A   native  of   Dumfriesshire,    Scotland,   he   was 


born  on  the  10th  of  October,  1821,  his  parents 
being  Andrew  and  Elizabeth  (Pringle)  Pringle. 
The  father  was  born  in  Selkirkshire,  Scotland, 
October  30,  1793,  and  the  mother's  birth  occurred 
in  Dumfriesshire,  October  15,  1800.  Although  of 
the  same  name,  they  were  not  related.  In  his 
native  country  Andrew  Pringle  was  employed  as 
a  shepherd  and  as  a  laboring  man,  but  rightly 
judging  that  the  business  opportunities  of  the 
new  world  would  prove  more  advantageous  he 
came  to  the  United  States  in  1850,  remaining  for 
a  time  in  New  York.  The  year  1853,  however, 
witnessed  his  arrival  in  Marshall  county,  where 
he  spent  his  remaining  days,  passing  away  De- 
cember 14,  1870,  at  the  age  of  seventy-seven  years. 
His  wife  survived  him  and  died  July  8,  1887, 
when  in  her  eighty-eighth  year.  The  members  of 
their  family  were  as  follows :  Adam,  who  was  born 
in  October,  1819,  and  died  November  7,  1863; 
Robert,  of  this  review;  Jessie,  who  was  born  in 
April,  1823,  and  died  in  July,  1841 ;  James,  who 
was  born  in  April,  1826,  and  died  in  April,  1892. 
William  and  Jane,  twins,  who  were  born  in  Jan- 
uary, 1829,  while  the  former  died  July  4,  1873, 
and  the  latter  April  29,  1883 ;  Christina,  who  was 
born  in  1832  and  died  in  1837;  John,  who  was 
born  in  1835  and  died  in  1836;  and  Mrs.  Betsy 
Trobridge,  who  was  born  in  1839  and  is  living 
in  Phillips  county,  Colorado,  being  the  only  living 
member  of  the  family  with  the  exception  of  our 
subject. 

Robert  Pringle  of  this  review  was  reared  in 
Roxburghshire,  Scotland,  where  he  acquired  his 
education.  His  opportunities  in  that  direction 
were  somewhat  limited,  but  his  training  at  hard 
work  was  not  meager  and  lessons  of  industry  and 
economy  were  early  instilled  into  his  mind  and 
in  later  years  have  borne  rich  fruit.  He  heard 
favorable  reports  of  the  new  world  and  its  ad- 
vantages, which  he  compared  with  the  business 
outlook  before  him  in  his  native  country.  This 
comparison  decided  him  to  seek  a  home  in  Amer- 
ica and  in  1848,  when  twenty-six  years  of  age, 
he  bade  adieu  to  friends  and  native  land  and 
took  passage  on  a  westward  bound  vessel.  Land- 
ing in  New  York  city,  he  thence  made  his  way 
to  Ontario  county,  New  York,  where  he  remained 
for  four  and  a  half  years,  during  which  time  he 
scorned  no  employment  that  would  yield  him  an 
honest  living.  He  carefully  saved  his  money, 
anxious  to  establish  a  business  of  his  own,  and 


ROBKRT  PEINGLE. 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


181 


in  December,  1852,  he  came  to  Marshall  county, 
Illinois,  where  he  had  an  uncle  and  aunt  living, 
and  his  parents  and  family  followed  him  in  1853. 

While  still  living  in  Ontario  county,  New 
York,  Mr.  Pringle  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss 
Jeannette  Tiyrnbull,  a  native  of  Roxburghshire, 
Scotland,  and  a  sister  of  Robert  Turnbull,  who  is 
mentioned  elsewhere  in  this  work.  They  trav- 
eled life's  journey  happily  together  for  many 
years,  but  were  separated  by  the  death  of  the  wife 
on  the  30th  of  August,  1873.  Their  children 
were  seven  in  number.  Beatrice,  who  was  born 
April  19,  1855,  died  March  22,  1877.  She  was 
the  wife  of  John  Titus,  a  farmer  of  La  Prairie 
township.  Lizzie,  born  January  8,  1857,  is  the 
wife  of  Robert  Scoon,  who  is  a  farmer  by  occu- 
pation and  now  lives  in  Denver,  Colorado.  They 
have  three  children :  John,  born  October  10,  1858, 
operates  the  home  farm.  Andrew,  born  Decem- 
ber 16,  1860,  married  Lillie  Stewart,  who  died 
October  23,  1893,  leaving  a  daughter,  Lillian. 
For  his  second  wife  he  chose  Ida  Peck  and  they 
have  two  children,  Robert  and  Philip,  who  are 
living  with  them  on  the  farm  in  La  Prairie  town- 
ship, Marshall  county.  Mary,  born  December  8, 
1862,  is  at  home.  Adam,  who  was  born  April 
16,  1865,  and  was  a  student  in  Quincy  College, 
died  February  4,  1897.  Jennie,  born  October  11, 
1867,  is  at  home. 

Soon  after  his  marriage  Mr.  Pringle  came  to 
Marshall  county  and  purchased  one  hundred  and 
sixty  acres  of  land,  for  which  he  paid  four  dol- 
lars per  acre.  This  was  unimproved  and  in  con- 
sequence he  rented  an  improved  farm,  on  which 
he  resided  until  1854,  when  he  removed  to  his 
own  land  and  began  its  development.  A  little 
later  he  purchased  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres 
of  land  and  he  has  added  to  his  property  until 
he  now  owns  a  valuable  farm  of  three  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  on  section  27,  La  Prairie  town- 
ship. He  has  also  carried  on  stock-raising,  in 
which  he  has  been  quite  successful,  shipping  large 
numbers  of  cattle  annually.  He  was  also  at  one 
time  a  breeder  of  sheep  and  on  the  organization 
of  the  Lacon  woolen  mills  he  became  one  of  its 
stockholders.  In  his  farming  and  stock-raising 
interests,  of  which  he  has  had  personal  control, 
he  has  made  creditable  and  gratifying  success, 
and  his  life  work  is  an  illustration  of  the  fact 
that  the  lack  of  means  at  the  outset  of  a  business 
career  need  prove  no  bar  to  later  prosperity,  for 


if  one  has  determination  and  energy  they  can 
overcome  all  difficulties  and  obstacles  in  the  path 
and  gradually  advance  to  the  goal  of  prosperity. 
This  Mr.  Pringle  has -done  and  is  now  accounted 
one  of  the  prosperous  as  well  as  venerable  and 
honored  citizens  of  La  Prairie  township. 

In  politics  he  has  been  a  stalwart  advocate  of 
republican  principles  since  casting  his  first  presi- 
dential vote  for  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  has  never 
had  occasion  to  regret  the  resolution  which  he 
formed  in  early  manhood  to  seek  a  home  in  the 
new  world,  for  here  he  has  found  good  business 
opportunities  of  which  he' has  taken  advantage 
and  has  also  gained  here  a  comfortable  home  and 
won  many  friends,  so  that  his  life  in  America 
has  been  attended  with  much  comfort  and  happi- 
ness. He  has  now  passed  the  eighty-fifth  mile- 
stone on  life's  journey  and  from  his  fellowmen  he 
receives  the  veneration  and  respect  which  should 
ever  be  accorded  one  of  his  years. 


HENRY  MARSHALL. 

Henry  Marshall  is  a  retired  farmer  of  Sparland, 
who,  though  he  has  put  aside  the  active  work  of 
the  fields,  still  owns  a  valuable  and  well  improved 
farm  of  two  hundred  and  forty  acres  in  Saratoga 
township.  He  was  born  in  North  New  Castle, 
England,  January  3,  1842.  His  father,  Francis 
Marshall,  was  likewise  a  native  of  England  and 
came  to  the  United  States  in  1852,  crossing  the 
Atlantic  on  a  sailing  vessel.  He  located  first  in 
Philadelphia,  where  he  was  employed  in  a  black- 
smith shop,  and  later  he  removed  to  Pottsville, 
Pennsylvania,  where  he  secured  employment  in  a 
large  machine  shop.  After  remaining  for  a  year 
in  this  country  he  sent  for  his  family,  who  joined 
him  in  Pennsylvania.  In  1854  he  came  west  to 
Illinois,  settling  in  Peoria,  where  he  worked  in  a 
distillery  for  two  years,  and  on  the  expiration  of 
that  period  he  removed  to  La  Prairie,  where  he 
established  a  shop  which  he  conducted  for  more 
than  thirty-five  years,  when,  becoming  too  old  to 
work,  he  removed  to  Sparland  and  lived  retired, 
making  his  home  with  his  son  Henry.  He  was 
the  owner  of  eighty  acres  of  good  land,  having 
made  judicious  investment  in  property.  His  po- 
litical allegiance  was  given  to  the  republican  party. 
He  died  in  1892  after  a  residence  of  forty  years 
in  the  new  world.  His  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden 
name  of  Jennie  Wilson,  was  born  in  England  and 


182 


PAST    AVI)    PKKSKXT    OK    MARSHALL    AND    PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


was  a  devoted  member  of  the  Methodist  church. 
In  the  family  were  five  children :  Elizabeth ;  Hen- 
ry ;  Mary  Ann,  deceased ;  and  Isabelle  and  Fran- 
cis, who  died  in  infancy. 

Henry  Marshall  spent  his  early  boyhood  days 
in  his  native  country,  coming  to  the  new  world 
when  about  eleven  years  of  age.  Not  long  after 
the  father  removed  with  his  family  to  Illinois, 
settling  in  Marshall  county,  where  he  was  reared. 
He  afterward  worked  in  a  machine  shop  in  Peoria 
for  two  years  and  then  removed  to  Saratoga  town- 
ship, Marshall  county,  where  he  was  employed  for 
two  years  in  a  blacksmith  shop.  In  1859  he 
turned  his  attention  to  farming,  which  he  carried 
on  successfully  for  a  long  period,  but  is  now  living 
retired  in  Sparland,  having  a  good  income  from 
his  farm  of  two  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  well 
improved  land  situated  near  Camp  Grove.  The 
soil  is  rich  and  productive  and  he  derives  from 
the  rental  of  his  place  a  very  gratifying  income. 

Mr.  Marshall  was  united  in  marriage  to  Mrs. 
Frieda  Kline,  who  was  born  in  province  of  Posen, 
in  the  northern  part  of  Germany,  January  12, 
1858.  She  is  a  daughter  of  William  and  Louise 
(Mootz)  Arndt  and  was  one  of  a  family  of  eight 
children,  namely:  Rosalie,  deceased;  Ernest; 
Emil;  Louise,  deceased;  Herman;  Amelia; Frieda; 
and  William,  who  has  passed  away.  Both  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Marshall  are  consistent  Christian  people,  the 
former  belonging  to  the  Methodist  church  and  the 
latter  to  the  Baptist  church.  His  political  support 
is  given  the  republican  party  and  fraternally  he 
is  connected  with  the  Masonic  lodge,  No.  441,  at 
Sparland.  Both  are  highly  esteemed  by  all  who 
know  them  and  their  friends  are  many.  Mr.  Mar- 
shall from  early  boyhood  has  depended  upon  his 
own  resources  for  a  living  and  has  through  his 
own  diligence,  capable  management  and  enter- 
prise worked  his  way  upward  to  success. 


WILLIAM  HUNTER  WILLIAMS. 
William  Hunter  Williams,  deceased,  was  for 
many  years  a  prominent  representative  of  the 
farming  and  stock-raising  interests  of  Putnam 
county.  He  traced  his  ancestry  back  to  John 
Williams,  a  native  of  Wales,  and  Ann  Williams,  a 
native  of  Plymouth,  England.  They  resided  be- 
fore the  Revolutionary  war  in  the  colony  of  New 
Jersey  and  during  the  period  of  hostilities  their 


home  was  burned  by  the  British  army.  The 
family  then  became  scattered  and  it  is  supposed 
the  family  records  were  lost  or  destroyed  at  that 
time.  Thomas  Williams,  son  of  John  and  Ann 
Williams,  was  bound  out  for  a  number  of  years 
to  a  farmer,  after  which  he  removed  to  the  city 
of  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  where  he  learned 
the  trade  of  house-painting.  On  the  2d  of  May, 
1807,  he  married  Frances  Hunter,  a  daughter 
of  William  and  Frances  Hunter  of  that  city,  and 
unto  them  was  born  on  the  15th  of  January,  1811, 
a  son,  William  Hunter  Williams,  whose  name  in- 
troduces this  review. 

When  he  was  a  lad  of  about  seven  years  his 
parents  removed  to  Baltimore,  Maryland,  where 
on  the  l?'th  of  October,  1822,  the  father  died; 
leaving  a  widow  with  four  children.  They  re- 
turned to  Philadelphia,  where  William  Hunter  at- 
tended the  public  schools  until  about  fourteen 
years  of  age,  when  he  was  apprenticed  to  William 
Ford  to  learn  the  business  of  silver-plating.  In 
May,  1837,  in  consequence  of  the  financial  con- 
ditions that  existed  at  that  time,  the  country  be- 
ing involved  in  a  money  panic,  he  sought  to  bet- 
ter his  circumstances  by  removing  to  the  western 
states. 

Accordingly  in  the  early  part  of  June,  1837,  Mr. 
Williams  arrived  at  the  village  of  Hartford  iq 
Dearborn  county  in  the  southern  part  of  Indiana. 
In  the  month  of  August  of  that  year  he  made  e, 
prospecting  tour  on  foot  to  Indianapolis  and  thence 
west  to  the  eastern  part  of  Illinois,  where  his 
further  progress  was  arrested  by  fever  and  ague. 
His  objective  point  was  Alton,  Illinois,  but  the 
illness  which  he  suffered  caused  him  to  endeavor 
to  retrace  his  steps  to  Hartford,  Indiana.  This 
however,  was  accomplished  with  great  effort,  but 
he  reached  that  place  during  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember. In  the  year  1838  he  had  his  first  ex- 
perience as  a  farmer,  but  suffered  from  a  relapse 
of  the  fever  and  ague.  He  had  rented  seven  acres 
of  land,  whereon  he  raised  a  crop  of  corn.  In  the 
latter  part  of  the  summer  of  1838  he  accepted  a 
position  as  a  clerk  in  a  country  store  and  a  few 
months  later  he  became  a  clerk  and  employe  on  a 
flat-boat  which  was  to  take  a  cargo  of  flour  and 
pork  to  the  lower  Mississippi  river.  This  task 
accomplished,  in  the  spring  of  1839  he  returned 
to  Hartford,  Indiana,  making  a  detour  to  visit  a 
brother  in  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  upon  which 


WILLIAM  H.  WILLIAMS. 


MRS.  T.H.WILLIAMS 


PAST    AX1>    PHKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL   AM)    L'l  T.NAM   COTNTIKS. 


187 


occasion  he  concluded  to  settle  permanently  in  this 
state. 

Returning  to  Hartford,  Mr.  Williams  was  of- 
fered a  position  on  a  store-boat  and  continued  in 
the  boating  business  until  some  time  in  September, 
1839.  On  the  21st  of  that  month  he  started  on 
horseback  for  Marshall  county,  Illinois,  where 
he  arrived  on  the  1st  of  October.  It  was  on  the 
1st  of  May,  1843,  that  he  entered  eighty  acres 
of  land  on  section  19,  Senachwine  township,  re- 
ceiving the  government  patent  for  the  same  under 
the  administration  of  President  John  Tyler,  and 
on  the  20th  of  December,  1856,  he  purchased 
eighty  acres  of  land  adjoining  the  farm  of  Samuel 
C.  Bacon. 

On  the  29th  of  June,  1843,  Mr.  Williams  was 
married  to  Miss  Theodosia  Holmes  Lyon,  a  daugh- 
ter of  Abijah  and  Comfort  (Holmes)  Lyon,  who 
were  natives  of  Westchester  county,  New  York, 
and  the  father  removed  from  New  York  city  to 
Marshall  county,  Illinois,  in  the  spring  of  1839, 
the  mother  passing  away  in  New  York.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Williams  commenced  housekeeping  on  the 
first  purchase  of  land  in  the  spring  of  1844,  pass- 
ing through  all  of  the  pioneer  experiences  inci- 
dent to  that  period  in  the  history  of  this  part  of 
the  state.  In  1847  Mr.  Williams  was  elected  to 
the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace  of  Senachwine 
township  and  continued  in  the  office  for  many 
years.  He  was  also  county  judge  for  a  period 
of  six  years,  succeeding  Joel  W.  Hopkins,  who 
was  elected  a  member  of  the  state  legislature.  For 
nearly  a  decade  he  served  as  postmaster  of  the 
village  of  Senachwine,  now  called  Putnam,  and 
was  township  clerk  for  a  number  of  years.  He 
was  likewise  township  school  treasurer  for  thirty 
years  and  for  several  years  was  collector.  In  all 
of  these  positions  Mr.  Williams  discharged  his 
duties  with  promptness  and  fidelity  and  his  record 
therefore  reflects  credit  upon  himself  and  his 
service  was  entirely  satisfactory  to  his  constitu- 
ents. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Williams  were  born  nine 
children,  seven  of  whom  are  yet  living:  Prances 
H.,  the  wife  of  Samuel  A.  Wilson,  a  resident  of 
California;  William  A.,  who  is  living  in  Texas 
where  he  has  a  large  fruit  ranch ;  Martha,  the  wife 
of  C.  M.  Hobbs,  who  is  living  in  Council  Bluffs, 
Iowa,  and  has  been  yardmaster  at  the  Union  Pa- 
cific Eailroad  transfer  for  thirty-five  years ;  Mary, 
the  wife  of  0.  H.  Lincoln,  a  farmer  and  successful 


raiser  of  fine  horses  living  in  McHenry  county 
Illinois;  John  Howard,  who  is  living  on  the  old. 
homestead;  Emma  Elizabeth,  the  wife  of  W.  B. 
Berry,  who  is  a  minister  of  the  Christian  church 
and  editor  of  the  Christian  Pacific,  living  in  San 
Francisco,  California;  James  A.,  a  resident  of 
Chicago;  Theodosia  Ann,  the  deceased  wife  of 
Thomas  Hill,  a  resident  of  Adin,  California; 
and  David  Herbert,  who  was  drowned  in  Ten- 
nessee. 

Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Williams  were  members  of 
the  Henry  Society  of  the  New  Jerusalem  or  Swe- 
denborgian  church,  and  Mrs.  Williams  has  been 
identified  therewith  for  forty-six  years.  She  is  still 
living,  on  the  old  homestead  with  her  son,  John  H 
The  death  of  Mr.  Williams  occurred  August  22, 
1898.  He  had  for  a  long  period  been  an  active 
factor  in  the  agricultural  development  of  this 
locality  and  at  all  times  was  a  busy  man,  leading 
an  active,  useful  and  honorable  life.  While  he 
carefully  controlled  his  own  farming  interests  and 
developed  a  productive  tract  of  land,  whereon  he 
annually  harvested  good  crops,  he  always  managed 
to  find  time  to  aid  in  the  promotion  of  interests 
which  were  of  utmost  benefit  to  the  community 
and  to  assist  those  who  were  less  fortunate  than 
himself.  Any  plan  or  measure  that  was  promul- 
gated for  the  welfare  of  the  county  received  his 
endorsement  and  support  and  he  was  widely  recog- 
nizd  as  a  valued  citizen.  Mrs.  Williams  still 
survives  her  husband  and  is  now  the  oldest  resi- 
dent of  Senachwine  township.  She  was  born  and 
educated  in  New  York  city  and  although  now 
eighty-five  years  of  age  is  a  most  bright  and  intel- 
ligent woman  and  of  excellent  health  for  one  of 
'her  years.  She  recalls  many  interesting  pioneer 
experiences.  Her  father  built  the  first  log  house 
on  Whitefield  prairie  in  1839,  at  which  time 
wolves  and  other  wild  animals  were  very  numer- 
ous in  the  county,  while  herds  of  deer  were  fre- 
quently seen.  The  pioneer  families  largely  lived 
in  log  cabins,  did  their  cooking  over  fireplaces 
and  lighted  their  houses  with  candles,  while  the 
work  of  the  fields  was  largely  done  with  the  hand 
plow,  the  sickle,  the  scythe  and  the  hoe.  Mrs. 
Williams  has  lived  to  see  many  great  changes  in 
the  methods  of  farming  and  in  ways  of  life  here. 
She  still  owns  the  home  farm  of  eighty  acres 
which  her  son  John  Howard  is  conducting  for 
her,  and  he  also  owns  eighty  acres. 


188 


PAST   AND   PEESENT   OF  MAESHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


JOHN  HOWABD  WILLIAMS. 

John  Howard  Williams  was  born  February  26, 
1854,  and  has  spent  his  entire  life  on  the  old 
homestead  with  the  exception  of  a  few  years  passed 
in  the  west.  He  acquired  his  education  in  the 
country  schools  and  the  city  schools  of  Henry 
On  the  llth  of  December,  1878,  he  was  married 
to  Miss  Naomi  Eogers,  of  Henry,  who  was  born 
at  Lone  Tree,  Illinois,  September  30,  1858,  a 
daughter  of  Gardner  and  Elizabeth  Jane  Eogers. 

Mr.  Williams  brought  his  bride  to  the  old  home- 
stead, having  purchased  a  part  of  the  farm.  He 
has  since  bought  other  tracts  and  now  operates 
nearly  a  half  section  of  land,  most  of  which  he 
owns.  To  his  farm  he  has  given  the  name  of  The 
Oaks  and  here  he  is  successfully  engaged  in  stock' 
raising  under  the  firm  name  of  J.  H.  Williams  & 
Son,  the  place  having  become  well  known  espe- 
cially for  the  breeding  of  Poland  China  hogs  and 
polled  Durham  cattle.  In  this  line  they  have 
gained  more  than  a  local  reputation. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Williams  have  been  born 
six  children,  but  the  eldest  died  in  infancy.  Gard- 
ner Eogers,  the  second  in  order  of  birth,  attended 
the  village  and  Henry  schools  and  later  pursued  a 
course  in  agriculture  at  the  University  of  Illinois. 
Myrtle  Bell,  a  talented  elocutionist,  having  pur- 
sued a  course  of  study  at  Plows  Conservatory  of 
Peoria,  Illinois,  is  now  the  wife  of  Charles  E. 
Stickel,  of  Mount  Vernon,  South  Dakota.  Mary 
is  a  teacher.  Meta  Naomi  and  William  Howard 
are  still  in  school. 


BENJAMIN  JUDD. 

Benjamin  Judd  is  today  the  oldest  resident  of 
Marshall  county  in  years  of  continuous  connec- 
tion with  this  portion  of  the  state,  and  as  such 
he  was  honored  at  the  old  settlers'  reunion  held 
in  Lacon  on  the  6th  of  September,  1906.  His 
memory  compasses  the  period  of  pioneer  develop- 
ment as  well  as  of  later  day  progress,  and  he 
relates  many  interesting  events  concerning  the 
early  days  when  the  typical  home  on  the  prairie 
was  the  log  cabin  and  when  all  of  the  evidences 
of  frontier  life  were  to  be  seen.  He  was  born  in 
Wilkes  county,  North  Carolina,  March  14,  1829, 
and  was  therefore  but  two  years  old  when  brought 
by  his  parents,  Thomas  and  Elizabeth  (Darnell) 
Judd,  to  Marshall  county  in  1831.  His  grand- 
father, John  Judd,  who  died  in  North  Carolina, 


was  of  English  lineage.  He  came  to  this  country 
as  a  soldier  in  the  British  army  during  the  Eev- 
olutionary  war,  and  at  the  close  of  hostilities  de- 
cided to  remain  in  the  new  world,  settling  in 
North  Carolina,  where  he  spent  his  remaining 
dayi 

Thomas  Judd,  the  father  of  our  subject,  was 
born  in  Wilkes  county,  North  Carolina,  in  1800, 
and  having  arrived  at  years  of  maturity  was  mar- 
ried there  to  Elizabeth  Darnell,  also  a  native  of 
that  county,  born  in  1803.  Her  father  was  Ben- 
jamin Darnell,  who  came  to  Marshall  county, 
Illinois,  in  1828,  settling  on  Sandy  creek,  in 
what  is  now  Evans  township.  He  was  the  first 
white  settler  of  that  township,  and  made  his  home 
in  the  edge  of  the  timber.  Before  coming  to  the 
middle  west  he  had  read  medicine,  and  here  en- 
gaged in  practice.  The  journey  westward  was 
made  in  a  large  panelled  box  wagon  with  room 
enough  in  it  for  several  to  sleep.  He  was  accom- 
panied by  his  wife  and  ten  children,  and  on 
reaching  the  county  they  camped  on  Crow  creek 
at  a  place  called  Bennington's  Grove.  At  that 
time  his  nearest  and  in  fact  his  only  white  neigh- 
bor was  Jesse  Eoberts,  who  had  located  in  what 
is  now  Eoberts  township,  six  miles  distant. 
Indians  were  quite  numerous  and  during  the  time 
of  the  Black  Hawk  war  a  fort  was  built  on  his 
farm  enclosing  his  log  cabin  and  called  Fort  Dar- 
nell. It  was  used  as  a  place  of  refuge  by  families 
for  miles  around.  Two  of  his  sons  served  in  Colo- 
nel John  Strawn's  regiment  during  that  struggle. 
In  1839  Benjamin  Darnell  left  his  farm  in  Mar- 
shall county  and  removed  to  Kendall  county,  Illi- 
nois, where  he  opened  up  another  farm  and  located 
his  children  around  him.  There  he  died  in  1856. 
The  children  were:  Elizabeth,  John,  James, 
Enoch,  Larkins,  Benjamin,  Abram,  Mrs.  Polly 
Adams,  Mrs.  Susan  Hollenback  and  Lucy.  The 
last  named  died  at  the  age  of  fourteen  years  and 
hers  was  the  first  death  in  Evans  township  and  the 
first  to  be  interred  in  the  Cumberland  cemetery 
located  on  the  old  Darnell  farm.  The  others  are 
also  now  deceased.  The  parents  of  our  subject 
were  married  in  North  Carolina,  where  the  father 
engaged  in  farming  until  1831,  when  they  came 
to  Marshall  county  and  located  in  Evans  town- 
ship, adjoining  the  Darnell  farm  on  the  north. 
He  built  a  log  cabin  in  the  edge  of  the  timber  on 
Sandy  creek,  and  there  remained  until  his  death 
in  January,  1848.  The  mother  remained  on  the 


PAST    AND    PEESENT    OP   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


farm  after  the  death  of  her  husband  and  there 
reared  her  family.  She  died  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
six  years,  and  the  remains  of  husband  and  wife 
lie  side  by  side  in  Cumberland  cemetery.  They 
were  the  parents  of  ten  children — Alfred,  de- 
ceased ;  Mrs.  Nancy  Gants ;  John  and  Thomas, 
deceased;  Benjamin,  our  subject;  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
French,  deceased;  Frances,  deceased;  Mrs.  Matil- 
da Brown,  living  in  Wenona;  William  and  Al- 
mira,  deceased.  Before  his  death  Thomas  Judd 
greatly  improved  his  farm,  leaving  it  in  good 
condition  to  his  wife  and  children.  He  was  a 
well  educated  man,  an  old  school  teacher,  and 
served  as  county  commissioner  of  schools  at  one 
time.  He  was  also  a  justice  of  the  peace  for 
many  years.  On  coming  to  this  county  he  was 
comparatively  a  poor  man,  and  in  the  few  years 
of  his  life  here  acquired  a  competency. 

Benjamin  Judd  is  the  only  surviving  member 
of  his  father's  family  and  is  now  in  his  seventy- 
eighth  year.  He  is  still  a  hale  and  hearty  man, 
enjoying  good  health  and  weighing  two  hundred 
and  seventeen  pounds.  He  seems  to  possess  the 
vigor  and  strength  of  a  man  in  his  prime  and 
when  seen  by  the  writer  of  this  article  was  found 
digging  potatoes.  He  was  reared  amid  the  wild 
scenes  of  frontier  life,  being  brought  to  the  county 
prior  to  the  Black  Hawk  war.  He  relates  that 
many  a  time,  being  very  much  afraid  of  the  In- 
dians, he  crawled  under  the  bed  when  they  came 
to  the  house.  At  one  time  the  red  men  camped 
on  Sandy  creek  about  twenty-five  rods  from  his 
father's  cabin  and  there  remained  for  several 
days,  often  visiting  the  house  for  provisions. 
There  were  few  settlers  in  Marshall  county  or  the 
northern  portion  of  the  state  and  Mr.  Judd  re- 
members being  in  Chicago  when  the  metropolis 
was-  not  as  large  as  Wenona  and  well  remembers 
seeing  old  Fort  Dearborn  there.  Most  of  the 
homes  were  built  of  logs,  were  heated  by  immense 
fire  places,  over  which  the  family  meal  was  also 
prepared,  and  were  lighted  by  candles.  One  could 
ride  for  miles  over  the  prairie  without  coming  to 
a  house  or  fence  to  impede  his  progress  and  the 
timber  along  the  streams  was  uncut.  Gradually, 
however,  settlers  came  from  the  south  and  the  east 
and  wrought  a  marked  transformation  in  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  country,  converting  its  wild  lands 
into  rich  and  productive  farms.  Upon  the  old 
Judd  homestead  farm  in  Evans  township  the  sub- 
ject of  this  review  was  reared.  He  attended  the 


subscription  schools  of  the  pioneer  days,  but  the 
meager  advantages  of  that  period  made  his  edu- 
cation rather  limited,  but  reading,  experience  and 
observation  in  later  years  have  counteracted  this 
early  deficiency.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  years  he 
entered  upon  an  independent  business  career  by 
operating  the  old  home  farm  on  the  shares  and  he 
still  owns  a  portion  of  that  farm,  which  his  father 
entered  from  the  government  in  about  1839,  and 
he  has  never  had  a  mortgage  upon  it. 

On  the  20th  of  November,  1851,  Mr.  Judd  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Frances  Talbot,  a 
native  of  Chester  county,  Pennsylvania,  and  a 
daughter  of  Nathan  Talbot,  who  came  from  Eng- 
land to  America  in  1830,  locating  in  Pennsylva- 
nia, from  which  state  he  moved  to  Marshall  coun- 
ty, Illinois,  in  1842,  settling  in  Hopewell  town- 
ship, where  the  mother  of  Mrs.  Judd  died.  He 
subsequently  remarried  and  moved  to  Evans  town- 
ship, in  1851,  where  he  remained  for  a  time  and 
then  returned  to  Hopewell  township,  and  later 
went  to  Long  Point,  Illinois,  where  he  died.  By 
his  first  marriage  there  were  ten  children — John, 
Mathias,  Nathan,  William,  Peter,  Margaret,  Mrs. 
Judd,  Elizabeth,  Jane  and  Mrs.  Rachel  Lyons. 
Two  of  his  sons,  John  and  James,  served  in  the 
Civil  war. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Judd  are  the  parents  of  seven 
children — Adeline,  now  the  wife  of  Lutelus  W. 
Kemp,  lives  in  Evans  township,  and  is  the  mother 
of  five  children;  Nelson  Perry  married  Elizabeth 
Wilson,  by  whom  he  has  eight  children,  and  the 
family  now  reside  on  the  Judd  farm ;  James  Ash- 
ley married  Delia  Haws,  by  whom  he  had  four 
children,  and  they  too  reside  on  the  old  Judd 
farm;  Thomas  D.,  who  is  a  furniture  dealer  and 
undertaker  in  Wenona,  married  Ida  Wilson,  by 
whom  he  has  one  child ;  Clara  Jane  resides  at 
home;  Mary  Frances  married  Alonzo  D.  Brown, 
principal  of  the  Wenona  grammar  schools,  by 
whom  she  has  two  children;  Julia  Dell,  also  re- 
sides at  home. 

After  their  marriage  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Judd  con- 
tinued to  reside  upon  the  old  homestead  farm 
until  1865,  when  they  removed  to  section  16, 
Evans  township,  there  living  until  1886,  when 
they  became  residents  of  Wenona,  since  which 
time  Mr.  Judd  has  been  retired  from  active  busi- 
ness cares.  He  was  a  prosperous  and  enterprising 
farmer  and  it  is  said  that  he  raised  more  acres  of 
corn  than  any  other  man  in  Evans  township, 


190 


PAST   AND   PBESEXT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNT!  KS. 


planting  and  harvesting  forty-two  crops  of  corn 
in  succession.  His  former  success  enables  him 
now  to  enjoy  the  comforts  and  many  of  the  lux- 
uries of  life.  He  is  a  remarkably  well  preserved 
man  and  enjoys  life  today  as  though  he  were 
but  fifty  years  old.  In  spirit  and  interest  he  seems 
yet  in  his  prime.  He  belongs  to  the  Masonic 
lodge  at  Wenona  and  the  chapter  at  Eutland  and 
has  passed  through  all  of  the  chairs  of  the  former 
and  been  a  delegate  to  the  grand  lodge.  Eecently 
he  gave  to  the  lodge  a  gavel  made  from  lumber 
which  he  hafl  preserved  from  the  old  Fort  Dar- 
nell and  he  also  gave  one  to  the  Old  Settlers' 
Society  at  the  reunion  held  in  Lacon,  September 
6,  1906.  The  lumber  was  solid  and  almost  as 
hard  as  iron.  In  his  political  views  Mr.  Judd 
has  ever  been  a  stalwart  democrat  and  has  served 
in  many  local  offices.  In  manner  he  is  kindly,  in 
disposition  jovial  and  genial,  enjoying  wit  and 
humor,  and  he  is  a  valued  addition  to  any  social 
circle.  An  active  and  honorable  life  has  won  him 
the  respect  of  his  fellow  men  and  it  is  with  great 
pleasure  that  we  present  to  our  readers  a  life 
record  of  this  prominent  citizen,  the  oldest  settler, 
in  years  of  continuous  residence,  in  Marshall 
county. 


CHARLES  CLIFFOED  DOEAN. 

Charles  Clifford  Doran,  a  representative  of  the 
business  interests  of  Henry,  where  he  is  conduct- 
ing an  undertaking  establishment,  was  born  upon 
his  father's  farm  in  La  Prairie  township,  Marshall 
county,  December  23,  1878.  His  father,  Eobert 
Doran,  now  a  retired  farmer  of  Henry,  was  born 
in  New  Brunswick,  Canada,  and  became  a  resi- 
dent of  Marshall  county  fifty-five  years  ago.  He 
wedded  Mary  Amanda  Baker,  a  native  of  New 
York,  and  they  have  four  living  children  and  have 
lost  two.  Those  who  still  survive  are :  Clarence, 
who  is  conducting  a  restaurant  in  Chillicothe, 
Illinois;  Charles  Clifford,  of  this  review;  and 
Clyde  and  Claude,  who  are  operating  the  old  home 
farm. 

When  the  subject  of  this  review  was  a  young 
lad  his  parents  removed  to  Kansas,  establishing 
their  home  in  Rice  county,  and  there  he  acquired 
his  early  education  in  the  public  schools.  Fol- 
lowing the  return  of  the  family  to  Illinois  in 
1889  he  continued  his  education  in  the  district 
schools  of  La  Prairie  township  and  when  not 
occupied  with  the  duties  of  the  schoolroom  his 


time  was  largely  given  to  work  upon  his  father's 
farm.  After  attaining  his  majority  his  entire 
attention  was  concentrated  upon  agricultural  in- 
terests and  he  lived  on  the  old  homestead  until 
about  two  years  ago,  when,  in  1904,  he  came  to 
Henry  and  established  the  undertaking  business 
which  he  has  since  conducted  with  good  success. 
On  the  10th  of  May,  1906,  Mr.  Doran  was 
married  to  Miss  Catherine  Schmitz,  of  Peru,  Illi- 
nois, and  in  social  cricles  in  Henry  they  occupy 
an  enviable  position.  Mr.  Doran  has  taken  three 
degrees  of  Odd  Fellowship  and  he  gives  his  po- 
litical allegiance  to  the  republican  party,  keeping 
well  informed  on  the  questions  and  issues  of  the 
day,  yet  never  seeking  or  desiring  public  office, 
as  he  prefers  to  concentrate  his  energies  upon  his 
business  interests. 


FREDERICK  A.  RAYMOND. 
Frederick  A.  Raymond,  at  one  time  largely, 
actively  and  successfully  engaged  in  general 
farming  in  Marshall  county,  now  owns  and  occu- 
pies a  tract  of  land  of  twenty  acres  beautifully 
situated  at  the  corporation  limits  of  Henry  and 
is  practically  living  retired  from  business  cares. 
His  life  record  began  in  Burlington,  Hartford 
county,  Connecticut,  on  the  23d  of  August,  1842, 
and  he  is  descended  from  an  old  New  England 
family.  His  father,  Frederick  A.  Raymond,  Sr., 
was  also  a  native  of  Burlington,  Connecticut, 
and  for  some  years  was  connected  with  the  Seth 
Thomas  clock  factory,  but,  thinking  to  enjoy 
better  business  privileges  and  opportunities  in 
the  then  young  but  rapidly  growing  west,  he 
made  his  way  to  Illinois,  arriving  at  Mount  Pala- 
tine, in  Putnam  county,  on  the  2d  of  March, 
1850.  Soon  afterward  he  secured  land  and  was 
thereon  engaged  in  general  farming  until  1858. 
In  community  affairs  he  was  active  and  influen- 
tial and  served  as  assessor  for  seventeen  years, 
having  been  elected  for  an  eighteenth  term  just 
prior  to  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1894  when 
he  had  reached  the  age  of  seventy-four  years  and 
eight  days.  He  regarded  a  public  office  as  a  pub- 
lic trust  and  was  ever  faithful  to  the  duties  that 
devolved  upon  him.  His  widow  is  still  living  and 
is  now  in  her  ninety-first  year.  In  their  family 
were  eight  children,  of  whom  six  are  now  living: 
Mary  J.,  the  wife  of  C.  M.  Dawson,  of  Henry; 
Frederick  A. ;  E.  M.,  who  is  living  in  Grand  Rap- 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


193 


ids,  Michigan;  J.  B.,  a  mail  carrier  in  Chicago; 
Henry  R.;  and  Martha,  the  wife  of  Edward 
White,  of  Warrensburg,  Illinois. 

Frederick  A.  Raymond  of  this  review  was  a 
lad  of  seven  years  when  brought  by  his  parents 
to  Illinois.  His  education  was  acquired  in  the 
district  schools  of  Putnam  county  and  the  public 
schools  of  Henry  and  after  putting  aside  his  text- 
books he  turned  las  attention  to  general  farming, 
which  he  continuously  and  successfully  followed 
until  about  twenty  years  ago.  He  was  enter- 
prising and  progressive  in  his  work,  placed  his 
land  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation  and  derived 
therefrom  a  good  income,  owing  to  the  large 
crops  which  he  raised.  He,  too,  has  filled  public 
offices,  for  soon  after  his  father's  death  he  was 
elected  assessor  and  acted  in  that  capacity  for 
four  years.  He  has  also  been  commissioner  of 
roads  and  has  been  prominent  in  local  govern- 
mental affairs,  being  a  most  public-spirited 
man 

On  the  15th  of  September,  1870,  Mr.  Raymond 
was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Mary  F.  Tabor  of 
Henry,  Illinois,  who  died  October  6,  1881.  She 
left  one  child,  Mrs.  Evaline  Schroder,  the  wife 
of  W.  R.  Schroder,  a  harnessmaker  of  Macon 
county,  by  whom  she  has  two  children:  Lucy 
Helen  and  Raymond.  On  the  3d  of  March,  1886, 
Mr.  Raymond  was  again  married,  his  second 
union  being  with  Miss  Amanda  Camery,  a  native 
of  Mount  Vernon,  Knox  county,  Ohio.  She  was 
born  June  27,  1845,  and  was  the  youngest  of  a 
family  of  twelve  children  whose  parents  were 
Christian  and  Nancy  (Messick)  Camery,  both 
now  deceased.  Her  father  was  born  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  died  at  the  age  of  eighty- four  years, 
while  her  mother,  a  native  of  Virginia,  died  in 
her  seventy-fourth  year  of  age. 

Mr.  Raymond  has  always  been  a  stalwart  ad- 
vocate of  republican  principles  and  is  well  in- 
formed on  the  issues  which  divide  the  two  great 
parties  and  which  constitute  much  of  the  nation's 
history.  His  fidelity  in  citizenship  has  been  one 
of  his  strong  and  salient  characteristics  and  com- 
bined with  his  business  integrity  and  his  per?ci;al 
worth  have  made  him  a  citizen  whom  to  know  is 
to  respect  and  honor.  He  has  been  a  member  of 
the  Modern  Woodmen  of  America  since  1889  and 
was  consul  of  the  camp  for  five  successive 
years. 


THEODORE  ALPHONZO  SEELYE. 

Theodore  Alphonzo  Seelye,  who  is  engaged  in 
general  agricultural  pursuits  on  section  17,  White- 
field  township,  is  there  cultivating  a  good  farm 
of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  and  is  also  en- 
gaged successfully  in  raising  stock.  A  native  of 
Illinois,  he  was  born  in  Peoria  county  on  the  4th 
of  December,  1856.  His  father,  Henry  Seelye, 
was  a  native  of  Massachusetts  and  came  to  Illi- 
nois when  a  young  man  of  eighteen  years,  at 
which  time  he  settled  in  Peoria  county.  He  was 
there  married  to  Miss  Mary  Johnson,  who  died 
when  her  son  Theodore  was  bvit  fourteen  months 
old.  Four  years  after  his  marriage  Mr.  Seelye 
removed  from  Peoria  county  to  Marshall  county, 
settling  in  Saratoga  township,  where  for  many 
years  he  followed  the  occupation  of  farming,  being 
one  of  the  well  known  representatives  of  agricul- 
tural interests  in  his  part  of  the  county.  He 
was  a  second  time  married  and  he  had  two  chil- 
dren by  both  marriages.  His  death  occurred  in 
1898  and  thus  passed  away  one  of  the  old-time 
residents  of  the  county,  who  for  many  years  had 
been  numbered  among  its  worthy  and  respected 
citizens.  He  had  filled  the  office  of  road  commis- 
sioner and  his  political  support  was  given  to  the 
republican  party. 

In  early  boyhood  days  Theodore  A.  Seelye  was 
a  pupil  in  the  Town  Hall  schoolhouse  in  Saratoga 
township,  where  he  mastered  the  branches  of 
learning  usually  taught  in  the  common  schools. 
He  early  became  familiar  with  the  work  of  field 
and  meadow  as  he  assisted  in  the  cultivation  of 
the  crops  from  the  time  of  early  spring  planting 
until  the  harvests  were  gathered  in  the  late  au- 
tumn. After  his  education  was  completed  he  re- 
mained upon  the  home  farm  for  a  time  and  then 
began  farming  on  his  own  account.  He  lives  on 
section  17,  Whitefield  township,  where  he  is  cul- 
tivating a  good  farm  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres,  almost  the  entire  amount  being  under  the 
plow.  He  raises  the  cereals  best  adapted  to  soil 
and  climate  and  he  also  has  live-stock  interests, 
being  engaged  in  the  raising  of  horses,  cattle  and 
hogs,  while  his  annual  shipments  and  sales  add 
no  undesirable  sum  to  his  yearly  income. 

In  1878  Mr.  Seelye  was  married  to  Miss  Eliza- 
beth Lockland,  of  Saratoga,  and  unto  them  have 
been  born  three  children,  but  Willard  Alphonzo, 
the  eldest,  died  when  seven  years  of  age.  The 
surviving  son  and  daughter  are  Thomas  Richard 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


and  Ora  Ethel,  both  at  home,  the  latter  a  stu- 
dent in  the  public  schools.  Mr.  Seelye  affiliates 
with  Whitefield  camp,  No.  1653,  M.  W.  A.,  and 
is  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 
By  his  ballot  he  usually  endorses  republican  prin- 
ciples, but  at  local  elections  where  no  issue  is  in- 
volved frequently  casts  an  independent  vote.  Al- 
most his  entire  life  has  been  passed  in  this  county 
and  he  has  therefore  long  been  a  witness  of  its 
development  and  progress,  while  as  an  enterpris- 
ing farmer  he  has  contributed  to  its  substantial 
development  along  agricultural  lines. 


WILLIAM    HAWS. 

William  Haws,  a  retired  farmer  making  his 
home  in  Magnolia,  where  he  owns  and  occupies 
one  of  the  fine  homes  of  the  village,  is  also  a  large 
landowner,  owning  two  hundred  acres  of  land  near 
the  village,  which  furnishes  him  with  a  good  finan- 
cial income,  has  through  a  long  period  been  identi- 
fied with  the  progress  and  development  of  Putnam 
county.  He  is  a  native  of  Clinton  county,  Ohio, 
his  birth  having  occurred  September  10,  1833. 
The  first  man  to  locate  in  this  district  was  Cap- 
tain William  Haws,  the  paternal  uncle  of  our  sub- 
ject. His  birth  occurred  in  Orange  county,  Vir- 
ginia, September  23,  1800,  and  in  1805  he  was 
taken  by  his  parents  to  Ohio,  where  he  remained 
until  he  attained  his  majority,  when,  on  the  27th 
of  August,  1821,  he  located  in  Sangamon  county, 
this  state,  where  he  conducted  a  tannery  for  a 
time,  and  in  1826  came  to  Magnolia  township, 
Putnam  county,  where  he  settled  on  a  farm  on 
section  26.  He  built  a  log  cabin  and  there  made 
his  permanent  home.  His  wife  bore  the  maiden 
name  of  Lucinda  Southwick,  who  was  a  native  of 
New  York  and  was  a  typical  frontier  woman, 
brave  and  fearless,  and  shared  with  her  husband 
all  the  trials  and  privations  of  a  frontier  existence. 
Indians  at  that  time  were  far  more  numerous  than 
the  white  settlers  and  wild  animals  were  heard 
howling  around  their  little  cabin.  The  Captain  se- 
cured his  title  as  commander  of  a  volunteer  com- 
pany in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  When  he  first  lo- 
cated here  this  district  was  included  in  Tazewell 
county,  but  in  1831  a  meeting  was  held  at  his 
house,  at  which  time  Putnam  county  was  organ- 
ized. He  was  identified  with  much  of  the  progress 
and  improvement  of  this  portion  of  the  state  and 
served  in  various  ways  in  public  affairs,  and  dur- 


ing the  first  term  of  court  which  convened  in  an 
old  traveling  house  near  Hennepin,  Mr.  Haws 
served  on  the  grand  jury,  Governor  Ford  then 
acting  as  prosecuting  attorney  for  this  district. 
After  the  death  of  his  first  wife  Captain  Haws  was 
again  married,  his  second  union  being  with  Mrs. 
Louisa  Moffitt  nee  Defenbaugh,  by  whom  he  had 
five  children,  of  whom  two  still  survive — Clifford, 
who  resides  in  Henry,  Marshall  county;  and  Joel 
of  Varna,  Illinois.  Both  Captain  and  Mrs.  Haws 
are  now  deceased,  the  former  having  passed  away 
in  March,  1885. 

In  1845  a  second  member  of  the  Haws  family 
located  here,  this  being  Mrs.  Kelley,  a  sister  of 
Captain  Haws,  who  spent  the  succeeding  three 
years  in  Magnolia  township,  subsequent  to  which 
time  she  removed  to  La  Salle  county,  and  about 
1860  removed  to  the  state  of  Missouri.  Another 
sister  came  in  1838  and  made  her  home  here  until 
her  death,  at  the  very  advanced  age  of  ninety-two 
years,  after  which  her  remains  were  interred  in  the 
Magnolia  cemetery. 

Joel  Haws,  the  father  of  our  subject,  was  born 
in  Madison  county,  Virginia,  August  15,  1796,  a 
son  of  Conrad  and  Susan  Haws,  who  emigrated  in 
1805  to  Clinton  county,  Ohio,  where  both  passed 
away.  Conrad  Haws  and  two  of  his  brothers 
served  in  the  Revolutionary  war,  aiding  the  col- 
onies in  their  struggle  for  independence.  Joel 
Haws  was  one  of  a  family  of  eight  children,  the 
oth'prs  being  Elizabeth,  William,  Mrs.  Fanjnie 
Johnson,  John,  Mrs.  Nancy  Kelley,  Susan  and 
Tandy,  all  of  whom  are  now  deceased.  Joel  Haws 
remained  with  his  parents  during  his  boyhood  and 
youth  and  accompanied  them  on  their  removal  to 
Clinton  county,  Ohio,  where  he  was  united  in  mar- 
riage to  Miss  Elizabeth  Gibson,  their  marriage 
being  celebrated  on  the  27th  of  April,  1824.  She 
was  a  daughter  of  John  Gibson  and  was  born  in 
1805.  The  young  coiiple  took  up  their  abode  in 
Ohio,  where  they  remained  until  their  removal  to 
Putnam  county  in  1838,  at  which  time  they  took 
up  their  abode  on  the  farm  belonging  to  his 
brother,  Captain  William  Haws,  where  they  made 
their  home  until  1845,  in  which  year  the  father 
purchased  the  farm  which  is  now  owned  by  Gus- 
tave  Otto.  This  he  improved  and  cultivated  until 
his  death,  which  occurred  on  the  24th  of  June, 
1883,  when,  he  had  reached  the  very  advanced  age 
of  eighty-seven  years.  His  wife  was  a  devoted 
member  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  her  death 


PAST    AM)    I'KKSKVf    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COrXTIKS. 


197 


occurred  in  January,  1876.  Their  family  num- 
bered ten  children,  namely :  Mrs.  Mary  Ann  Hub- 
bard,  deceased;  Thomas  G.,  a  resident  of  Mag- 
nolia; Mrs.  Elizabeth  McCullum,  deceased;  Wil- 
liam, whose  name  introduces  this  record;  John, 
who  died  in  1904,  at  Ottawa,  Illinois;  one  who 
died  in  infancy ;  Mrs.  Sarah  J.  McCombs,  of  Cali- 
fornia ;  Eunice  L.,  the  wife  of  Gustave  Otto,  whose 
sketch  appears  on  another  page  of  this  work; 
George  W.  of  La  Salle,  this  state;  and  James  A., 
who  resides  at  York,  Nebraska.  The  father  served 
in  the  war  of  1812,  as  a  member  of  the  Second 
Ohio  Volunteers  under  command  of  Captain  Wil- 
liam Fordyce  in  Colonel  Smith's  regiment  and 
General  Denoe's  division,  and  he  received  an  hon- 
orable discharge  in  1814.  In  politics  he  was  a 
Jacksonian  democrat,  and  in  his  community  was 
known  as  an  honorable  citizen  and  a  faithful 
friend. 

William  Haws,  whose  name  introduces  this  rec- 
ord, was  a  little  lad  of  only  five  years  when  he 
was  brought  by  his  parents  to  Putnam  county,  and 
here  he  became  familiar  with  all  the  duties  that 
fall  to  the  lot  of  the  pioneer  settler,  for  during 
his  youth  he  assisted  his  father  in  the  develop- 
ment and  improvement  of  his  farm,  thus  gaining 
practical  knowledge  of  farm  work  in  all  its  de- 
partments. During  the  winter  months,  when  his 
services  were  not  needed  on  the  farm,  he  pursued 
his  studies  in  the  district  schools,  but  his  advan- 
tages in  that  direction  were  limited,  owing  to  the 
unsettled  condition  of  the  country  and  the  primi- 
tive manner  in  which  the  schools  were  conducted 
at  that  early  day.  He  remained  under  the  patvntal 
roof  until  he  attained  his  majority,  and  then 
starting  out  upon  an  independent  career,  secured 
employment  with  his  uncle,  Captain  Haws,  with 
whom  he  remained  for  seventeen  years.  He  was 
early  trained  to  habits  of  industry  and  economy, 
and,  saving  his  earnings,  he  was  in  due  course  of 
time  enabled  to  purchase  land  and  engage  in 
farming  on  his  own  account.  As  he  prospered  in 
his  undertakings  he  added  more  and  more  largely 
to  his  possessions  until  he  is  now  the  owner  of  a 
fine  farm  of  two  hundred  acres  situated  near  the 
village  of  Magnolia,  and  on  this  place  he  was 
for  many  years  engaged  in  general  agricultural 
pursuits  and  stock-raising,  but  is  now  living  re- 
tired in  a  beautiful  home  in  the  village  of  Mag- 
nolia, where  he  and  his  wife  are  enjoying  the 
fruits  of  their  former  toil,  for  they  have  acquired 


a  property  and  a  competence  that  enables  them 
to  enjoy  all  the  comforts  and  many  of  the  luxu- 
ries of  life,  and  in  this  home  they  expect  to  spend 
their  declining  years. 

Mr.  Haws  has  been  twice  married.  His  first 
wife  bore  the  maiden  name  of  Helen  Clisbee,  who 
was  born  in  Marshall  county,  April  11,  1842. 
She  was  reared  from  her  early  childhood  by  Cap- 
tain Haws,  with  whom  she  remained  until  her 
marriage,  and  her  death  occurred  February  3, 

1864.  She  was  the  mother  of  two  daughters,  of 
whom  the  younger,  Helen,  is  deceased.    The  elder 
daughter,  Minnie  L.,  was  married  on  the  26th  of 
June,  1876,  to  Eiley  B.  Roberts,  who  was  born  on 
the  old  Roberts  homestead  in  Roberts  township, 
Marshall  county,  October  26,  1854,  a  son  of  Liv- 
ingston Roberts,  who  is  now  deceased.     Mrs.  Rob- 
erts was  born  in  Magnolia  township,  February  17, 
1859,  and  was  reared  and  educated  in  this  town- 
ship, and  by  her  marriage  has  become  the  mother 
of  five  children,  Burl  William,  Helen  Haws,  Mar- 
garet Livingston,  Ollie  Marie  and  Irene.     Fol- 
lowing their  marriage  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Roberts  lo- 
cated upon  the  farm  which  continued  to  be  their 
home  through  many  years,  and  here  he  engaged 
in  general  farming  and  stock-raising,  raising  high 
grades  of  horses  and  Jersey  cattle.    He  belongs  to 
the  lodge  of  Masons,  No.  103,  at  Magnolia  and  is 
also  a  Modern  Woodman,  filling  some  of  the  ehai>? 
in  that  organization,  while  his  political  affiliations 
are  with  the  republican  party,  and  he  takes  an 
active  interest  in  local  affairs,  having  served  for 
many  years  as  road  commissioner  and  as  school 
director.     They  now  live  in  the  village  of  Mag- 
nolia. 

After  the  death  of  his  first  wife  Mr.  Hav.,  u  is 
married  again,  his  second  union  being  with  Miss 
Mary  Jane  Trone,  whom  he  wedded  March  2, 

1865.  She  was  born  in  York  county,  Pennsyl- 
vania, January  7,  1845,  a  daughter  of  David  and 
Christian    (Philby)    Trone,    likewise    natives    of 
York  county,  the  former  born  January  9,  1816, 
while  the  latter  was  bom  in  1820.     In  the  spring 
of  1847  her  parents  made  their  way  westward,  the 
family  home  being  established  in  Caledonia,  Put- 
nam county,  where  the   father  passed  away   in 
June,  1863,  while  the  mother  survived  until  Jan- 
uary, 1879.     Both  were  devoted  members  of  the 
Methodist  church  and  the  father  served  a>-  post- 
master of  Caledonia  for  several  years.    Their  fam- 
ily   numbered    four    children:       Mrs.    Margaret 


PAST   AND   PEESENT   OF   MAESHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Smith,  deceased;  Mary  J.,  now  Mrs.  Haws;  Mrs. 
Elizabeth  Kidd,  deceased;  and  Jerry. 

Mr.  Haws  is  a  worthy  member  of  the  Masonic 
fraternity,  belonging  to  the  blue  lodge  at  Mag- 
nolia, in  which  he  served  as  treasurer  for  a  long 
period,  the  chapter  at  Lacon  and  the  commandery 
at  Peru.  He  has  always  given  his  political  sup- 
port and  co-operation  to  the  democratic  party,  and 
has  ever  been  interested  in  the  progress  and  suc- 
cess of  his  party.  In  former  years  he  was  quite 
active  in  local  affairs,  and  served  as  road  commis- 
sioner for  one  term,  as  supervisor  for  two  terms, 
was  a  member  of  the  school  board  and  of  the  vil- 
lage board  of  Magnolia  for  a  long  period  and  like- 
wise as  president  of  the  village  for  several  terms. 
Mr.  Haws  has  always  led  an  active  and  busy  life, 
and  all  that  he  has  accumulated  has  been  acquired 
through  his  own  well  directed  labors.  At  one 
time  he  owned  three  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of 
land,  but  has  since  disposed  of  a  part  of  this  and 
now  retains  possession  of  two  hundred  acres, 
which  constitutes  a  valuable  farm,  also  one  hun- 
dred acres  of  timber  land  in  Marshal!  county,  and 
thirty  acres  in  Putnam  county,  besides  a  number 
of  town  lots,  from  which  property  he  derives  an 
income  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  spend  the  re- 
mainder of  his  days  in  honorable  retirement.  He 
and  his  wife  both  enjoy  good  health,  and  are 
comfortably  situated  in  a  pleasant  home  in  the 
village  of  Magnolia,  the  hospitality  of  which  is 
enjoyed  by  a  large  circle  of  warm  friends. 


JOHN  E.  PASKELL. 

John  E.  Paskell,  engaged  in  the  livery  busi- 
ness in  Henry  and  one  time  mayor  of  the  city, 
was  born  in  West  Virginia  near  Eomney,  on  the 
8th  of  January,  1867.  His  father,  George  Foun- 
tain Paskell,  was  a  native  of  Hagerstown,  Mary- 
land, and  after  the  Civil  war  came  to  Illinois.  He 
settled  in  Henry  and  for  some  time  was  proprietor 
of  the  Paskell  House,  a  leading  hotel  of  the  city, 
which  he  made  a  popular  hostelry  and  one  that 
was  liberally  patronized  by  the  traveling  public. 
In  community  affairs  he  took  a  deep  and  helpful 
interest  and  gave  to  the  city  a  public  spirited 
and  progressive  administration  during  the  two 
terms  that  he  served  as  mayor.  He  was  also  presi- 
dent of  the  bridge  board  and  a  member  of  the 
school  board  and  of  the  cemetery  association.  His 
fellow  townsmen,  recognizing  his  worth  and  abil- 


ity and  his  loyalty  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
community,  thus  called  him  to  various  offices,  the 
duties  of  which  were  discharged  with  promptness 
and  fidelity.  When  he  was  called  from  this  life 
on  the  14th  of  April,  1898,  his  death  was  the 
occasion  of  deep  and  widespread  regret,  for  he 
was  prominent  in  political  circles  and  in  business 
life  as  well,  while  those  whom  he  met  socially 
entertained  for  him  warm  regard.  His  wife,  who 
bore  the  maiden  name  of  Marian  Powell,  died  at 
the  age  of  thirty-five  years.  In  their  family  were 
two  children. 

John  E.  Paskell,  the  only  one  now  living,  was 
a  public-school  student  in  Henry,  being  brought 
to  this  city  by  his  parents  in  his  early  boyhood 
days.  After  putting  aside  his  text-books  he  be- 
came associated  with  his  father  in  the  manage- 
ment and  conduct  of  the  hotel  and  later  became 
a  dealer  in  horses.  He  is  now  engaged  in  the 
livery  business  while  his  stables  are  stocked  with  a 
number  of  good  horses  and  a  fine  line  of  vehicles 
which  he  rents  out  to  patrons,  the  number  of 
whom  is  constantly  increasing. 

Like  his  father,  John  E,  Paskell  has  also  figured 
prominently  in  political  circles  and  in  affairs  re- 
lating to  the  general  upbuilding  and  improvement 
of  the  community.  In  1894  he  was  elected  sheriff 
on  the  democratic  ticket  and  filled  the  office  for 
four  years,  discharging  his  duties  without  fear 
or  favor.  During  his  incumbency  in  that  posi- 
tion he  also  acted  for  two  years  as  mayor  of 
Henry.  He  belongs  to  Henry  lodge,  No.  180, 
K.  P.,  and  is  a  member  of  the  bridge  board.  He 
supports  the  Episcopal  church  and  he  is  recog- 
nized as  a  man  who  stands  for  improvement  at 
all  times.  Henry  has  been  his  home  from  his 
earliest  boyhood  and  he  has  deep  affection  for 
the  town  and  its  people,  while  his  labors  in  its 
behalf  have  been  far-reaching  and  beneficial. 


HON.  DANIEL  H.  GEEGG. 
Hon.  Daniel  H.  Gregg,  county  judge  of  Mar- 
shall county  and  recognized  as  one  of  the  learned 
and  able  members  of  the  bar  of  this  section  of 
Illinois,  makes  his  home  in  Wenona,  where  he 
is  also  engaged  in  the  real-estate  and  insurance 
business.  He  was  born  in  Eodraan,  Jefferson 
county,  New  York,  August  15,  1867,  and  is  a  son 
of  Joseph  and  Margaret  (Irwin)  Gregg,  who  were 
cf  Scotch  and  Irish  descent.  They  were  married 


PAST    AND    PEESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


199 


before  coming  to  America  and  upon  reaching  the 
United  States  settled  in  the  state  of  New  York. 
The  father,  a  farmer  by  occupation,  came  to  Illi- 
nois in  1872,  locating  in  La  Salle  county,  Illi- 
nois, where  he  and  his  wife  are  now  living.  He 
is  retired  from  business  cares,  however,  and  they 
make  their  home  in  the  village  of  Harding.  They 
have  seven  living  children,  five  sons  and  two 
daughters:  Mrs.  Anna  Goodman,  a  widow; 
James,  at  home;  Mary,  the  wife  of  Charles  H. 
Ostrand,  superintendent  of  the  Kelvyn  Grove 
school,  of  Chicago,  which  position  he  has  occupied 
for  about  fifteen  years;  Daniel  H. ;  Joseph  W., 
who  is  engaged  in  the  hardware  business  in  Earl- 
ville;  Eobert,  an  attorney  at  law  of  Denver,  Colo- 
rado, and  a  teacher  in  a  law  school  of  that  city; 
and  William,  a  farmer. 

Judge  Gregg  was  educated  in  the  country 
schools  and  in  the  Northwestern  Normal  School 
at  Geneseo,  from  which  he  was  graduated  with 
the  class  of  1887.  He  then  engaged  in  teaching 
for  several  years  in  the  district  schools  and  also 
in  the  city  schools  of  Chicago.  He  spent  six  terms 
in  one  school  and  was  a  capable  educator,  impart- 
ing clearly  and  readily  to  others  the  knowledge 
that  he  had  acquired.  In  April,  1898,  he  came 
to  Wenona  and  entered  the  law  office  of  J.  H. 
Jackson,  with  whom  he  pursued  his  preliminary 
reading.  Subsequently  he  took  a  law  course  in 
Kent  College  of  Law  at  Chicago,  from  which  he 
was  graduated  in  June,  1902.  A  month  prior  to 
that  time  he  successfully  passed  the  examination 
that  secured  his  admission  to  the  bar  and  after 
entering  upon  the  practice  of  law  he  soon  secured 
a  good  clientele  and  also  obtained  a  good  clientage 
in  the  real-estate  and  insurance  business.  With 
the  exception  of  the  first  year  of  his  residence  in 
Wenona  he  has  continuously  held  office  since  lo- 
cating here.  When  twenty-one  years  of  age  he 
was  elected  town  clerk  and  justice  of  the  peace, 
filling  those  offices  in  a  republican  township. 
When  he  had  been  in  Wenoaa  for  a  year  he  was 
elected  police  magistrate,  from  which  office  he  re- 
signed a  year  later.  He  was  then  elected  mayor 
of  Wenona  and  gave  to  the  city  a  public-spirited, 
practical  and  progressive  administration.  In  1902 
he  was  chosen  county  judge  and  is  now  a  candi- 
date for  re-election.  On  the  bench  he  has  made 
a  most  creditable  record  as  one  whose  decisions 
are  strictly  fair  and  impartial  and  are  moreover 
based  upon  a  thoroiigh  knowledge  of  the  law  and 


precedent  and  a  correct  application  of  legal  prin- 
ciples to  the  points  in  issue. 

Judge  Gregg  was  married  on  the  3d  of  March, 
1903,  to  Miss  Martha  Missal,  a  native  of  Wenona 
and  of  German  descent.  They  now  have  one  son, 
Neal  Ellsworth,  born  May  7,  1905.  The  judge  is 
a  member  of  the  Masonic  fraternity,  belonging  to 
both  the  lodge  and  chapter.  He  has  made  many 
warm  friends  in  Wenona  among  both  the  repub- 
cans  and  democrats,  for  he  has  a  nature  that 
transcends  partisan  prejudice  and  recognizes  char- 
acter, nobility  and  worth.  Community  interests 
elicit  his  deep  attention  and  if  he  regards  a  move- 
ment as  beneficial  he  does  not  hesitate  to  give 
it  his  hearty  support  and  endorsement.  His  at- 
tention is  thus  given  to  fraternal,  social  and  muni- 
cipal interests  and  yet  his  time  is  most  largely 
devoted  to  his  profession  and  his  business  inter- 
ests, and  at  the  bar  he  has  gained  a  leading  place 
that  brought  to  him  a  large  clientele  and  has  now 
gained  for  him  judicial  honors. 


E.  OLIVE  COFFMAN. 

E.  Olive  Coffman,  who  is  conducting  a  photo- 
graphic gallery  in  Henry  and  has  attained  supe- 
rior skill  in  the  line  of  her  art,  was  born  near 
Rutland,  Marshall  county.  Her  father,  the  Rev. 
J.  P.  Coffman,  was  formerly  a  teacher  and  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  minister,  but  is  now  giving  his  at- 
tention to  the  occupation  of  farming.  He  is  a 
native  of  Ohio  and  when  six  years  of  age  was 
brought  to  Illinois  by  his  father,  John  Coffman, 
the  family  thus  being  established  in  this  part  of 
the  state  at  an  early  day.  Having  arrived  at  years 
of  maturity  J.  P.  Coffman  was  married  to  Miss 
Ellen  P.  Gray,  a  native  of  Marshall  county,  and 
they  now  have  nine  children,  six  daughters  and 
three  sons:  E.  Olive;  John  D.,  who  is  living  on 
a  farm  in  Iowa;  J.  P.,  who  is  also  engaged  in 
farming  in  Iowa ;  Ethel  and  Elsie,  both  deceased ; 
William  G.,  living  on  the  home  farm ;  Teresa  A., 
Mary  S.  and  Grace  E.,  all  of  whom  are  at  home 
and  are  attending  school. 

E.  Olive  Coffman  was  a  student  in  the  district 
schools  of  Marshall  county  and  continued  her 
studies  in  the  South  Lacon  school.  After  putting 
aside  her  text-books  she  carried  the  mail  on  the 
route  between  Sparland  and  La  Prairie  Center, 
but  ambitious  for  further  education  she  subse- 
quently became  a  student  in  the  Western  Normal 
School  at  Bushnell,  Illinois.  Later  she  engaged 


PAST    AND    I'K'KSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    1MTXAM    COUNTIES. 


in  teaching  for  one  year  in  Livingston  county  and 
on  the  28th  of  July,  1902,  she  purchased  a  photo- 
graphic gallery  at  Lacon,  where  she  conducted 
business  until  the  1st  of  November,  1905,  when 
she  came  to  Henry.  Here  she  established  her  gal- 
lery and  has  secured  a  liberal  patronage  because 
of  her  skill  and  ability  in  the  line  of  her  chosen 
art.  She  is  a  member  of  the  National  Photo- 
graphic Association  of  America  and  she  secured 
at  St.  Louis  a  photographer's  diploma  from  F. 
W.  Guerin.  She  is  thoroughly  informed  concern- 
ing the  latest  improved  methods  known  to  the 
photographic  art  and  has  a  splendidly  equipped 
studio.  Socially  in  Henry  she  is  prominent  and 
she  belongs  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 


LOUIS   E.   PHILLIPS. 

Louis  R.  Phillips,  cashier  of  the  Henry  Na- 
tional Bank,  whose  business  capacity,  executive 
force  and  personal  popularity  are  strong  ele- 
ments in  the  success  of  this  institution,  was  born 
in  Columbus,  Ohio,  on  the  10th  of  January, 
1864.  His  father,  John  M.  Phillips,  was  a 
farmer  by  occupation  and  for  many  years  car- 
ried on  the  work  of  tilling  the  soil,  but  is  now 
living  retired  at  Deer  Creek,  Illinois.  His  wife, 
who  bore  the  maiden  name  of  Sarah  Eeed,  is  a 
native  of  Ohio  and  unto  them  have  been  born 
eleven  children,  of  whom  tep  are  yet  living. 

Louis  R.  Phillips  was  only  two  years  of  age 
when  brought  by  his  parents  from  the  Buckeye 
state  to  Illinois,  the  family  home  being  established 
in  Woodford  county,  where  he  acquired  his  pre- 
liminary education  in  the  district  schools.  He 
afterward  profited  by  the  advantages  of  a  course 
in  Eureka  College  at  Eureka,  Illinois,  and  for 
six  years  he  engaged  in  teaching  school,  spending 
one  year  of  that  time  in  Woodford  county  and 
five  years  in  Nebraska.  Retiring  from  that  pro- 
fession, he  turned  his  attention  to  general  mer- 
chandising, which  he  followed  for  six  years,  and 
subsequently  he  became  one  of  the  organizers  of 
the  First  National  Bank  at  Chillicothe,  Illinois, 
with  which  institution  he  was  connected  for  five 
years.  On  the  expiration  of  that  period  he  re- 
moved to  Henry  in  1904  and  became  cashier  of 
the  Henry  National  Bank,  which  is  regarded  as 
one  of  the  safe  and  reliable  financial  institutions 
of  this  part  of  the  state.  His  previous  experience 
had  given  him  a  thorough  knowledae  of  general 


banking  business  and  he  was  thus  well  qualified 
to  take  up  the  duties  which  now  devolve  upon 
him  in  his  present  business  connection.  Always 
courteous  in  his  treatment  of  the  patrons  of  the 
institution  and  willing  to  grant  a  favor  whenever 
possible,  he  at  the  same  time  is  never  neglectful 
of  the  interests  of  the  bank  and  has  contributed 
in  substantial  measure  to  its  success. 

In  1890  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Mr. 
Phillips  and  Miss  Mary  M.  Belsly,  of  Deer 
Creek,  Illinois.  They  now  have  four  children, 
all  of  whom  are  in  school,  namely:  Clarence  A., 
Mary  Magdalene,  Helen  G.,  and  Louis  B. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Phillips  is  an  inde- 
pendent republican,  who  while  indorsing  the 
principles  of  the  party  frequently  casts  an  inde- 
pendent ballot  at  local  elections.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  Henry  lodge,  No.  119,  A.  F.  &  A.  M., 
and  is  also  connected  with  the  Knights  of  Pyth- 
ias lodge  at  Chillicothe,  while  his  religious  faith 
is  indicated  by  his  membership  in  and  co-opera- 
tion with  the  work  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church.  He  is  a  typical  representative  of  that 
class  of  alert,  enterprising  business  men  who 
are  pushing  forward  the  wheels  of  progress  and 
accomplishing  results  through  unfaltering  dili- 
gence and  energy. 


LOUIS  BOGNER. 

Louis  Bogner,  who  is  engaged  in  general  farm- 
ing on  section  20,  Whitefield  township,  was  born 
in  Peoria  county,  Illinois,  March  21,  1866,  and  is 
a  son  of  Louis  and  Gertrude  (Weber)  Bogner, 
both  of  whom  were  natives  of  Germany.  They 
came  to  the  United  States,  however,  in  early  life 
and  were  married  in  this  country.  The  father  de- 
voted his  attention  and  energies  to  general  farm- 
ing for  many  years  but  is  now  living  retired,  mak- 
ing his  home  in  Henry. 

Louis  Bogner  accompanied  his  parents  on  their 
removal  from  Peoria  county  to  Marshall  county 
and  his  education  was  acquired  in  the  district 
schools  of  Whitefield  township,  where  his  father 
carried  on  general  farming.  He  was  reared  on 
the  old  home  place  and  there  remained  until  his 
marriage,  which  was  celebrated  seventeen  years 
ago,  the  lady  of  his  choice  being  Miss  Gertrude 
Schwarz,  also  of  Whitefield  township.  Four  chil- 
dren have  been  born  unto  them:  Bertha  and 
Conrad,  who  are  attending  school;  Leonard  and 


PAST    AXD    PKESENT    OF    MAESHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Harold,  at  home.  Mr.  Bogner  has  served  as  a 
school  director  and  the  cause  of  education  finds 
in  him  a  warm  friend,  who  does  all  in  his  power 
to  promote  the  interests  of  public  education 
through  the  employment  of  good  teachers  and  the 
raising  of  the  standard  of  the  schools.  He  votes 
with  the  democracy  and  believes  its  principles 
most  conducive  to  good  government.  His  religious 
faith  is  that  of  the  Catholic  church,  in  which  he 
was  reared.  Throughout  his  business  life  he  has 
carried  on  general  farming  and  now  has  one 
hundred  and  sixty-five  acres  under  cultivation. 
He  and  his  father  own  eighty  acres  of  land  in 
another  part  of  the  county.  Nowhere  in  all  this 
wide  country  is  land  more  rich  and  productive 
than  are  the  farms  of  Marshall  county  and  Mr. 
Bogner  annually  harvests  good  crops  as  the  re- 
ward for  the  care  and  labor  which  he  bestows  upon 
the  fields.  His  place  is  neat  and  thrifty  in  ap- 
pearance, indicating  his  careful  supervision  and 
progressive  methods. 


JOSEPH  CLAEK. 

Joseph  Clark  dates  his  residence  in  Illinois 
from  1854  and  has  lived  in  Saratoga  township, 
Marshall  county,  for  fifty-one  years.  Few  of  its 
residents  have  longer  remained  within  its  bor- 
ders and  none  has  made  a  more  creditable  record 
as  an  honorable  and  upright  farmer.  He  was  born 
in  Berkeley  county,  West  Virginia,  about  four 
miles  from  Martinsburg,  on  the  25th  of  July, 
1844,  and  was  a  lad  of  eleven  years  when  he  left 
Ohio  and  came  with  his  parents,  William  and 
Jane  (Harper)  Clark,  to  Illinois.  Seven  years 
before  they  had  removed  from  West  Virginia,  to 
Ohio,  where  they  lived  until  they  started  for 
Illinois,  driving  across  the  country.  They  resided 
in  Whitefield  township,  Marshall  county,  for  a 
year  and  in  1856  removed  to  Saratoga  township, 
settling  upon  a  farm  about  three  quarters  of  a 
mile  from  the  present  home  of  Joseph  Clark. 
The  father  there  secured  forty  acres  of  land,  for 
which  lie  paid  fifty  dollars  down  and  went  in 
debt  fifty  dollars.  Later  he  added  another  forty 
acres  to  his  farm  and  paid  for  that  tract  two 
thousand  dollars.  He  continued  to  make  his  home 
thereon  until  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1878 
when  he  was  sixty-six  years  of  age,  while  his  wife 


passed  away  on  that  farm  in  August,  1892,  at  the 
advanced  age  of  eighty-seven  years.  They  had 
four  children :  Mary,  who  is  now  living  in  Hen- 
ry, Illinois ;  Robert,  a  farmer  of  York  county,  Ne- 
braska ;  Joseph ;  and  Thomas,  who  was  the  bridge 
tender  at  Henry,  but  is  now  deceased. 

Joseph  Clark  was  reared  to  farm  life,  spending 
the  days  of  his  boyhood  and  youth  in  his  parents' 
home.  -After  reaching  his  majority  he  began 
threshing  but  still  remained  a  member  of  his 
father's  household.  Ambitious  to  own  a  farm  of 
his  own,  he  saved  his  earnings  and  at  length  made 
purchase  of  eighty  acres  of  land  in  the  eastern 
part  of  Saratoga  township,  whereon  he  resided  for 
seven  years,  when  he  removed  to  his  present  place 
of  residence,  which  was  formerly  the  old  home- 
stead of  his  father-in-law,  Thomas  Doyle.  He 
now  has  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land,  on 
which  he  has  made  many  valuable  and  useful  im- 
provements. In  fact  his  is  one  of  the  best  farms 
of  the  locality,  equipped  with  all  modern  acces- 
sories and  conveniences. 

On  the  29th  of  October,  1874,  was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  Mr.  Clark  to  Miss  Matilda  Doyle, 
who  was  born  in  Saratoga  township  on  the  first 
farm  owned  by  her  father  in  Illinois  and  has  spent 
her  entire  life  here.  This  marriage  has  been 
blessed  with  a  most  interesting  and  beautiful  little 
daughter,  who  was  born  in  Saratoga  township 
on  the  31st  of  May,  1897,  and  to  whom  they  gave 
the  name  of  Jennie  Eliza  Clark.  The  day  of  her 
birth  was  a  most  bitterly  cold  one,  memorable  in 
the  history  of  the  county  as  a  day  on  which  all 
of  the  fruit  was  killed  owing  to  the  excessive  frost. 
The  little  daughter  is  a  very  bright,  intelligent 
girl,  now  in  the  fifth  grade  in  the  Doyle  school. 
She  is  the  light  and  life  of  the  household,  of 
cheerful,  joyous  disposition  and  obedient  nature, 
never  having  to  be  told  the  second  time  to  do 
anything.  In  addition  to  her  school  work  she  is 
receiving  instruction  in  piano  music  and  she  is 
always  among  the  best  in  her  classes  at  school. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Clark  occupy  an  enviable  social 
position  and  have  a  very  large  circle  of  friends. 
Politically  he  is  a  stalwart  republican  but  with- 
out aspiration  for  office.  Fraternally  he  is  con- 
nected with  Sparland  lodge,  No.  441,  A.  F.  &  A. 
M.,  and  both  he  and  his  wife  are  members  of  the 
Eastern  Star.  He  takes  great  interest  in  the 
work  of  the  craft  and  is  one  of  its  exemplary  rep- 
resentatives. 


L'AST    AM)    I'HKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    1TT.NAM    CO  TNT  I  KS. 


FRANK  LAFAYETTE  DAWSON. 

Frank  Lafayette  Dawson,  who  is  engaged  in 
general  farming  in  Whitefield  township,  is  one 
of  Marshall  county's  native  sons,  born  on  the 
27th  of  November,  1876.  His  father,  Clark  Daw- 
son,  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania  and  in  early 
life  came  to  the  middle  west,  settling  in  Putnam 
county,  Illinois,  upon  a  farm.  There  he  resided 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  which  occurred  in 
April,  1903.  He  wedded  Miss  Mary  Jane  Ray- 
mond, a  native  of  Connecticut,  who  now  survives 
him  and  lives  in  Henry.  In  their  family  were 
five  children:  Fred,  a  resident  of  Henry;  Frank 
L.,  of  this  review ;  Mrs.  Martha  Schimmel,  a  wid- 
ow, living  in  Henry;  Ed  Dawson,  a  farmer  of 
Henry  township;  and  one  who  died  in  infancy. 
At  the  usual  age  Frank  Lafayette  Dawson  began 
his  education  in  the  district  schools  of  Henry 
township  and  he  was  reared  to  farm  life,  early 
becoming  familiar  with  the  duties  and  labors 
that  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  agriculturist.  He  has 
always  carried  on  general  agricultural  pursuits 
and  is  now  engaged  in  cultivating  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres-  of  land  which  produces  good 
crops,  owing  to  the  care  and  labor  that  he  be- 
stows upon  the  fields.  He  keeps  everything  about 
the  place  in  neat  and  thrifty  condition  and  a 
glance  serves  to  indicate  to  the  passer  by  his  care- 
ful supervision  and  progressive  methods. 

In  April,  1892,  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of 
Mr.  Dawson  and  Miss  Anna  Smith,  a  native  of 
Whitefield  township  and  a  daughter  of  Elwood 
Smith,  who  follows  farming  in  that  township. 
This  union  has  been  blessed  with  five  children: 
Raymond,  Clyde  and  Lafayette,  all  in  school; 
and  Hattie  and  Myrtle.  Mr.  Dawson  holds  mem- 
bership with  the  Modern  Woodmen  of  America, 
being  affiliated  with  Whitefield  camp,  No.  1653. 
He  belongs  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and 
votes  with  the  republican  party,  but  he  has  no 
aspiration  for  the  honors  nor  emoluments  of  of- 
fice, preferring  to  concentrate  his  energies  upon 
his  business  affairs,  which  are  directed  by  sound 
judgment,  supplementing  broad  practical  experi- 
ence. 


PRICE  PURVIANCE. 

Price  Purviance  resides  on  a  farm  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  acres  on  section  33,  Granville  town- 
ship, where  he  has  made  his  home  continuously  for 
sixty  years.  He  was  born  in  Jefferson  county, 


Ohio,  June  5,  1830,  his.  parents  being  James  and 
Margaret  (Tipton)  Purviance,  the  former  born 
in  Pennsylvania  near  Redstone,  while  the  latter 
was  a  native  of  Maryland.  The  ancestry  of  the 
family  is  traced  back  to  a  remote  period.  They 
came  of  French  lineage,  being  descended  from  a 
French  count  who  was  compelled  to  flee  from 
France  for  trying  to  overthrow  the  government. 
He  fled  to  Ireland  and  three  of  his  descendants 
emigrated  to  America  and  settled  on  Long  Island 
at  a  very  early  day,  since  which  time  represent- 
tives  of  the  name  have  become  widely  scattered 
throughout  the  country. 

James  Purviance,  the  father,  was  reared  as  a 
member  of  the  Friends  or  Quakers  church,  but  on 
his  marriage  outside  of  the  church  lost  his  birth- 
right, although  he  always  adhered  to  that  faith. 
In  1846  Price  Purviance  and  his  brother  made  a 
trip  on  horseback  from  Ohio  to  Putnam  county, 
each  riding  a  horse  and  leading  one,  while  the 
father  and  other  members  of  the  family  came 
down  the  Ohio  and  up  the  Mississippi  and  Illinois 
rivers  to  Hall's  Landing,  whence  they  traveled 
by  team  and  wagons  to  the  farm  upon  which  our 
subject  now  resides.  The  father  was  in  excellent 
financial  circumstances  for  those  days  and  pur- 
chased one  thousand  acres  of  land.  This  he 
afterward  divided  among  his  children,  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  of  the  old  homestead  and  seventy- 
three  and  forty-hundredths  acres  of  timber  land 
falling  to  Price  Purviance,  who  has  always  re- 
mained upon  the  home  farm.  After  living  for  a 
number  of  years  upon  the  farm  the  parents  re- 
moved to  Hennepin,  where  the  father  died  at  the 
age  of  severity-five  years.  The  mother,  however 
died  at  the  old  home  when  living  with  our  subject 
at  the  age  of  eighty-six  years.  In  the  family 
were  twelve  children,  one  of  whom  died  in  infancy 
in  Ohio.  The  others  reached  adult  age  and  eight 
are  still  living,  but  Price  Purviance  and  his  sister 
Mrs.  Eliza  J.  Forristall,  who  keeps  house  for  him, 
are  the  only  ones  in  this  county.  A  brother,  Amos 
T.  Purviance,  was  for  forty-one  years  clerk  of  Put- 
nam county.  The  sister  Eliza  became  the  wife  of 
James  Forristall  and  they  lived  for  many  years 
in  Bureau  county,  but  later  Mr.  Forristall  went 
to  the  west  and  became  interested  in  mining  at 
Leadville,  Colorado,  where  he  died  about  ten  years 
ago.  Since  that  time  Mrs.  Forristall  has  lived 
with  her  brother.  She  has  three  children,  one  of 
whom,  a  daughter,  is  at  home  with  the  mother. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


209 


The  house  in  which  Mr.  Purviance  lives  is  just 
as  it  was  when  built  sixty  years  ago.  The  timber  was 
gotten  out  and  sawed  near  Washington,  Tazewell 
county,  Illinois,  and  was  hauled  to  the  farm  with 
ox  teams.  The  ceilings  of  the  rooms  were  made  of 
pine  lumber,  which  was  hauled  from  Chicago 
by  team,  loads  of  wheat  being  taken  to  the  market 
there,  after  which  the  lumber  was  hauled  back. 
The  weather  boarding  is  of  black  walnut  and  the 
roof  which  now  covers  the  structure  is  the  third 
one  which  Mr.  Purviance  has  assisted  in  laying. 
He  has  built  a  barn  and  corn  crib  which  are 
very  substantial  in  construction,  iron  bolts  being 
used  in  joining  the  timbers.  He  also  has  upon 
his  place  a  blacksmith  shop  where  he  does  all 
kinds  of  iron  work.  The  family,  being  in  com- 
fortable financial  circumstances,  did  not  have  to 
endure  many  of  the  hardships  that  fell  to  the  lot 
of  other  pioneers,  yet  he  recalls  many  interesting 
experiences  of  early  days.  Deer  were  plentiful 
and  wolves  were  very  numerous,  so  much  so  that  in 
one  night  they  had  three  hundred  lambs  killed 
upon  their  farm,  while  at  another  time  seventy 
sheep  were  killed.  On  the  trip  of  Mr.  Purviance 
and  his  brother  westward  through  Ohio,  Indiana 
and  Illinois  they  saw  not  a  single  railroad  and  on 
all  hands  were  evidences  to  indicate  that  this  was 
a  frontier  region. 

Mr.  Purviance  gives  his  political  allegiance  to 
the  republican  party  and  for  eighteen  consecutive 
years  was  a  school  director.  He  attended  the  com- 
mon schools  at  a  time  when  little  was  taught  save 
the  three  "R's",  but  he  has  always  been  an  advo- 
cate of  good  schools.  He  was  quite  proficient  ir.' 
penmanship  in  early  life  and  once  received  a 
prize  for  his  excellent  work  in  that  line.  He 
was  also  very  proficient  in  arithmetic  but  gram- 
mar was  not  taught.  However,  he  has  become  a 
well  informed  man,  always  reading  broadly  and 
thinking  deeply  and  he  has  kept  informed  on 
questions  of  the  day  and  the  topics  of  current 
interest.  He  has  in  his  home  many  valuable  relics 
some  of  them  being  more  than  one  hundred  years 
old. 


WILLIAM  D.  WEBSTEE. 

William  D.  Webster  is  a  retired  farmer  of 
Sparland,  largely  deriving  his  income  from  his 
real-estate  investments.  He  was  born  in  Washing- 
ton county,  New  York,  September  3,  1830,  and 


is  a  son  of  William  and  Sarah  Ann  (Northup) 
Webster.  The  father  was  born  in  Washington 
county,  New  York,  and  was  a  cousin  of  the  re- 
nowned Daniel  Webster.  He  followed  farming  as 
a  life  work  and  died  in  Allegany  county,  New 
York,  at  the  venerable  age  of  eighty-four  years. 
His  political  support  was  given  to  the  republican 
party.  His  wife,  who  was  born  in  Hartford, 
Washington  county,  New  York,  died  at  the  very 
advanced  age  of  ninety-five  years.  In  their  fam- 
ily were  three  children:  Relief,  who  married 
Alfred  Chamberlin,  who  is  living  in  Angelica. 
New  York,  at  the  age  of  eighty  years  and  is  a 
well  preserved  man ;  Norman,  a  resident  of  Alle- 
gany county,  New  York;  and  William  D. 

In  the  state  of  his  nativity  William  D.  Web- 
ster spent  the  days  of  his  boyhood  and  youth, 
being  reared  upon  his  father's  farm,  while  in  the 
public  schools  he  obtained  his  education.  He 
continued  a  resident  of  the  Empire  state  until 
twenty-six  years  of  age,  when  he  removed  west- 
ward to  Illinois,  settling  in  Steuben  township, 
Marshall  county,  where  he  followed  farming.  He 
has  lived  in  this  township  for  fifty-two  years  and 
has  prospered  in  his  undertakings,  carefully 
conducting  agricultural  interests  for  a  long  period 
but  now  living  retired.  As  his  financial  resources 
increased  he  made  jtidicious  investments  in  real 
estate  and  derives  therefrom  a  good  income.  He 
owns  now  a  house  and  three  lots  in  Sparland  and 
one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land  in  Rush 
county,  Kansas. 

In  1857  Mr.  Webster  was  united  in  'marriage 
to  Miss  Ruth  A.  Fosdick,  who  was  born  in  Belfast. 
New  York,  February  17,  1837.  She  is  a  daugh- 
ter of  Aaron  C.  and  Ollie  B.  (Moon)  Fosdick, 
both  of  whom  were  natives  of  Washington  coun- 
ty, New  York,  the  former  born  in  Hartford  and 
the  latter  near  Hartford.  On  removing  to  Illi- 
nois they  settled  first  in  Peoria  county  and  after 
residing  there  for  five  years  removed  to  Marshall 
county,  taking  up  their  abode  about  three  and  a 
half  miles-  west  of  Sparland.  Mr.  Fosdick  was  the 
owner  of  six  hundred  acres  of  valuable  land  and 
was  widely  known  as  one  of  the  leading  and  pros- 
perous agriculturists  of  his  community.  Both  he 
and  his  wife  were  members  of  the  Baptist  church 
and  in  politics-  he  was  a  stalwart  republican.  He 
always  acted  as  a  drummer  in  the  republican  cam- 
paigns and  took  great  delight  in  political  meet- 
ings, which  he  greatly  enjoyed.  He  won  many 


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PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


friends  wherever  he  went  and  was  particularly 
prominent  in  political  circles.  The  old  drum 
which  he  carried  in  the  campaigns  is  now  in  pos- 
session of  Mr.  Webster.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Fosdick  were  born  the  following  named :  Delphia 
E.,  now  the  wife  of  Le  Roy  Bolander,  who  is  liv- 
ing in  La  Prairie  township ;  Lillian  B.,  the  wife 
of  Frank  Martin,  a  resident  of  Butte,  Montana, 
where  he  is  bookkeeper  in  a  copper  mine;  and 
Louis  E.,  who  married  Augustine  Faltot,  of  New 
York  city,  and  lives  in  Sparland,  where  he  is 
weighman  at  the  Sparland  coal  shaft.  Mrs. 
Webster,  the  other  member  of  the  family,  ac- 
quired a  good  public-school  education  and  has 
lived  in  this  county  for  fifty-three  years.  Since 
the  age  of  fifteen  years  she  has  been  a  devoted 
and  faithful  member  of  the  Baptist  church  and 
is  an  earnest  Christian  woman,  whose  religion  is 
manifest  in  her  kindliness  and  generous  qualities. 
Mr.  Webster  is  a  member  of  Sparland  lodge,  No. 
441,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  of  Sparland,  and  his  wife 
is  connected  with  Eastern  Star  lodge,  No.  227. 
They  have  traveled  life's  journey  together  for 
almost  a  half  a  century  and  both  have  been  resi- 
dents of  this  county  for  more  than  fifty  years, 
so  that  they  are  well  known  and  are  certainly- 
deserving  of  mention  in  this  volume  among  the 
pioneer  people. 


BENJAMIN  FOSTER. 

Benjamin  Foster,  who,  with  the  exception  of  a 
brief  period  of  two  years,  has  resided  continuous- 
ly on  his  present  farm  on  section  29,  Evans  town- 
ship, since  1872,  was  born  in  Hopewell  township, 
Marshall  county,  Illinois,  July  21,  1844.  He  is 
a  son  of  Joshua  Foster,  who  was  born  near  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  March  21,  1821,  and  passed  away  on 
the  3d  of  May,  1895,  at  the  venerable  age  of  sev- 
enty-four years.  He  devoted  his  time  and  ener- 
gies to  farming  through  a  busy  and  useful  life 
and  in  1836  became  a  resident  of  Fulton  county, 
Illinois,  the  family  home  being  established  near 
Fairview.  At  that  early  day  he  drove  cattle  across 
the  country  to  the  markets  with  his  father.  In 
the  early  '40s  he  came  to  Marshall  county  and  cast 
in  his  lot  with  its  pioneer  settlers,  aiding  in  its 
development  from  a  wild  prairie  district  into  one 
of  the  rich  agricultural  sections  of  this  great  state. 
At  the  same  time  he  prospered  in  his  own  business 
affairs  and  became  the  owner  of  extensive  and 


valuable  landed  interests.  He  was  married  to 
Miss  Betsy  Brumsey,  a  sister  of  Nathan  Brumsey 
and  a  native  of  North  Carolina,  born  near  Eliza- 
beth City,  August  8,  1825.  They  were  married 
April  23,  1843.  Their  old  homestead  is  now  owned 
by  Jacob  Stoner.  John  Foster,  an  uncle  of  our 
subject,  lived  at  the  end  of  the  dyke  that  runs 
through  the  bottom  land  from  the  Henry  bridge 
to  the  foothills  in  Hopewell  township  and  this 
place  is  now  owned  by  Samuel  Holmes.  The  name 
of  Foster  became  closely  associated  with  the  pio- 
neer development  and  progress  of  the  county  and 
Joshua  Foster  was  one  of  the  most  respected  and 
honored  as  well  as  most  prosperous  citizens  of  his 
community.  His  family  numbered  eight  children, 
of  whom  Benjamin  is  the  eldest.  Edward,  born 
August  13,  1846,  was  married  July  10,  1873,  to 
Mary  Rutan  and  died  March  12,  1881 ;  Lewis  J., 
born  March  18,  1851,  was  married  August  29, 
1875,  to  Laura  Malone  and  is  now  engaged  in 
farming  in  Iowa.  Albert,  born  July  31,  1852,  is 
a  retired  farmer  living  at  Saunemin,  Livingston 
county,  Illinois.  George,  born  June  9,  1855,  and 
now  a  retired  farmer  living  in  Evans  township, 
was  married  in  1882  to  Martha  Aljoe,  who  died 
in  1888,  and  in  March,  1906,  he  wedded  Carrie 
McLaughlin.  James,  born  December  15,  1858, 
is  engaged  in  general  agricultural  pursuits  in  Rob- 
erts township,  Marshall  county.  Walter,  born  Oc- 
tober 31,  1860,  is  also  living  in  Roberts  township. 
Wilbur  S.,  born  July  23,  1862,  and  now  living  at 
Saunemin,  Livingston  county,  was  married  Oc- 
tober 1,  1889,  to  Eva  Malone. 

Reared  in  his  parents'  home,  Benjamin  Foster 
early  became  familiar  with  farm  work.  He  be- 
gan his  education  in  the  winter  of  1854-5  in  a 
school  which  was  supported  by  contribution  from 
residents  of  the  neighborhood.  He  afterward  at- 
tended the  Fairview  school  in  Roberts  township 
and  later  was  a  student  in  the  Wenona  school  in 
1867.  The  occupation  to  which  he  was  reared  he 
chose  as  a  life  work  and  began  farming  on  his 
own  account  in  Evans  township,  Marshall  county, 
on  section  29.  There  he  lived  for  four  years, 
after  which  he  removed  to  the  place  which  is  now 
his  home,  taking  \ip  his  abode  here  March  1, 
1872.  This  has  been  his  place  of  residence  con- 
tinuously since  with  the  exception  of  two  years, 
from  December  20,  1898,  until  February  26,  1901, 
spent  in  Toluca,  Illinois.  He  still  owns  proper- 
ty in  Toluca,  while  his  farm  comprises  eighty 


PAST    AND   PRESENT    OP   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


211 


acres  of  rich  and  arable  land.  He  is  now  care- 
fully conducting  the  work  of  the  fields  and  has 
a  good  property,  well  developed. 

On  the  17th  of  October,  1867,  Mr.  Foster  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Adelaide  Green,  who 
was  born  in  England,  May  3,  1849,  and  was 
brought  to  America  when  only  six  months  old  by 
her  parents,  Mathias  and  Mary  Ann  Green,  who 
settled  upon  a  farm  in  Evans  township,  Marshall 
county.  Both  passed  away,  however,  in  1852,  dy- 
ing during  the  cholera  epidemic  of  that  year.  Mrs. 
Foster  was  thus  early  left  an  orphan.  She  was 
reared  in  this  county  and  attended  the  Center 
school.  In  the  family  were  thirteen  children, 
but  only  four  are  now  living,  the  others  being 
George  Roberts,  who  resides  in  Mitchell  county, 
Kansas,  where  he  follows  farming;  Mathias  0. 
Green,  who  is  engaged  in  farming  in  Pettis  coun- 
ty, Missouri;  and  Mrs.  Mahala  Dovenspike,  who 
resides  in  Libertyville,  Iowa. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Foster  have  been  born  a 
son  and  daughter.  Thomas,  born  January  15, 
1870,  is  living  with  his  father  and  operates  the 
home  farm.  He  has  also  had  charge  of  a  thresh- 
ing outfit  each  year  since  1895.  The  daughter, 
Minnie,  born  June  30,  1873,  is  the  wife  of  Alex- 
ander Kennedy,  of  Evans  township,  and  they  have 
one  child,  Irene  Bell,  born  March  26,  1895.  Mr. 
Foster  has  been  a  life-long  resident  of  this  county, 
his  connection  therewith  covering  a  period  of  more 
than  six  decades,  and  his  memory  goes  back  to 
the  time  when  there  were  various  evidences  of 
pioneer  life  still  to  be  seen  here,  for  the  prairie 
was  largely  uncultivated  and  covered  with  its  na- 
tive grasses.  Rapid  settlement,  however,  soon 
wrought  a  transformation  and  the  Foster  family 
have  borne  their  full  share  in  the  work  of  agri- 
cultural development,  of  which  Benjamin  Foster 
is  now  a  representative. 


JOSEPH  BOGNER. 

Joseph  Bogner  resides  on  section  15,  Whitefield 
township,  and  is  engaged  in  general  farming, 
owning  one  hundred  acres  of  the  tract  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  which  he  now  cultivates. 
He  was  born  in  Peoria  county,  Illinois,  on  the 
7th  of  February,  1861,  and  is  of  German  line- 
age. His  father,  Louis  Bogner,  was  born  in  Baden 
and  when  a  young  man  came  to  the  United 
States.  He  settled  first  in  the  state  of  New 


York,  where  he  engaged  in  farming  for  some 
time,  and  then  came  to  Illinois,  establishing  his 
home  upon  a  farm  in  Peoria  county.  There 
he  lived  in\  a  time,  after  which  he  came  to  Mar- 
shnll  county,  where  he  still  resides.  Here  he  was 
also  engaged  in  farming  for  a  considerable  period, 
but  is  now  living  retired  in  Henry,  having  in  for- 
mer years  gained  a  competence  that  is  sufficient  to 
supply  him  with  the  necessities  and  comforts  of 
life.  In  early  manhood  he  wedded  Miss  Gertrude 
Weber,  also  a  native  of  Germany,  and  they  have 
become  ihe  parents  of  eight  children. 

Joseph  Bogner  began  his  education  in  the  dis- 
trict, schools  of  Peoria  county  and  while  not  busy 
with  his  text-books  his  time  was  largely  devoted  to 
farm  labor,  for  he  early  took  his  place  behind  the 
plow  and  became  familiar  with  the  work  of  the 
fields  from  the  time  of  early  planting  until  crops 
were  harvested  in  the  late  autumn.  He  has  lived 
in  Marshall  county  since  he  was  thirteen  years  of 
age  and  is  now  carrying  on  general  agricultural 
pursuits,  cultivating  a  good  farm  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres,  of  which  he  owns  one  hundred 
acres.  This  is  rich  and  arable  land  and  he  an- 
nually harvests  good  crops,  while  upon  his  farm 
are  al!  of  the  modern  equipments  and  accessories 
that  go  to  facilitate  the  farm  work  and  render 
the  labors  of  the  agriculturist  of  more  avail  in 
the  acquirement  of  success. 

On  the  30th  of  January,  1885,  occurred  the 
marriage  of  Joseph  Bogner  and  Miss  Kittie 
Slichter,  a  native  of  Saratoga  township,  Marshall 
county,  and  a  daughter  of  August  Slichter.  Unto 
them  have  been  born  eight  children :  Edward,  who 
is  living  in  Henry;  Gertrude,  who  died  at  the 
age  of  eighteen  years ;  Frank  and  Theodore,  who 
assist  their  father  in  the  operation  of  the  home 
.farm;  Joseph,  at  home;  Bertha  and  Elmer,  who 
are  attending  school;  and  Leo,  a  little  lad  of  six 
year?,  who  completes  the  family. 

Mr.  Bogner  has  served  continuously  as  school 
director  during  his  residence  in  Whitefield  town- 
ship and  is  deeply  interested  in  the  cause  and  ad- 
vancement of  education,  believing  the  public- 
school  system  to  be  one  of  the  bulwarks  of  the  na- 
tion. His  political  allegiance  is  given  to  the  de- 
mocracy and  he  is  a  member  of  St.  Mary's  Cath- 
olic church.  In  his  life  he  exemplifies  many  of 
the  sterling  traits  of  his  German  ancestry,  pos- 
sessing the  spirit  of  industry  and  determination 
which  have  always  characterized  that,  race  and 


212 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM    ('(UNTIES. 


which  have  enabled  him  in  his  business  career 
to  make  steady  advancement  on  the  high  road  to 
success. 


JOSEPH    CREABIL. 

Joseph  Creabil  is  engaged  in  farming  on  sec- 
tion 17,  Richland  township.  His  farm  comprises 
two  hundred  and  ten  acres,  the  greater  part  of 
which  is  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation,  and  its 
equipments  are  of  the  best  character,  in  keeping 
with  the  spirit  of  modern  progress  that  has  been  so 
strongly  manifest  along  agricultural  lines  in  re- 
cent years.  He  was  born  in  Lorraine,  Germany, 
on  the  14th  of  March,  1851.  His  father,  John 
Creabil,  was  a  native  of  the  same  locality  and 
died  while  serving  in  the  French  army  during 
the  early  boyhood  days  of  his  son  Joseph.  He 
was  a  miller  by  trade,  following  that  pursuit 
when  not  on  military  duty.  His  wife,  who  bore 
the  maiden  name  of  Katrina  Saltzma,  died  in 
Marshall  count}',  Illinois,  at  the  home  of  her  son, 
about  seven  years  ago. 

Joseph  Creabil,  the  only  son,  spent  the  first 
twenty  years  of  his  life  in  the  land  of  his  nativity 
and  acquired  his  education  in  the  schools  of  Al- 
sace. In  May,  1870,  he  joined  the  French  army, 
with  which  he  served  until  March,  1871.  He 
came  to  the  United  States  in  September,  1871, 
landing  at  New  York.  A  change  is  always  in- 
duced by  the  hope  of  bettering  one's  condition 
and  it  was  this  which  brought  Mr.  Creabil  to  the 
new  world.  He  made  his  way  to  Chicago  and 
was  there  during  the  great  fire — one  of  the  most 
memorable  events  in  the  history  of  the  country. 
After  a  week  he  came  to  Marshall  county,  Illi- 
nois, and  provided  for  his  own  support  for  two 
years  by  working  as  a  farm  hand  in  this  county. 
He  was  then  married  and  established  a  home  of 
his  own,  going  in  debt  for  eighty  acres  of  timber 
land  in  Richland  township.  He  cleared  away  the 
trees  and  prepared  the  fields  for  cultivation  and 
now  has  a  model  farm  of  two  hundred  and  ten 
acres,  which  is  indicative  of  his  life  of  enter- 
prise and  labor.  Two  years  ago  he  erected  a  fine 
residence  and  he  has  many  other  modern  equip- 
ments and  accessories  upon  his  farm,  which  is  one 
of  the  best  properties  in  this  portion  of  the  county. 
The  entire  place  presents  a  well  kept  appearance 
and  indicates  his  careful  supervision  and  progres- 
sive methods. 


In  March,  1874,  Mr.  Creabil  was  married  to 
Miss  Matilda  High,  a  native  of  Sweden,  and  they 
have  four  children.  Leon,  who  is  engaged  in  gen- 
eral merchandising  at  La  Rose,  married  Susie 
Elright  and  has  two  sons,  Joseph  and  Harry. 
Stella  is  the  wife  of  William  Buck,  a  resident 
farmer  of  Richland  township,  Marshall  county, 
and  they  have  one  child,  Samuel.  Emma  and  Ar- 
thur are  still  at  home.  The  wife  and  mother  died 
on  the  5th  of  March,  1895,  and  was  laid  to  rest 
in  New  Salem  cemetery.  She  was  a  lady  of  many 
excellent  traits  of  character,  of  kindly  purpose, 
and  of  marked  devotion  to  her  family.  Her  loss 
was  deeply  regretted  by  many  friends  as  well  as 
the  members  of  her  own  household. 

Mr.  Creabil  belongs  to  Lacon  lodge,  No.  78,  of 
the  Independent  Order  of  Mutual  Aid,  and  is 
also  connected  with  the  Mystic  Workers  of  the 
World.  In  politics  he  is  what  may  be  termed  an 
independent  republican,  usually  voting  for  the 
state  and  national  candidates  of  the  party,  yet  not 
considering  himself  bound  by  party  ties  and  often 
casting  an  independent  local  ballot.  He  is  now 
serving  as  school  director  for  his  district.  He 
has  never  had  occasion  to  regret  his  determination 
to  seek  a  home  in  the  new  world,  for  here  his  la- 
bors have  been  attended  with  a  measure  of  success 
that  is  very  gratifying.  Starting  out  as  a  farm 
hand,  his  diligence  and  perseverance  constituted 
the  basis  upon  which  he  builded  his  prosperity. 
He  has  every  reason  to  be  proud  of  his  success  and 
his  life  of  industry  and  enterprise  find  visible 
evidence  in  his  flue  farm  and  attractive  home. 


LEWIS  E.  SKEEL. 

The  history  of  Putnam  county  would  hardly  be 
complete  without  mention  of  Lewis  Erastus  Skeel, 
who  has  celebrated  the  eighty-second  anniversary 
of  his  birth  and  yet  he  is  a  man  of  much  vigor 
and  enterprise,  who  would  hardly  be  accredited 
with  such  a  length  of  years  by  those  who  are  not 
familiar  with  his  history.  He  is  pleasantly  located 
upon  a  farm  about  a  half  mile  east  of  Hennepin, 
where  he  has  long  resided,  and  he  belongs  to  one 
of  the  honored  pioneer  families  of  this  part  of  the 
state. 

His  birth  occurred  at  Xenia,  Greene  county, 
Ohio,  June  22,  1824,  his  parents  being  Nathan 
and  Olive  (Bacon)  Skeel,  in  whose  family  were 
nine  children,  of  whom  he  is  the  only  one  now 


PAST    AXD    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


215 


living.  The  father  was  a  native  of  New  York 
and  the  mother  of  Vermont.  The  Skeel  family  is 
of  Welsh  extraction,  being  descended  from  three 
brothers  who  came  from  the  little  rock-ribbed 
country  of  Wales  to  America  at  an  early  day.  The 
parents  of  our  subject  were  married  in  the  Empire 
state,  where  the  mother  had  gone  when  a  child  of 
six  years,  and  later  they  became  residents  of 
Greene  county,  Ohio,  removing  thence  to  Cincin- 
nati when  their  son  Lewis  was  only  three  years 
old.  Three  years  later  they  started  by  team  for 
Illinois  in  the  fall  of  1830,  and  were  accompanied 
also  by  their  eldest  daughter,  then  Mrs.  Peter 
Ellis,  and  her  child.  A  brother-in-law  of  Mr. 
Skeel,  Ezekiel  Stacy,  had  come  to  Illinois  four 
years  previously,  locating  near  Springfield  in  San- 
gamon  county,  where  part  of  the  family  spent  the 
winter,  while  the  remainder  came  to  Ox  Bow  prai- 
rie in  the  fall  of  that  year.  In  the  spring  of  1831 
they  were  accompanied  by  Mr.  Stacy  to  Putnam 
county.  He  located  first  on  Ox  Bow  prairie  and 
later  removed  to  the  west  side  of  the  river,  where 
he  laid  out  the  little  town  of  Webster,  which  at 
one  time  became  quite  a  village,  but  has  now  dis- 
appeared. There  Mr.  Stacy  died. 

The  summer  of  1831  was  spent  by  Mr.  Skeel 
and  his  family  at  Payne's  Point  and  he  made  a 
claim  where  his  son  Lewis  now  resides,  erecting 
a  cabin  near  the  site  of  the  present  residence. 
There  the  family  removed  in  the  following  fall, 
their  nearest  neighbor  being  Samuel  Patterson, 
who  was  a  half  mile  distant.  In  the  fall  the  In- 
dians began  to  gather  and  three  or  four  hundred 
camped  on  the  river  near  the  trading  post,  but  in 
the  spring  scattered  again.  They  belonged  to  the 
Pottawattamie  tribe.  In  the  following  spring  the 
people  became  frightened  because  of  the  Indian 
troubles  and  the  Skeel  family  lived  a  part  of  the 
time  in  Harzell's  building,  which  had  been  re- 
moved to  the  village  of  Hennepin,  the  women 
largely  spending  their  nights  there.  Some  of  the 
time  was  passed  at  Fort  Cribs,  which  stood  at 
Florid  and  was  so  named  on  account  of  being 
constructed  from  two  old  corn  cribs  and  sur- 
rounded by  a  stockade.  They  also  spent  a  portion 
of  the  time  at  old  Fort  Caledonia.  The  Indians, 
however,  never  molested  them  and  that  year  more 
settlers  were  added  to  the  community. 

The  Skeel  family  were  in  limited  circumstances 
and  during  those  pioneer  days  lived  quite  frugally. 
In  the  first  cabin  erected  upon  his  place  the  father 


died  June  1,  1841.  He  was  an  industrious,  en- 
ergetic man  and  had  succeeded  in  placing  eighty 
acres  of  land  under  cultivation.  Wild  game  was 
found  in  abundance  and  furnished  most  of  the 
meat  used  by  the  frontier  families.  In  the  winter 
of  1831  a  man  by  the  name  of  Gallagher  started 
an  ox  mill  near  Florid,  which  ground  some  corn 
meal  and  even  flour.  At  the  time  of  the  father's 
death  four  of  the  children,  three  daughters  and 
one  son,  were  married,  while  Lewis  E.,  aged  sev- 
enteen, and  Louise  Jane,  aged  ten,  were  still  at 
home.  The  other  son,  Linus  B.  Skeel,  married 
Minerva  Payne,  who  died  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
seven  years,  and  he  afterward  wedded  Miss  Flora 
Morrison,  a  native  of  Scotland.  He  entered  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  adjoining  his  father's 
farm,  where  he  lived  until  1846  and  then  removed 
to  Payne's  Point.  He  later  returned  to  a  farm 
near  Florid,  where  the  following  twenty  years 
were  passed  and  then  went  to  Gibson  City, 
Ford  county,  Illinois.  He  had  served  in 
the  Black  Hawk  war.  The  sister  of  our 
subject,  who  was  married  on  coming  to 
this  state,  located  at  Payne's  Point.  An- 
other sister,  Lucy  Ann,  was  married  in  1832 
to  Daniel  Warren,  of  New  York,  who  made  a 
claim  on  Big  Indian  creek  in  La  Salle  county  and 
there  died.  She  later  became  the  wife  of  Peter 
H.  Dick,  who  also  lived  in  that  county,  and  is 
again  a  widow,  making  her  home  in  Ottawa.  In 
May,  1832,  with  her  first  husband,  she  located 
twelve  miles  north  of  Ottawa  and  was  living  there 
when  Black  Hawk  started  on  his  campaign.  The 
old  chief,  Shabbona,  who  was  friendly  with  the 
family,  notified  them  that  some  Sac  and  Fox  In- 
dians were  on  their  way  to  that  timber.  When 
Shabbona  arrived  at  the  house  Mrs.  Warren  was 
alone,  but  she  called  her  husband  and  his  brother, 
who  were  at  work  at  the  mill  and  they  at  once 
started  for  Ottawa,  while  Shabbona  went  on  to 
warn  others.  Two  weeks  later  Mr.  Warren  and 
his  brother  went  back  to  see  what  damage  had  been 
done  and  a  captain  and  young  soldier  volunteered 
to  go  with  them.  On  reaching  the  cabin  they 
found  that  the  Indians  had  disturbed  nothing  and 
after  resting  they  started  back  to  Ottawa.  When 
half  way,  on  reaching  Buck  creek,  they  stopped  to 
gather  wild  strawberries,  which  were  plentiful  at 
that  point,  and  let  their  horses  graze.  Mr.  Warren 
suggested  that  they  start  on,  as  they  might  be  at- 
tacked by  Indians,  but  the  captain  scouted  the 


216 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


idea  and  Mr.  Warren  and  his  brother  started  on 
ahead.  Hearing  the  report  of  guns  they  looked 
back  and  saw  that  the  young  man  had  been  shot 
and  his  horse  had  escaped.  The  captain  was  also 
shot,  the  ball  passing  through  his  leg  into  the 
horse,  which  stood  quite  still  for  some  time  and 
then  started  on  a  run  until  it  reached  the  War- 
rens, when  it  fell  dead.  After  his  father's  death  in 
1841  Lewis  E.  Skeel  assumed  the  management  of 
the  home  farm.  He  has  hauled  wheat  to  market 
in  Chicago,  where  he  would  receive  from  thirty- 
eight  to  seventy-five  cents  per  bushel  and  the  trip 
would  require  nine  days.  On  his  return  he  would 
bring  freight,  often  hauling  lumber.  He  has  ex- 
tended the  boundaries  of  his  farm  and  throughout 
his  entire  life  has  carried  on  agricultural  pursuits. 

On  the  28th  of  October,  1847,  Mr.  Skeel  was 
united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Nancy  Jones,  who 
is  also  a  native  of  Greene  county,  Ohio,  and  came 
to  Illinois  in  1831,  with  her  parents,  Abram  and 
Mary  (Hays)  Jones,  who  were  married  in  Greene 
county,  where  they  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  Skeel  family.  Her  parents  located  at  Evans 
Point,  Marshall  county,  but  in  1833  removed  to 
Princeton,  Bureau  county,  where  the  father  died 
in  1858.  Their  farm  included  that  part  of  Prince- 
ton where  the  depot  now  stands,  and  the  brick 
house,  in  which  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Skeel  were  married, 
stands  one-half  mile  west  of  the  depot.  The 
mother  died  in  1885,  at  the  age  of  eighty-three 
years.  Mrs.  Skeel  is  the  only  one  of  the  family 
now  living.  Barton  Jones  died  in  Columbia  City, 
Iowa.  One  sister,  Mrs.  William  S.  Wilson,  died 
in  Ohio,  Bureau  county,  and  James,  Daniel  and 
John,  all  farmers,  also  spent  their  last  days  in 
Bureau  county.  No  children  have  been  born  to 
our  subject  and  his  worthy  wife,  but  from  the 
,age  of  eleven  years  they  reared  Huron  Warren, 
a  nephew,  and  have  given  homes  to  other  children. 
The  mother  of  Mr.  Skeel  died  at  the  old  home, 
September  30,  1879,  being  ninety  years,  three 
months  and  eleven  days  old. 

Formerly  Mr.  Skeel  supported  the  republican 
party,  but  his  interest  in  the  cause  of  temperance 
has  led  him  to  ally  his  forces  with  the  prohibition 
party  and  he  has  frequently  attended  its  state 
conventions.  Both  he  and  his  wife  are  devoted 
members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  be- 
longing to  a  congregation  which  was  organized  in 
1833,  and  of  which  his  mother  was  one  of  the 
original  members.  He  and  his  wife  attended  the 


general  conference  of  the  church  held  at  Los  An- 
geles, California,  in  1904,  leaving  Chicago  on  the 
4th  of  May  and  spending  two  months  in  the  west, 
during  which  time  they  visited  several  cities  on 
the  Pacific  coast,  going  as  far  north  as  Seattle 
and  Spokane.  For  many  years  Mr.  Skeel  has  been 
an  officer  in  the  church.  He  continued  the  opera- 
tion of  his  land  until  eight  years  ago,  since  which 
time  he  has  rented  it  and  now  practically  lives 
retired.  He  still  lives,  however,  upon  his  place  of 
eighty  acres  where  the  log  cabin  was  built  in  1831. 
He  owns  altogether,  however,  one  hundred  and 
eighty  acres,  all  of  which  he  rents  and  which 
brings  to  him  a  good  return.  He  has  long  been 
a  most  honored  pioneer  resident  of  Putnam  county 
and  few  men  enjoy  in  as  large  measure  the  re- 
spect and  confidence  of  those  who  have  known 
them  as  this  venerable  pioneer,  whose  interest 
in  the  county  dates  from  pioneer  times  down  to 
the  present  period  of  progress  and  development. 


HON.  ARCHIBALD  WILSON  HOPKINS. 

Hon.  A.  W.  Hopkins,  agriculturist  and  banker, 
is  a  representative  of  extensive  and  important 
business  interests.  He  belonged  to  a  family  that 
from  pioneer  times  has  figured  prominently  in 
connection  with  the  history  of  this  portion  of  the 
state.  A  son  of  Joel  Willis  and  Eleanor  Jane 
(Harrison)  Hopkins,  he  was  born  upon  the  farm 
where  he  now  resides,  on  January  4,  1845,  and 
this  place  has  continuously  been  his  home.  He 
was  only  four  years  of  age  when  his  mother  died, 
leaving  him  and  his  four  sisters  to  the  care  of  his 
aunt,  Martha  Hopkins.  When  he  was  a  youth 
of  seventeen  his  father  married  again. 

In  the  days  of  his  early  boyhood  Wilson,  as  he 
was  called,  was  a  student  in  the  district  school  and 
afterward  studied  for  a  short  time  at  Oberlin  Col- 
lege, in  Oberlin,  Ohio,  subsequently  entering  the 
college  at  Hillsdale,  Michigan,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  with  the  class  of  1870.  He  then  re- 
turned home  to  become  actively  associated  in  busi- 
ness with  his  father,  and  this  association  was  main- 
tained until  his  father's  death,  in  1902.  He  owns 
extensive  tracts  of  land  in  Putnam  county,  in 
Iowa,  Wisconsin  and  Dakota.  He  is,  moreover,  a 
director  in  the  National  Bank  of  Peru,  Illinois, 
of  which  his  father  was  president,  and  since  the 
latter's  death  the  son  has  been  president  of  the 
Putnam  County  Bank  at  Hennepin  and  of  the 


'X* 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


219 


Granville  Bank.  A  man  of  resourceful  business 
ability,  he  displays  keen  discrimination  and 
marked  sagacity  in  the  management  of  all  his 
undertakings  and  he  belongs  to  that  class  of  repre- 
sentative American  citizens  who,  while  promoting 
individual  interests,  also  advance  the  general  pros- 
perity. Beside  his  extensive  farming  and  stock- 
raising  interests  he  has  been  closely  associated  with 
the  development  of  the  village  of  Granville,  plat- 
ting and  opening  up  new  additions,  erecting  dwell- 
ing houses  and  business  blocks  and  carrying  for- 
ward the  work  of  growth  and  progress  until  no 
man  has  done  more  toward  the  advancement  of  the 
town.  From  young  'manhood  he  has  been  active 
in  promoting  the  literary  opportunities  of  Gran- 
ville, and  has  also  been  a  faithful  member  of  the 
Congregational  church,  serving  in  various  official 
capacities. 

In  politics  Mr.  Hopkins  has  always  been  a  stal- 
wart and  unswerving  republican,  and  is  widely 
recognized  as  one  of  the  leaders  of  his  party  in 
Putnam  county.  He  was  honored  with  election 
to  the  state  legislature,  serving  in  the  thirty- 
seventh,  thirty-eighth  and  forty-first  general  as- 
semblies with  credit  to  himself.  In  1878  he  made 
a  trip  to  Europe  and  in  1897  visited  old  Mexico, 
while  with  various  sections  of  his  own  country  he 
is  familiar,  having  visited  nearly  every  state  in 
the  Union  and  attended  all  of  the  important  ex- 
positions. 

Happy  in  his  home  life  Mr.  Hopkins  was  mar- 
ried April  14,  1898,  to  Miss  Cara  L.  McVay,  of 
Forrest,  Illinois,  and  they  have  two  children — 
Eleanor  Jane  and  Joel  Willis,  who  have  done 
much  in  changing  a  stately  mansion  into  a  chil- 
dren's paradise.  Mr.  Hopkins  is  the  owner  of  the 
finest  country  home  in  Putnam  county.  It  stands 
on  the  ground  which  his  grandfather,  in  1835, 
purchased  from  the  government.  Near  the  resi- 
dence twenty-five  acres  has  been  fenced  off  into 
parks,  where  he  has  buffalo,  deer  and  other  ani- 
mals. Mr.  Hopkins  is  one  in  whom  nature  and 
culture  have  vied  in  making  an  interesting  and 
honorable  gentleman. 

Alert  and  enterprising,  with  ready  recognition 
of  opportunities,  he  has  so  directed  his  labors  and 
utilized  the  forces  at  hand  that  success  has  crowned 
his  business  ventures.  His  life  proves  that  suc- 
cess is  not  a  matter  of  genius,  as  urged  by  many, 
but  rather  the  outcome  of  clear  judgment  and 
experience. 


JOHN   GRIEVES. 

The  history  of  industrial  and  commercial  prog- 
ress in  Lacon  would  be  incomplete  without  men- 
tion of  John  Grieves,  who  for  many  years  fig- 
ured as  one  of  the  most  prominent  representatives 
of  the  business  life  of  that  city.  His  intense  and 
well  directed  activity  constituted  the  basis  of  a 
success  which  he  justly  merited  and  he  belonged 
to  that  class  of  representative  American  men  who, 
while  promoting  individual  prosperity,  also  con- 
tribute to  the  general  welfare.  His  keen  discern- 
ment enabled  him  to  readily  recognize  an  oppor- 
tunity and  his  energy  prompted  him  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  it  and  thus  as  the  years  passed  his 
business  outlook  constantly  broadened  and  his  la- 
bors increased,  bringing  with  them  the  reward  of 
unfaltering  and  honorable  activity. 

Mr.  Grieves  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  born  in 
Selkirk  on  the  9th  of  November,  1826.  He  passed 
away  in  Lacon,  July  3,  1904,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  seventy-eight  years  and  thus  was  ended  a 
long  life  of  usefulness  and  activity,  which  proved 
a  source  of  benefit  to  many  with  whom  he  came 
in  contact.  At  the  age  of  ten  years  he  entered  a 
woollen  mill  in  his  native  city  and  learned  the 
trade  in  all  its  departments,  remaining  in  that 
employ  for  more  than  a  decade.  He  had  attained 
his  majority  when  in  1848  he  crossed  the  Atlantic 
to  the  new  world,  hoping  to  enjoy  better  business 
opportunities  in  this  country,  for  he'  had  heard 
favorable  reports  concerning  commercial  and  in- 
dustrial conditions  here  and  the  opportunities  that 
were  offered.  Accordingly  he  made  his  way  to 
Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  where  he  secured  a  posi- 
tion as  a  weaver  of  shawls,  having  become  thor- 
oughly conversant  with  that  line  of  business  in 
his  native  country.  After  two  years  he  was  given 
charge  of  a  weaver's  room  in  a  mill  near  Boston, 
where  he  remained  for  two  and  a  half  years,  and 
then  went  to  New  Edinburgh,  where  he  became 
superintendent  of  a  cassimere  mill.  Returning  to 
Massachusetts,  he  was  then  in  charge  of  a  weav- 
er's room  at  Andover  for  three  years  and  later 
spent  another  year  in  Canada.  He  was  subse- 
quently in  North  Andover,  Massachusetts,  and  in 
Utica,  New  York,  as  boss  weaver.  Leaving  that 
city,  he  resumed  the  management  of  the  shawl 
mill  of  the  firm  of  James  Roy  &  Company  at 
Troy,  New  York.  He  continued  in  that  position 
until  1866,  when  he  came  to  Lacon  and  from  that 
time  until  his  death  was  closely  associated  with 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


the  manufacturing  interests  of  the  city  and  was 
thereby  a  prominent  promoter  of  its  commercial 
prosperity  and  upbuilding.  In  fact,  he  was  the 
pioneer  in  the  manufacture  of  woolen  goods  in 
this  section  of  the  country.  A  contemporary  biog- 
rapher has  given  the  following  account  of  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  business:  "The  woolen  indus- 
try in  Lacon  with  the  outgrowth  of  an  article  in 
the  Chicago  Tribvme  about  the  close  of  the  war 
from  the  pen  of  Spencer  Ellsworth,  which  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  Samuel  Saque  and  John 
Grieves.  Correspondence  between  these  gentlemen 
and  Mr.  Ellsworth  led  to  a  meeting  of  a  few  of 
the  representative  citizens  of  Lacon  and  the  ap- 
pointment of  William  F.  Fisher  and  Mr.  Ells- 
worth a  committee  to  confer  with  Saque  and 
Grieves  with  reference  to  the  establishment  of  a 
manufactory  at  this  point  for  the  production  of 
woolen  goods.  A  favorable  report  being  made,  a 
company  was  organized  with  a  capital  of  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  which  was  later  in- 
creased to  one  hundred  and  twenty- three  thousand. 
The  first  board  of  directors  were  Archibald  Rid- 
dell,  John  Grieves,  William  F.  Fisher,  Spencer 
Ellsworth,  Dr.  Thomas,  Alonzo  Roberts  and  P. 
Stevens.  The  company,  known  as  the  Lacon  Wool- 
en Manufacturing  Company,  after  being  duly  in- 
corporated, commenced  operations,  having  elected 
John  Grieves  as  superintendent.  It  was  in  Jan- 
uary, 1866,  when  Mr.  Grieves  first  came  to  Lacon 
to  engage  in  the  work.  The  mill,  erected  at  a 
cost  of  eighty-four  thousand  dollars,  was  built 
under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  Grieves,  and  all  the 
machinery  bought  by  him.  There  were  many  dif- 
ficulties to  be  overcome  in  the  establishment  of 
such  an  enterprise  in  the  west,  and  it  required 
boldness  in  any  one  to  come  in  competition  with 
the  old  and  well  established  houses  of  the  east. 
The  company  was  fortunate  in  the  selection  of 
Mr.  Grieves  as  superintendent  and  general  man- 
ager. A  thorough  master  of  his  trade,  and  with 
good  business  instinct  and  tact,  he  took  hold  of 
the  enterprise  with  a  determination  to  make  it 
win.  The  erection  and  equipment  of  the  mill 
with  necessary  machinery  exhausted  the  capital 
of  the  company,  leaving  it  without  a  dollar  with 
which  to  purchase  necessary  supplies.  Nothing 
daunted,  Mr.  Grieves  went  to  Chicago,  and,  stat- 
ing his  case  to  dealers,  secured  the  dyes  and  other 
material  needed,  and  work  was  commenced.  The 
first  output  of  the  mill  was  fancy  cassimeres.  A 


fine  fabric  was  made,  comparing  favorably  with 
those  of  any  eastern  mill.  The  product  was  put 
with  the  commission  houses  of  Chicago,  but  with 
ill  success.  Mr.  Grieves  then  went  to  that  city, 
and  with  samples  of  cloth  visited  the  trade  and 
after  many  disappointments  succeeded  in  selling 
the  goods.  After  a  trial  Mr.  Grieves  and  the  di- 
rectors of  the  company  were  convinced  that  a 
change  v/ould  have  to  be  made  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  the  goods,  as-  such  prices  for  cassimeres 
and  ftannelc  could  not  be  obtained  as  could  justify 
the  making.  It  was  then  agreed  to  engage  in  the 
manufacture  of  shawls,  being  the  first  mill  in  the 
vest  to  engage  in  that  line.  For  five  years  Mr. 
Grieves  continued  in  charge  of  the  mill,  when  he 
resigned  his  position  and  removed  to  Beloit,  Wis- 
consin, where  he  rented  and  operated  a  mill  for  a 
year,  then  to  Peoria,  where  he  also  engaged  in 
woolen  manufacture.  During  the  succeeding  five 
years  the  Lacon  woolen  mill  made  no  progress, 
and  Mr.  Grieves  was  persuaded  to  return  and  oc- 
cupy his  old  position  as  superintendent  and  man- 
ager. From  1876  until  1894  he  filled  those  posi- 
tions and  during  that  time  dividends  on  the  stock 
were  made  and  paid,  save  for  the  years  1892  and 
1893.  In  the  spring  of  1894  the  directors  of  the 
mill  took  charge  and  employed  John  Hanley  as 
superintendent  for  a  year,  when  the  firm  went  into 
liquidation,  and  until  November  of  that  year  they 
were  engaged  in  cleaning  out  all  stock  on  hand. 
In  the  spring  of  1895  the  mill  was  rented  to  John 
Grieves  &  Sons,  who  are  still  operating  it  with 
success,  turning  out  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  products  annually. 
Employment  is  given  about  seventy-five  hands.  In 
1883  Grieves,  Halsey  &  Company  erected  the  Ett- 
rick  mill  at  Lacon  at  a  cost  of  thirty-four  thou- 
sand dollars.  It  first  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  hosiery  yarn  and  continued  in  that  line  until  it 
became  unprofitable  in  consequence  of  the  low 
prices  prevailing.  The  looms  were  then  changed 
and  the  manufacture  of  shawls  was  commenced, 
and  later  another  change  was  made  to  dress  goods. 
John  W.  Grieves,  the  son  of  our  subject,  suc- 
ceeded Mr.  Halsey,  and  the  present  firm  was  start- 
ed, that  of  John  Grieves  &  Sons.  This  mill,  which 
is  run  night  and  day,  also  gives  employment  to 
about  seventy  persons,  and  the  combined  pay  roll 
is  about  four  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  per 
month.  The  products  of  these  mills  are  mainly 
disposed  of  in  Chicago,  though  selling  in  all  of 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


the  principal  cities."  The  above  was  written  in 
1896.  The  business  continued  to  grow  and  ex- 
pand until  1901,  when  the  plant  was  destroyed 
by  fire.  Previous  to  this,  however,  Mr.  Grieves 
had  resigned  in  1893  as  manager  of  the  mill, 
but  after  a  year  he  returned  to  the  business  and 
in  connection  with  his  two  sons  purchased  the 
plant,  which  they  operated  successfully  under  the 
firm  style  of  John  Grieves  &  Sons  until  the  fire. 
A  year  later  business  was  resumed  in  a  new  plant, 
which  was  erected  after  plans  approved  by  Mr. 
Grieves,  the  building  being  specially  designed  for 
the  purpose  used.  The  product  is  high  grade 
woolens  and  men's  wear  and  Melton  thibets.  John 
Grieves  continued  an  active  factor  in  the  business 
until  his  demise,  and  his  sons,  George  H.  and 
John  W.,  now  remain  sole  proprietors. 

On  the  17th  of  April,  1841,  Mr.  Grieves  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Isabelle  Hart,  and  unto 
them  were  born  two  daughters :  Elizabeth,  now  the 
wife  of  I.  R.  Luedke ;  and  Mary  Jane,  who  died  at 
the  age  of  eighteen  years.  After  the  death  of  his 
wife,  Mr.  Grieves  married  her  sister,  Miss  Eliza- 
beth Hart,  who  died  in  March,  1881,  leaving  two 
sons  and  four  daughters:  Isabelle,  Jessie,  Olive, 
Christine,  John  W.  and  George  H.,  the  former  be- 
ing sales  manager  and  buyer,  while  George  H.  be- 
came superintendent  of  the  Ettrick  mill.  The  wife 
and  mother  passed  away  in  March,  1881,  and  Mr. 
Grieves  survived  for  more  than  two  decades,  pass- 
ing away  on  the  3d  of  July,  1904.  During  his 
residence  in  Lacon  he  served  as  a  member  of  the 
school  board  and  was  ever  interested  in  all  mat- 
ters relating  to  the  general  welfare  and  to  the 
substantial  upbuilding  of  the  city.  In  his  political 
views  he  was  a  republican  and  in  religious  faith 
was  a  Baptist.  His  was  a  life  of  activity  crowned 
with  a  justly  merited  and  gratifying  measure  of 
success  which  was  by  no  means  the  result  of  fortu- 
nate circumstances.  His  prosperity  came  to  him 
through  energy,  labor  and  perseverance  directed  by 
an  evenly  balanced  mind  and  by  honorable  busi- 
ness principles.  From  early  life  it  was  his  plan 
to  spend  less  than  his  income  and  he  made  the 
most  of  his  opportunities.  In  manner  he  was 
quiet  and  straightforward  and  all  who  knew  him 
respected  him.  Truly  such  a  life  is  worthy  having 
lived  and  such  lives  deserve  permanent  record  on 
the  pages  of  their  country's  history  that  others, 
seeing  their  good  works,  may  be  stimulated  to  fol- 
low in  their  footsteps. 


George  H.  Grieves,  the  senior  partner  of  the 
present  firm,  was  born  in  Ottawa,  Canada,  March 
22,  1856,  was  educated  in  the  public  schools,  and 
received  his  business  training  under  his  father, 
becoming  familiar  with  the  business  in  principle 
and  detail.  He  was  married  in  1879  to  Miss  Ame- 
lia Miller,  of  Lacon,  and  unto  them  have  been 
born  six  children :  Roy,  who  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
four  years  is  now  connected  with  the  business; 
Olive,  a  graduate  of  the  Lacon  high  school ;  Harry, 
who  is  connected  with  the  Standard  Oil  Company 
at  Whiting,  Indiana ;  Millard,  in  the  mill  with  his 
father:  Lowell,  a  graduate  of  the  Lacon  schools; 
and  Wallace,  who  is  still  a  student. 

John  W.  Grieves,  the  younger  son,  was  born 
May  18,  1862,  and  supplemented  his  public-school 
education  by  practical  training  received  in  his 
fathers  mill.  He  was  married  in  1886  to  Miss 
Blanche  Blackstone,  of  Lacon,  and  they  have  two 
sons,  John  P.  and  Blake  B.,  aged,  respectively, 
seventeen  and  twelve  years.  The  former  is  now 
in  the  mill  and  the  latter  in  school. 

Both  George  H.  and  John  W.  Grieves  are  mem- 
bers of  Lacon  camp,  No.  96,  M.  W.  A.,  while  the 
former  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic  lodge  at  La- 
con  and  both  give  their  political  allegiance  to  the 
republican  party.  Both  were  well  equipped  in 
early  life  for  the  conduct  of  a  business  which  has 
devolved  solely  upon  them  since  the  death  of  the 
father.  They  are  men  of  enterprise  who  keep  in 
touch  with  the  trend  of  modern  thought  and  action 
in  the  business  world  and  they  are  now  controlling 
an  important  industrial  concern  with  large  out- 
pat,  which  finds  a  ready  sale  on  the  market. 


FREDERICK  E.  DAWSON. 
Frederick  E.  Dawson,  who  figures  in  business 
circles  of  Henry  as  a  dealer  in  builder's  supplies, 
was  born  in  Putnam  county  on  the  3d  of  Septem- 
ber, 1865,  and  is  the  eldest  of  a  family  of  four 
children  whose  parents  are  Clark  M.  and  Mary 
J.  (Raymond)  Dawson,  the  former  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania  and  the  latter  of  Connecticut.  The 
father  was  a  farmer  by  occupation  and  after  com- 
ing to  Illinois  settled  about  two  and  a  half  miles 
from  Henry,  where  he  owned  and  improved  one 
hundred  acres  of  land,  bringing  his  fields  under 
a  high  state  of  cultivation.  He  filled  the  office  of 
school  director  but  was  never  very  active  in  po- 
litical circles.  He  held  membership  in  the  Metho- 


PAST   AXD   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


dist  church  and  died  in  that  faith  in  1904  at  the 
age  of  sixty-seven  years.  His  widow  still  survives 
him  and  is  now  living  in  Henry.  Their  four  chil- 
dren were  as  follows:  Frederick  E. ;  Frank,  a 
farmer  living  southwest  of  Henry  in  Marshall 
county;  Mrs.  Martha  Schimmel,  who  is  a  widow 
and  lives  in  Henry;  and  Edward,  who  follows 
farming  on  the  old  homestead. 

Frederick  E.  Dawson,  whose  name  introduces 
this  record,  began  his  education  at  the  usual  age 
in  the  district  schools  and  thus  pursued  his  studies 
until  he  reached  the  age  of  twenty.  The  periods 
of  vacation  were  largely  devoted  to  farm  labor 
and  after  working  with  his  father  on  the  home 
place  for  a  tune  he  afterward  began  farming  on 
his  own  account  by  renting  land  in  Whitefield 
township.  There  he  lived  for  two  years,  after 
which  he  spent  one  year  upon  a  rented  farm 
in  Henry  township,  Marshall  county,  and  five 
years  in  Putnam  county.  He  has  been  engaged 
in  his  present  business  in  Henry  for  seven  years, 
conducting  here  a  feed  store  and  also  dealing 
in  building  materials,  including  lime  and  cement. 
Since  establishing  his  present  enterprise  he  has 
prospered  and  a  constantly  growing  trade  has 
made  him  one  of  the  substantial  merchants  of 
the  town. 

In  1893  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Mr. 
Dawson  and  Miss  Hattie  Mateer  of  Henry.  They 
are  members  of  the  Methodist  church  and  Mr. 
Dawson  gives  his  political  allegiance  to  the  re- 
publican party.  He  is  a  typical  citizen  of  the 
middle  west,  possessing  the  alert,  enterprising 
spirit  which  has  been  the  dominant  factor  in  the 
development  and  upbuilding  of  this  section  of 
the  country,  leading  to  its  rapid  and  substantial 


WILLIAM  ZILM. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  name  few,  if  any,  resi- 
dents who  have  been  held  in  higher  regard  or 
more  genuine  friendship  than  was  William  Zilm, 
a  man  whom  to  know  was  to  respect  and  honor, 
and  whose  many  good  qualities  won  for  him  a 
feeling  of  admiration  that  was  akin  to  love.  He 
was  born  in  Mecklenburg,  Germany,  March  6, 
1834,  and  for  many  years  occupied  a  beautiful 
home  at  the  outskirts  of  La  Rose.  When  a  youth 
of  nineteen  years  he  left  his  native  country,  at- 
tracted by  the  opportunities  of  the  new  world. 


This  was  in  the  year  1853,  and  after  crossing  the 
Atlantic  he  took  up  his  abode  in  Henry,  Illinois. 
While  there  he  formed  the  acquaintance  or  Miss 
Minnie  Einkenberger,  who  was  born  in  Wurtem- 
berg,  Germany,  June  14,  1839.  She  came  to 
America  in  February,  1853,  crossing  the  L-riny 
deep  on  a  sailing  vessel,  which  was  seventy-eight 
days  in  making  that  voyage.  She  landed  at  New 
Orleans  and  after  spending  a  year  in  Chicago 
became  a  resident  of  Henry,  Illinois.  She  had 
acquired  her  education  in  Germany  while  spend- 
ing her  girlhood  days  in  the  home  of  her  parents, 
George  and  Barbara  (Hausenhouer)  Rinkenber- 
ger.  Her  father  was  employed  in  a  warehouse 
and  died  in  1866,  while  her  mother  passed  away 
in  1868. 

In  1857  William  Zilm  went  to  La  Rose  and 
was  employed  on  the  farm  of  Abijah  Sherwood. 
His  sweetheart  came  soon  afterward  to  La  Rose 
and  on  the  30th  of  April,  1857,  they  were  mar- 
ried. For  many  years  they  traveled  life's  journey 
together,  sharing  with  each  other  its  joys  and 
sorrows,  adversity  and  prosperity.  This  was 
largely  an  ideal  married  relation,  their  mutual 
love  and  confidence  increasing  as  the  years 
passed  by.  With  nothing  but  their  two  pairs  of 
hands  and  their  stout  young  hearts,  coupled  with 
their  determination  and  earnest  purpose,  they 
started  out  to  make  a  home  and  in  a  few  years 
were  able  to  buy  the  farm  of  their  former  em- 
ployer, while  as  the  years  passed  they  added  to 
it  many  acres  and  placed  thereon  fine  modern 
buildings  and  many  substantial  improvements. 
In  all  of  his  business  undertakings  Mr.  Zilm 
prospered,  for  he  formed  his  plans  readily  and 
was  determined  in  their  execution.  Moreover,  he 
was  thoroughly  reliable  and  straightforward  in  all 
of  his  dealings  and  his  business  integrity  as  well 
as  his  enterprise  proved  an  important  factor  in 
his  success.  The  accumulation  of  wealth  was  not 
the  sole  end  and  aim  of  his  life,  however,  for 
he  was  a  most  free  hearted  and  generous  man 
and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  he  and  his  good  wife 
gave  away  as  much  as  they  kept  for  themselves. 
They  were  always  generous  to  the  poor  and  needy 
and  no  one  sought  their  assistance  in  vain. 

Unto  this  worthy  couple  were  born  nine  chil- 
dren, all  of  whom  are  living  with  the  exception 
of  William,  who  died  in  Streator  in  early  man- 
hood and  whose  loss  came  as  an  almost  irrepara- 
ble blow  to  the  parents.  The  surviving  children 


WILLIAM   ZILM. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


225 


are  as  follows:  Mrs.  Ellen  Stuebing,  of  La  Rose; 
Mrs.  Alvina  Kopf,  of  Streator;  Fred,  who  is  liv- 
ing in  Lostant ;  Charles,  also  of  La  Rose ;  Martin, 
of  La  Rose;  Mrs.  Anna  Meredith,  of  the  same 
town;  Edward,  living  in  Streator;  and  Mrs.  Jo- 
sie  Iliff,  of  La  Rose.  At  his  death  Mr.  Zilm 
also  left  thirteen  grandchildren  and  three  great- 
grandchildren. 

For  about  three  years  prior  to  his  demise  Mr. 
Zilm  was  in  ill  health  and,  hoping  that  he  might 
be  benefited  thereby,  spent  some  time  at  the  fa- 
mous springs  at  West  Baden,  Indiana,  but  all  to 
no  avail.  His  health  gradually  grew  worse  and 
though  everything  that  medical  aid  could  do  was 
done  for  him  he  gradually  sank  and  passed  away 
on  the  22d  of  May,  1906.  He  was  a  devoted  and 
faithful  member  of  the  German  Lutheran  church 
and  assisted  most  liberally  in  its  building.  The 
funeral  services  were  there  held,  the  Rev.  Rudolph 
addressing  the  people  both  in  German  and  Eng- 
lish. Fully  one  thousand  people  were  gathered 
at  the  church  and  upon  the  lawn  to  pay  their  last 
tribute  of  respect  to  one  whom  they  had  known 
and  honored.  His  prominence  in  the  community 
is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  school  was  closed  for 
the  day  and  business  practically  suspended  dur- 
ing the  hour  of  the  funeral.  Mr.  Zilm  from  his 
boyhood  days  was  a  great  lover  of  flowers  and 
plants,  which  he  always  had  about  him  in  pro- 
fusion, and  there  were  many  floral  evidences  of 
love  and  friendship  from  those  who  knew  him 
at  his  funeral.  Knowing  that  the  end  was  draw- 
ing near,  Mr.  Zilm  made  arrangements  for  his 
interment  and  at  his  request  six  of  his  old-time 
friends,  Carl  Winkel,  C.  K.  Schumacher,  Casper 
Preis,  Charles  Winkel,  Sr.,  August  Schoof  and 
Charles  Schoof  acted  as  his  pallbearers.  The 
name  of  William  Zilm  will  long  be  honored  and 
his  memory  cherished  in  the  community  where 
he  resided.  It  is  said  that  there  is  not  a  home  in 
La  Rose  or  the  surrounding  district  that  has  not 
received  gifts  from  his  garden  and  orchard  as  an 
expression  of  his  friendship,  and  the  poor  and 
needy  always  found  in  him  a  friend.  He  was  a 
gentleman  of  genial  manner,  ever  ready  with  a 
cordial  greeting  and  word  of  encouragement.  His 
life  was  crowned  with  a  measure  of  success  and 
prosperity  that  made  him  one  of  the  substantial 
residents  of  the  county,  but,  more  than  that,  his 
life  was  the  exemplification  of  true  and  honorable 
manhood  and  of  Christian  faith  and  purpose. 


FRED  A.  VAUGHN. 

One  of  the  most  energetic,  enterprising  and  suc- 
cessful business  men  of  Wenona  and  of  Marshall 
county  is  Fred  A.  Vaughn,  secretary  and  treas- 
urer of  the  A.  H.  Hill  Lumber  Company,  and 
although  he  is  yet  a  young  man  the  financial  and 
commercial  history  of  this  locality  would  be  in- 
complete and  unsatisfactory  without  a  personal 
and  somewhat  extended  mention  of  him,  for  he 
is  a  typical  representative  of  the  spirit  of  mod- 
ern progress  and  belongs  to  that  class  of  repre- 
sentative American  citizens  who,  while  advancing 
individual  interests,  also  promote  the  general  wel- 
fare. Born  in  Wenona,  March  17,  1876,  he  is  a 
son  of  Isaac  and  Maria  J.  (Willis)  Vaughn,  the 
former  a  native  of  Ohio  and  the  latter  of  New 
Jersey.  The  father  came  to  the  west  prior  to 
the  Civil  war,  arriving  at  Magnolia,  Illinois,  about 
1855.  He  afterward  removed  to  Wenona  and  was 
here  living  at  the  time  of  the  outbreak  of  hostili- 
ties between  the  north  and  the  south.  Believing 
in  the  justice  of  the  Union  cause,  he  offered  his 
services  to  the  government,  enlisting  as  a  member 
of  Company  H,  One  Hundred  and  Fourth  Illi- 
nois Volunteer  Infantry,  with  which  he  served 
until  the  close  of  the  war.  His  company  was 
largely  made  up  of  men  from  Wenona  and  Osage 
and  the  command  was  with  Sherman  on  the  cele- 
brated march  to  the  sea  and  in  various  important 
battles  which  led  up  to  the  final  victorious  re- 
sult, in  all  of  which  Mr.  Vaughn  participated.  He 
was  captured  with  his  regiment  at  the  battle  of 
Hartsville,  but  was  afterward  exchanged.  He 
served  as  a  first  lieutenant  of  his  company  and 
when  Captain  Southwell,  his  superior  officer,  was 
wounded  he  was  made  acting  captain,  having 
charge  of  the  company  until  Captain  Southwell 
was  again  able  to  resume  command.  After  the 
close  of  the  war  Mr.  Vaughn  returned  to  Wenona 
and  during  the  political  campaign  that  followed 
he  was  nominated  and  elected  county  treasurer 
of  Marshall  county,  in  which  office  he  served  for 
two  terms,  making  a  creditable  record.  He  was 
the  first  mayor  of  Wenona  and  did  much  toward 
organizing  the  city  and  placing  its  interests  upon 
a  safe,  substantial  basis.  He  was  also  engaged 
in  the  drug  business  with  his  old  captain,  Mr. 
Southwell,  for  a  number  of  years  and  figured  very 
prominently  in  the  public  life  and  business  inter- 
ests of  the  town.  He  died  in  1904  and  is  still 
survived  by  his  widow.  In  their  family  were  two 


226 


PAST    AND    I'HKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


sons  and  two  daughters :  Cora,  the  wife  of  L.  M. 
Bayne,  of  Ottawa,  Illinois;  Alice,  the  wife  of  A. 
H.  Hill;  Ealph,  a  druggist  of  Wenona;  and 
Fred  A. 

The  last  named,  at  the  usual  age,  entered  the 
public  schools  and  passed  through  successive 
grades  until  he  had  completed  the  high  school 
course.  He  then  attended  the  Wesleyan  College 
at  Bloomington,  Illinois,  and  after  the  completion 
of  his  education  became  connected  with  the  lumber 
trade  at  Lostant,  Illinois,  in  1899.  Subsequently 
he  was  at  Ottawa  in  the  same  line  of  business  and 
on  the  1st  of  July,  1904,  he  was  made  secretary 
and  treasurer  of  the  A.  H.  Hill  Lumber  Company 
at  Wenona.  This  company  is  now  controlling  one 
of  the  largest  lumber  enterprises  in  this  section  of 
the  state  and  the  business  is  constantly  growing. 
Mr.  Vaughn  is  a  factor  in  its  success,  being  a 
young  man  of  marked  enterprise,  keen  business 
discrimination  and  unfaltering  industry.  Already 
he  has  gained  a  notable  place  in  commercial  cir- 
cles and  one  does  not  need  the  gift  of  prophecy  to 
predict  a  still  more  successful  future,  because  his 
qualifications  are  such  as  insure  success  in  the 
world. 


LUTHER  DICKINSON  GUNN. 
No  history  of  Putnam  county  would  be  com- 
plete without  mention  of  Luther  Dickinson  Gunn, 
who  is  the  most  venerable  citizen  residing  within 
its  borders.  His  life  record  began  in  Pittsfield, 
Massachusetts,  July  28,  1814.  His  father,  Luther 
Gunn,  was  born  in  Montague,  Massachusetts,  in 
September,  1782,  and  died  when  his  son  Luther 
was  but  a  week  old.  The  mother,  who  bore  the 
maiden  name  of  Delia  Dickinson,  was  born  in 
Whately,  Massachusetts,  December  6,  1792,  and 
died  in  Greenfield,  Massachusetts,  February  7, 
1881.  The  paternal  grandparents  were  Nathaniel 
and  Hannah  (Montague)  Gunn  and  the  maternal 
grandparents  were  Jehu  and  Eleanor  (Pomeroy) 
Dickinson.  Luther  Gunn,  Sr.,  was  a  physician  by 
profession  and  was  practicing  at  the  time  of  his 
death.  His  wife  was  then  taken  to  the  home  of 
her  parents  and  later  she  married  Levi  Gunn,  a 
second  cousin  of  her  first  husband,  and  made  her 
home  at  Conway,  Massachusetts.  By  her  first 
marriage  she  had  two  children :  Sarah,  born  Au- 
gust 26,  1812;  and  Luther,  born  July  28,  1814. 
By  the  second  marriage  there  were  eight  children. 


Luther  Dickinson  Gunn  spent  his  boyhood  days 
in  Conway,  Massachusetts,  to  the  age  of  sixteen 
years,  living  with  his  mother  and  step-father.  In 
the  meantime  he  acquired  a  good  common  school 
education  and  when  a  youth  of  sixteen  he  began 
learning  the  trade  of  a  carpenter  and  joiner  under 
John  Howland,  remaining  in  his  service  until 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  at  which  time  his  em- 
ployer gave  him  a  set  of  bench  tools,  consisting  of 
three  planes  and  a  hammer,  all  of  which  were 
made  by  Mr.  Gunn  while  he  was  working  for  Mr. 
Howland.  The  employer  also  took  him  to  a  store 
to  be  fitted  out  with  a  suit  of  clothes.  There  were 
two  grades  of  cloth  on  display  and  Mr.  Gunn  was 
told  that  if  he  would  go  back  and  work  another 
month  he  would  receive  wages  for  his  services  and 
a  suit  made  of  the  better  material.  This  he  did. 
He  was  in  very  limited  financial  circumstances,  so 
much  so  that  when  on  his  twenty-first  birthday, 
wishing  to  treat  the  boys  to  root  beer,  he  had  to 
borrow  twenty-five  cents  of  his  mother  in  order 
to  make  the  purchase.  He  worked  for  three 
months  at  twenty  dollars  per  month  in  order  to 
secure  money  enough  to  bring  him  to  Illinois. 

Hearing  that  Colonel  Ware,  a  merchant  of  Hen- 
nepin,  was  going  to  New  York  to  buy  goods,  Mr. 
Gunn  arranged  to  meet  him  in  the  metropolis  and 
with  him  returned  to  Hennepin.  They  traveled 
down  the  Ohio  and  up  the  Missisisppi  and  Illinois 
rivers  to  Hennepin.  While  on  the  trip  the  ship  lost 
a  rudder  and  was  disabled.  A  carpenter  was  asked 
for  among  the  passengers  and  Mr.  Gunn,  having 
his  tools  with  him,  volunteered  to  make  the  re- 
pairs and  did  so.  On  arriving  at  Hennepin  he 
was  first  employed  to  build  a  kitchen  for  Mr. 
Ware,  with  whom  he  had  made  the  trip.  He  then 
began  work  at  the  carpenter's  trade,  which  he 
followed  for  several  years.  Even  after  he  began 
farming  he  still  did  considerable  building,  and 
was  thus  closely  associated  with  industrial  in- 
terests in  the  county  at  an  early  day. 

On  the  14th  of  November,  1839,  Mr.  Gunn  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Emirancy  Collins,  who 
was  born  in  Granville,  Washington  county,  New 
York,  October  15,  1822.  She  was  a  daughter  of 
Joel  S.  and  Sally  (Sprague)  Collins.  The  father 
was  born  in  Massachusetts  and  removed  to  Ches- 
tertown,  New  York,  when  Mrs.  Gunn  was  but  six 
years  of  age.  There  he  died  three  years  later.  His 
wife  was  born  in  Stratton,  Vermont,  and  died  at 
the  age  of  forty-seven  years.  After  losing  her  first 


f  ' 


^-X^x^  CJ? 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


2:51 


husband  she  became  the  wife  of  Amos  Dewey,  of 
Hartford,  New  York.  When  Mrs.  Gunn  was  a 
maiden  of  fourteen  summers  she  came  to  Putnam 
county  with  her  mother  and  step-father,  who  lo- 
cated on  a  farm  southwest  of  Granville.  When 
her  father  died  she  was  left  an  inheritance  of 
about  three  hundred  dollars,  and  with  this  she  and 
her  husband  purchased  eighty  acres  of  land  south- 
west of  Granville.  Not  a  furrow  had  been  turned 
or  an  improvement  made  upon  the  farm.  Mr. 
Gunn  bought  trees,  chopped  them  down,  hewed  out 
the  timber  and  had  the  lumber  sawed  at  a  horse- 
power sawmill  north  of  Granville,  and  from  this 
he  built  his  house.  The  young  couple  moved  into 
it  before  the  doors  were  hung  or  the  windows  put 
in,  and  they  lived  in  that  primitive  home  uutil 
after  all  of  their  children  but  one  were  born.  In 
1866  they  sold  the  property  and  purchased  a  farm 
of  one  hundred  and  seventy  acres  of  land  east  of 
Granville,  where  they  resided  until  about  fourteen 
years  ago,  when,  retiring  permanently  from  the 
farm,  they  took  up  their  abode  in  the  village.  Mr. 
Gunn,  however,  still  owns  that  property  in  addi- 
tion to  a  comfortable  residence  in  town.  Starting 
out  in  life  as  he  did,  without  capital  save  his 
willing  hands  and  strong  determination,  the  suc- 
cess that  he  has  achieved  is  due  entirely  to  his 
own  labors.  He  was  ever  an  industrious,  energetic 
man  and  worked  hard  in  order  to  gain  a  start. 
Now  he  is  in  possession  of  a  comfortable  compe- 
tence which  enables  him  to  live  retired  and  to 
provide  himself  and  his  wife  with  many  of  those 
things  which  add  to  the  comfort  of  life. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gunn  have  been  born  fifteen 
children.  Joel  C.,  who  was  born  December  1, 
1840,  was  married  and  removed  to  Iowa,  where 
he  died  about  two  years  ago.  Francis  E.,  born 
November  30,  1842,  died  in  infancy.  Amos  D., 
born  March  14,  1843,  is  married  and  has  a  fam- 
ily and  follows  carpentering  at  Index,  Washing- 
ton. Levi  P.  died  at  the  age  of  thirteen  months. 
Fannie  Ellen,  born  January  27,  1846,  is  the  wife 
of  Baxter  A.  Dickinson,  a  resident  of  Chicago. 
Lucy  Caroline,  born  June  28,  1847,  is  the  wife  of 
Charles  Ware,  a  resident  of  Downs,  Kansas.  Mary 
A.,  born  December  1,  1849,  became  the  wife  of 
Beecher  Newport,  a  resident  of  Granville  town- 
ship, and  died  February  22,  1883.  Luther  H., 
who  was  born  November  24,  1851,  died  January 
24,  1852.  Esther  Eveline,  born  October  31,  1853, 
is  the  wife  of  C.  H.  Tan  Wormer.  of  California. 


Sarah  E.,  born  April  1,  1856,  is  the  wife  of  Lyman 
Parmalee,  of  Osborne  City,  Kansas.  Ellen  T.  is 
the  wife  of  James  Packingham,  of  Granville. 
Delia  M.  died  in  infancy.  Henry  D.,  born  April  1, 
1863,  is  now  living  at  Startup,  Washington.  Nellie 
Louise  is  at  home.  Clara  P.  is  the  wife  of  George 
Sucher,  an  attorney  at  law  of  Peoria. 

Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gunn  have  been  church 
members  from  early  life.  They  assisted  in  organ- 
izing the  Presbyterian  church  at  Union  Grove  in 
1839  and  attended  services  there  when  rough 
planks  were  used  as  seats.  All  the  work  for  that 
church  was  donated  and  the  brick  was  made  on 
the  ground.  At  length  there  occurred  a  division 
in  the  church  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gunn  joined  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  church,  but  are  now  members 
and  regular  attendants  at  the  Congregational 
church  and  Sunday-school  in  Granville,  while  their 
daughter  Nellie  has  been  leader  of  the  choir  for 
several  years.  Mr.  Gunn  has  been  a  republican 
since  the  formation  of  the  party,  and  has  also 
frequently  voted  the  prohibition  ticket.  He  has 
served  as  school  director,  but  otherwise  has  held 
no  office,  nor  lias  he  desired  political  preferment. 
He  is  the  oldest  man  in  Putnam  county,  while  his 
wife,  who  is  eighty-four  years  of  age,  is  the  second 
oldest  lady  so  far  as  known.  Both  are  well  pre- 
served mentally  and  physically,  enjoying  fair 
health,  while  both  have  good  memories.  They  can 
relate  many  interesting  incidents  of  the  early 
pioneer  times,  and,  like  most  of  the  other  settlers 
of  the  period,  they  came  to  the  middle  west  empty 
handed  and  had  a  hard  struggle  to  establish  a 
home  and  gain  a  start,  in  life  here.  They  were 
cut  off  from  the  advantages  of  the  older  east, 
owing  to  the  lack  of  railroad  facilities,  and  they 
experienced  all  the  privations  and  hardships  in- 
cident to  the  settlement  of  the  frontier;  but  they 
possessed  the  courageous  spirit  characteristic  of 
those  who  founded  this  great  commonwealth,  and 
in  Putnam  county  they  soon  became  widely  and 
favorably  known  and  are  justly  deserving  of  prom- 
inent mention  in  this  volume. 


TOBIAS  WHITMER. 

Tobias  Whitmer  lives  on  section  26,  Whitefield 
township,  where  he  is  engaged  in  farming  and 
also  in  the  manufacture  of  brick.  He  is,  moreover, 
entitled  to  representation  in  this  volume  from 
the  fact  that  he  was  one  of  the  veterans  of  the 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Civil  war.  His  birth  occurred  in  Niagara  county, 
New  York,  April  5,  1842,  his  parents  being  Ab- 
raham and  Elizabeth  (Hare)  Whitmer.  The 
father  was  a  native  of  Langston,  Pennsylvania, 
and  in  early  life  learned  and  followed  the  milling 
business.  He  also  engaged  in  farming  for  many 
years.  In  1853  he  removed  from  New  York  to 
Illinois,  settling  in  Will  county,  Illinois,  and  his 
remaining  days  were  devoted  to  general  agricul- 
tural pursuits.  He  died  about  twenty  years  ago. 
His  wife,  who  was  also  a  native  of  Pennsylvania, 
died  twenty-two  years  ago.  In  their  family  were 
eleven  children,  but  only  five  now  survive,  name- 
ly :  Mrs.  Sarah  Shaw,  a  resident  of  Canada ;  Sam- 
uel, who  follows  farming  in  Iowa;  Abraham,  who 
is  living  retired  in  Steuben  county,  Illinois,  and 
Jacob,  who  is  located  in  Pueblo,  Colorado.  The 
other  living  member  of  the  family  is  Tobias  Whit- 
mer of  this  review,  who  was  a  young  lad  of  about 
eleven  years  when  he  accompanied  his  parents  on 
their  removal  from  the  east  to  Illinois.  He  pur- 
sued his  education  in  the  public  schools  of  Joliet 
and  in  early  manhood,  his  patriotic  spirit  being 
aroused,  he  offered  his  services  to  the  government 
in  defense  of  the  Union  and  enlisted  as  a  private 
of  Company  I,  Forty-seventh  Illinois  infantry. 
He  enrolled  at  Henry,  having  come  to  this  city 
during  the  war  times.  With  his  command  he 
went  to  the  front  and'  participated  in  a  number 
of  important  engagements.  Throughout  the  great- 
er part  of  his  life  Mr.  Whitmer  has  engaged  in 
general  agricultural  pursuits  and  is  now  a  farmer 
of  Whitefield  township,  living  on  section  26, 
where  he  rents  forty  acres  of  land  from  Timothy 
Hunt.  He  is  also  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  brick,  having  a  plant  for  this  purpose  upon  the 
farm. 

Mr.  Whitmer  was  married  in  1868  to  Miss  Sarah 
Porch,  of  Illinois,  and  unto  them  have  been 
born  eight  children:  Mrs.  Ida  Dwyer,  living  in 
Whitefield  township;  Mrs.  Delia  Nightsonger,  a 
resident  of  Sparland;  Mrs.  Lulu  Dwyer,  whose 
home  is  in  Bureau  county;  Mrs.  Clara  Niles,  a 
resident  of  Sparland;  Mrs.  Pearl  Steele;  Floyd, 
Harold  and  Homer,  all  at  home. 

Mr.  Whitmer  votes  with  the  prohibition  party 
and  is  a  stanch  advocate  of  the  cause  of  temper- 
ance. He  believes  this  to  be  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant questions  before  the  people  of  the  country 
today  and  he  does  everything  in  his  power  to  in- 
culcate among  those  with  whom  he  comes  in  con- 


tact an  opposition  to  the  liquor  traffic.  He  and 
his  family  are  members  of  the  United  Brethren 
in  Christ  and  he  is  one  of  the  ministers  of  the 
church  giving  much  of  his  life  to  Christian  work. 
He  has  led  an  active  and  useful  life,  upright  and 
honorable,  and  his  influence  has  ever  been  for 
good,  being  strongly  exerted  in  behalf  of  justice 
and  truth  and  also  for  the  best  development  and 
progress  of  the  county. 


JOSEPH  ZIEGLER. 

Joseph  Ziegler,  deceased,  was  at  one  time  promi- 
nently identified  with  farming  interests  in  Mar- 
shall county  and  his  record  was  one  worthy  of 
emulation  and  commendation,  showing  what 
could  be  accomplished  by  determination  and  hon- 
orable purpose.  He  was  born  in  Baden,  Germany, 
February  17,  1840,  and  spent  the  first  seventeen 
years  of  his  life  in  the  land  of  his  nativity,  there 
acquiring  a  good  education.  Investigation  into 
business  conditions  and  careful  consideration  of 
the  outlook  before  him  in  his  native  land  led 
him  to  seek  a  home  in  the  new  world  and  in 
1857  he  crossed  the  Atlantic.  He  did  not  tarry 
on  the  seaboard,  but  made  his  way  at  once  into 
the  interior  of  the  country  and  settled  in  Mar- 
shall county,  Illinois,  where  he  was  first  employed 
at  farm  labor,  but  he  was  ambitious  to  engage  in 
farming  on  his  own  account  and  as  soon  as  his 
work  had  brought  him  a  little  capital  he  rented  a 
farm  in  Putnam  county.  He  afterward  removed 
to  High  Prairie  and  secured  four  hundred  acres 
of  land  in  Saratoga  township.  This  extensive 
farm  was  the  visible  proof  of  his  life  of  industry 
and  enterprise  and  for  many  years  he  successfully 
carried  on  general  agricultural  pursuits,  carefully 
tilling  the  soil  and  bringing  his  fields  under  a  high 
state  of  cultivation,  so  that  he  annually  harvested 
rich  crops.  He  also  added  good  buildings  to  the 
place  and  supplied  it  with  all  modern  equipments 
and  accessories. 

On  the  13th  of  February,  1865,  Mr.  Ziegler  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Catherine  Thomas,  a 
native  of  Prussia,  Germany,  who  was  eight  years 
of  age  when  she  was  brought  to  America  by  her 
parents,  Peter  and  Eva  (Bocoh)  Thomas.  Her 
father  was  a  farmer  by  occupation  and  both  her 
parents  are  now  deceased.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Ziegler  were  born  fourteen  children,  thirteen  of 
whom  arc  yet  living:  Peter,  who  resides  in  Mis- 


PAST    AND    1'KF.SKXT    OF    MARSHALL   AND    R'TXAM    COLXTIES. 


233 


soiiri ;  Michael,  who  follows  farming  in  Saratoga 
township;  Kate,  the  wife  of  Peter  Swartz,  of 
Oklahoma;  Charles,  Joseph  and  William,  who  are 
operating  the  home  farm;  Elizabeth,  now  Mrs. 
Barney  Swartz ;  George,  who  is  living  at  McNabb, 
Illinois ;  Frank,  who  is  farming  in  Saratoga  town- 
ship; John,  who  resides  in  Henry;  Louis,  upon 
the  home  farm;  Amelia,  at  home;  Matilda,  who 
is  a  clerk  in  the  Watercott  store  in  Henry;  and 
one  who  died  when  sixteen  months  old. 

In  his  political  affiliation  Mr.  Ziegler  was  a 
stalwart  democrat,  thoroughly  in  sympathy  with 
the  principles  and  policy  of  the  party.  He  filled 
the  office  of  school  director  for  sixteen  years  and 
was  road  commissioner  for  twelve  years.  He  held 
membership  in  the  Catholic  church  and  was  ever 
faithful  to  its  teachings.  After  many  years  of 
active  and  successful  connection  with  farming 
operations  he  at  length  put  aside  business  cares 
and  removed  to  Henry,  but  scarcely  had  settled 
down  in  his  new  home  when  he  was  called  from 
this  life  on  January  8,  1903.  He  had  become 
widely  known  in  the  county  and  many  friends 
mourned  his  loss.  He  was  a  self-made  man, 
whose  prosperity  came  as  the  direct  reward  of 
diligence,  enterprise  and  laudable  ambition  and 
his  history  may  well  serve  as  a  source  of  inspira- 
tion and  encouragement  to  others. 


CHAUNCEY  CURTIS  BARNES. 
Chauncey  Curtis  Barnes,  whose  life  record  cov- 
ered fifty-eight  years,  the  entire  period  of  which 
was  spent  in  Marshall  county,  left  at  his  death 
an  untarnished  name  and  a  memory  that  is  still 
cherished  by  all  who  knew  him.  He  was  born  on 
the  old  homestead  farm  on  section  27,  Whitefield 
township,  April  17,  1847,  a  fact  which  indicates 
that  the  family  was  established  here  in  pioneer 
times.  His  father,  Chauncey  W.  Barnes,  was  a 
native  of  Massachusetts  and  was  reared  to  the 
occupation  of  farming,  which  he  made  his  life 
work.  He  came  to  the  state  in  1836  and  made 
purchase  of  the  farm  now  owned  by  Mrs.  Chaun- 
cey C.  Barnes  and  son,  thereon  spending  his  re- 
maining days.  He  lived  there  with  his  son  and 
daughter-in-law  for  thirty  years  following  the 
death  of  his  wife.  Mrs.  Barnes  bore  the  maiden 
name  of  Sally  B.  Martin  and  was  a  native  of 
Connecticut.  Unto  them  were  born  four  children 
hut  only  two  are  now  living:  George  M.,  whose 


home  is  in  Webb  City,  Missouri;  and  Charles  L., 
who  resides  in  Pattonsburg,  Missouri.  The  mother 
died  in  1872  and  the  father  survived  her  for 
three  decades,  during  which  time  he  made  his 
home  with  his  son  Chauncey  and  his  wife  until 
his  demise,  which  occurred  in  March,  1902.  He 
performed  the  arduous  task  of  developing  a  new 
place  in  the  early  years  of  his  residence  here,  con- 
verting wild  prairie  land  into  richly  cultivated 
fields.  His  life  was  one  of  untiring  activity  and 
enterprise  and  his  success  was  well  merited. 
When  he  passed  away  the  county  lost  one  of  its 
venerable  citizens  and  worthy  pioneer  residents. 
Both  he  and  his  wife  were  members  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  and  their  lives  exemplified  their  re- 
ligious faith. 

Chauncey  Curtis  Barnes  at  the  usual  age  began 
his  education  in  the  district  schools  of  Whitefield 
township  and  therein  mastered  the  branches  of 
learning  usually  taught  in  such  institutions.  Af- 
ter leaving  school  he  gave  his  entire  attention  to 
the  work  of  the  home  farm,  with  which  he  had 
previously  become  familiar  during  the  periods  of 
vacation,  and  when  some  years  had  passed  he 
relieved  his  father  of  the  management  and  care 
of  the  property  and  remained  an  enterprising 
and  progressive  agriculturist  of  the  community 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death.  Many  substantial 
improvements  were  made  upon  the  farm,  includ- 
ing the  erection  of  good  buildings,  while  modern 
farm  machinery  was  secured  to  facilitate  the  work 
of  the  fields.  Neatness  and  thrift  characterize  the 
entire  place  and  give  evidence  of  the  care  and 
supervision  of  the  former  owners. 

On  the  6th  of  January,  1870,  Mr.  Barnes  was 
united  in  marriage  in  Lacon  to  Miss  Mary  C. 
Kirk,  a  native  of  Peoria  county,  Illinois,  the 
wedding  ceremony  being  performed  by  Rev.  J. 
Curtis  of  the  Presbyterian  church.  Mrs.  Barnes 
is  a  daughter  of  Henry  and  Sarah  (Erwin)  Kirk, 
both  of  whom  were  natives  of  Pennsylvania.  In 
their  family  were  four  children,  all  of  whom  are 
yet  living,  namely:  James  Madison,  who  is  a 
contractor  and  builder  residing  in  Montezuma, 
Iowa;  Matilda  Ann,  the  wife  of  A.  A.  Earl,  of 
Chicago;  Mary  C.,  now  Mrs.  Barnes;  and  Mrs. 
Ella  K.  Hackett,  who  is  living  with  her  sister 
Mary. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Barnes  were  born  a  daugh- 
ter and  two  sons,  but  Netta  Belle  Barnes,  born  in 
1871,  died  in  1872.  Charles  Curtis,  who  married 


234 


PAST    AND    I'HKSKNT    OK    MARSHALL    AM)    JTTXAM    COfXTIKS. 


Edith  Hadley,  of  Chicago,  died  in  June,  1905, 
at  the  age  of  thirty-two  years.  He  was  a  druggist 
of  Chicago,  having  graduated  from  the  Chicago 
College  of  Pharmacy.  James  Madison,  who 
wedded  Jessie  Tanner,  of  Sparland,  Illinois,  is 
now  living  with  his  mother  upon  the  home  place 
and  operates  the  farm. 

Just  after  their  marriage  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Barnes 
located  on  his  father's  farm  adjoining  the  pres- 
ent place,  but  in  1871  took  up  their  abode  upon 
the  farm  on  section  27,  Whitefield  township,  which 
is  now  the  home  of  the  widow  and  son.  Here 
for  thirty-four  years  Mr.  Barnes  gave  his  time 
and  energies  to  agricultural  pursuits,  carefully 
cultivating  and  superintending  his  place  and 
manifesting  in  his  labors  the  progressive  spirit 
of  the  times.  He  always  kept  in  touch  with  mod- 
ern agricultural  progress  and  his  labors  were 
therefore  the  source  of  a  gratifying  success.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Barnes  resided  in  Henry  for  fifteen 
years,  and  during  that  time  he  was  engaged  in 
the  dairy  business.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Whitefield  Baptist  church  and  was  a  republican  in 
his  political  views  but  was  never  ambitious  for 
office,  preferring  to  concentrate  his  energies  upon 
his  business  affairs.  He  was  ill  throughout  his 
last  year  and  he  passed  away  in  Chicago,  Decem- 
ber 1,  1905,  after  which  his  remains  were  brought 
back  to  Marshall  county  and  laid  to  rest  in  Hen- 
ry cemetery.  Having  always  lived  in  this  county 
he  had  a  wide  acquaintance  in  Whitefield  town- 
ship and  other  localities  and  his  many  sterling 
traits  of  character  were  recognized  and  honored 
by  his  fellow  men.  He  had  a  kindly  manner  and 
cordial  disposition  that  gained  him  many  friends 
and  he  was  known  a.«  a  straightforward,  reliable 
business  man.  He  loft  his  family  well  provided 
for,  for  his  farm  was  a  valuable  tract  of  one  hun- 
dred and  ninety  acres.  This  is  now  in  posses- 
sion of  the  widow  and  son,  the  latter  operating 
the  farm,  which  is  one  of  the  well  improved  prop- 
erties of  Whitefield  township. 


HENRY  L.   WHITE. 

Henry  L.  White,  for  many  years  an  honored 
and  respected  representative  of  the  farming  in- 
terests of  Hennepin  township,  Putnam  county, 
now  practically  living  retired,  has  passed  the 
eightieth  milestone  on  life's  journey.  He  was  born 
at  Norton,  Bristol  county,  Massachusetts,  March 
17,  1826,  his  parents  being  Hiram  P.  and-  Mary 
( Carpenter)  White.  The  family  comes  of  English 
ancestry  and  the  line  can  be  traced  bac>  *o  Pere- 


grine White,  the  first  white  child  born  in  America. 
The  grandfather  of  our  subject  was  a  major  of 
the  Revolutionary  war  and  did  valiant  service  in 
behalf  of  the  cause  of  independence. 

Hiram  P.  White  belonged  to  a  family  that  for 
many  years  was  closely  associated  with  the  foundry 
business  and  he  was  also  thus  engaged  in  the  east 
together  with  the  work  of  manufacturing  combs. 
When  a  boy  of  seventeen  years  he  desired  to  come 
to  Illinois  with  a  friend,  a  Mr.  Wiswall,  but 
parental  authority  intervened  and  the  opportunity 
of  seeking  a  home  in  the  Prairie  state  did  not 
again  present  itself  until  after  his  marriage,  when 
he  brought  his  family  to  Illinois  in  1833.  He 
shipped  his  goods  from  Providence,  Rhode  Island, 
by  way  of  New  Orleans  to  Jacksonville,  Illinois, 
where  Mr.  Wiswall  was  then  living,  but  the  goods 
did  not  arrive  for  a  year  and  a  half,  having  been 
detained  at"  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  from  which  place 
they  were  forwarded  to  Hennepin.  Mr.  Wiswall 
advised  Mr.  White  to  come  to  Putnam  county, 
where  he  had  a  friend,  Mr.  Leeper,  living,  so  after 
a  brief  stay  in  Jacksonville  Mr.  White  visited  Mr. 
Leeper,  who  was  residing  in  the  vicinity  of  Hen- 
nepin and  within  two  miles  of  the  present  home 
farm  of  Henry  L.  White.  The  village  at  that  time 
contained  only  two  frame  houses.  A  week  previous 
to  Mr.  White's  arrival  William  Fairfield  had  come 
to  Putnam  county  from  Massachusetts,  and  as  his 
wife  was  homesick,  he  sent  for  Mr.  White  and  his 
family.  The  two  gentlemen  took  up  claims  to- 
gether, buying  land  from  Mr.  Patterson,  whose 
home  stood  on  the  present  site  of  the  residence 
of  our  subject.  There  had  been  four  or  five  acres 
broken  on  the  place,  which  was  said  to  be  the  first 
plowing  done  in  the  county.  A  log  cabin,  which 
had  no  floor  during  the  entire  winter  of  1833-4, 
was  built,  and  as  the  household  goods  did  not 
arrive  the  White  family  were  not  very  comfortably 
situated  through  that  first  winter.  Prairie  chick- 
ens constituted  their  principal  meat  and  they  dried 
the  breasts  for  summer  use,  while  their  bread  was 
largely  made  of  corn.  Mr.  White's  cash  capital 
on  his  arrival  in  this  county  consisted  of  but  twelve 
dollars,  and  during  the  first  year  the  family  en- 
dured many  privations  and  hardships  incident  to 
life  on  the  frontier.  In  the  following  year,  how- 
ever, a  crop  was  raised  and  its  sale  enabled  them 
to  do  away  with  many  of  the  difficulties  of  a  fron- 
tier existence.  In  later  years  the  family  were  en- 
abled to  enjoy  the  comforts  and  many  of  the  lux- 
uries of  life,  Mr.  White  prospering  in  his  under- 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AXD   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


237 


takings.  He  passed  away  April  1,  1870,  on  the 
anniversary  of  his  birth,  which  occurred  on  the  1st 
of  April,  1800,  while  his  wife  survived  for  about 
five  years.  They  had  traveled  life's  journey  to- 
gether for  more  than  a  half  century,  and  they  were 
most  hospitable  people,  never  turning  any  one 
away  who  asked  for  food  or  shelter.  One  night 
sixteen  persons  were  sleeping  in  their  log  cabin 
when  a  man  on  horseback  rode  up  and  asked  to 
stay  all  night.  He  was  made  welcome  and  slept 
on  the  floor  with  his  saddle  for  a  pillow. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  White  were  born  but  two 
sons,  the  elder  being  Hiram  W.  White,  who  was 
three  years  the  senior  of  Henry  L.  and  who  died 
in  Streator,  Illinois,  about  three  years  ago.  The 
parents  were  both  active  and  prominent  workers 
in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  and  in  their 
cabin  in  1834  a  class  was  formed,  consisting  of 
three  other  members — Dr.  Eichey  and  wife,  who 
lived  at  Florid,  and  Miss  Betsy  Carpenter,  a  half- 
sister  of  Mrs.  White,  who  lived  with  her  and  later 
became  the  wife  of  John  P.  Hays.  For  about  two 
years  services  were  held  at  the  White  cabin,  at  the 
end  of  which  time  a  church  was  erected  in  Henne- 
pin,  to  which  Mr.  White  was  a  liberal  contributor, 
and  during  his  entire  life  he  continued  to  serve  as 
class-leader  and  steward.  His  early  political  al- 
legiance was  given  the  whig  party  and  he  joined 
the  republican  party  on  its  organization  and  was 
called  upon  to  serve  as  school  commissioner  and 
coroner. 

Henry  L.  White  was  a  lad  of  seven  summers 
when  he  accompanied  his  parents  on  their  emi- 
gration to  what  was  then  the  far  west.  The 
Black  Hawk  war  had  occurred  only  the  year  be- 
fore and  the  Indians  still  lingered  in  some  sections 
of  the  state,  while  much  of  the  land  was  still 
unclaimed  and  uncultivated.  The  experiences  of 
the  pioneer  soon  became  familiar  to  him  and  he 
remained  upon  the  home  farm  after  attaining  his 
majority,  while  his  brother  owned  land  in  Gran- 
ville  township,  but  for  twenty  years  they  carried 
on  operations  in  partnership.  In  connection  with 
general  farming  they  also  engaged  in  threshing 
and  reaping,  owning  one  of  the  first  reapers 
brought  to  the  county.  Later  the  brother  sold 
out  and  removed  to  Putnam,  while  subsequently 
he  became  a  resident  of  Streator.  Mr.  White 
added  eighty  acres  to  the  old  homestead  and  now 
owns  a  valuable  tract  of  land  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty-five  acres,  which  is  under  a  high  state 


of  cultivation  and  is  well  improved  with  substan- 
tial buildings.  Upon  this  farm  he  still  resides, 
and  his  niece  and  her  husband,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  F.  P. 
Hamm,  reside  with  him,  the  former  operating  the 
farm,  while  Mrs.  Hamm  acts  as  housekeeper.  For 
a  quarter  of  a  century  Mr.  White  has  been  inter- 
ested in  the  lumber  and  coal  business  at  Hennepin, 
becoming  connected  with  George  C.  Reed  in  this 
enterprise  under  the  firm  style  of  White  &  Reed, 
the  junior  partner  being  the  active  manager  of  the 


When  about  thirty  years  of  age  Mr.  White  was 
married  to  Miss  Fannie  A.  White,  a  cousin,  and 
a  native  of  Norton,  Massachusetts,  who  came  to 
Putnam  county  in  1849.  Two  daughters  were 
born  to  them,  Cora  and  Carrie,  but  both  died  in 
childhood,  and  Mrs.  White  passed  away  June  15, 
1896.  She  was  a  member  of  the  Congregational 
church  and  was  greatly  interested  in  various 
church  activities,  so  that  her  death  proved  a  great 
loss  to  the  church  and  the  community  as  well  as 
to  her  husband,  with  whom  she  had  so  long  trav- 
eled life's  journey  happily. 

Since  the  organization  of  the  republican  party 
Mr.  White  has  been  one  of  its  stanch  champions 
and  has  frequently  attended  its  conventions.  For 
eight  years  he  served  as  coroner  and  for  three 
years  was  supervisor  in  his  township.  He,  too, 
belongs  to  the  Congregational  church  of  Henne- 
pin, in  which  he  served  for  twenty-five  years  as 
treasurer.  His  life  has  indeed  been  an  exem- 
plification of  the  Christian  spirit,  and  there  is 
probably  not  a  more  temperate  man  in  every  way 
in  the  county.  He  has  never  used  liquor  nor 
tobacco  and  for  many  years  has  used  neither  tea 
nor  coffee.  As  a  man  he  has  endeavored  to  follow 
the  golden  rule,  being  thoroughly  reliable  in  his 
business  affairs  and  often  tempering  the  attitude 
of  justice  with  that  of  mercy.  Those  qualities 
which  work  for  righteous  living  and  for  the  de- 
velopment of  upright  character  have  long  been 
manifest  in  his  career,  and  now,  in  the  evening 
of  his  days,  he  can  look  back  over  the  past  without 
regret,  being  one  of  the  most  respected  and  ven- 
erable citizens  of  Putnam  county. 


CHARLES  MOTTER. 

Charles  Motter  is  engaged  in  the  livery  business 
in  Henry,  his  native  city,  where  his  birth  oc- 
curred in  1864.  His  father,  George  Motter,  was 
born  in  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  in  1829  and  died  in 


238 


PAST    AM)    I'RKSL'XT    OK    MARSHALL    AND    ITTNAM    COl'ViMES. 


1892  at  the  age  of  sixty-two  years.  He  came  to 
Illinois  in  1858,  settling  in  Henry.  He  was  a 
man  of  broad  and  liberal  education  and  before 
his  removal  to  this  city  engaged  in  the  practice  of 
dentistry.  Here  he  established  an  office  and  for 
years  was  the  only  dentist  of  Henry.  He  became 
very  prominent  in  his  profession  and  had  an  ex- 
tensive patronage.  His  political  allegiance  was 
given  to  the  democracy.  He  married  Martha  Dun- 
lap,  a  native  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  who  is  now 
living  at  McNabb,  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  at  the 
age  of  eighty-one  years  and  is  a  member  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church.  In  their  family 
were  the  following  named :  Gertrude,  the  wife  of 
George  B.  Hewitt,  a  carpenter  of  Henry;  Edgar, 
who  died,  leaving  a  widow  and  three  children; 
George  Arthur,  a  practicing  dentist  of  Henry; 
Stella,  the  wife  of  Thomas  Wabel,  who  follows 
farming  near  McNabb,  Illinois;  and  Charles. 

The  last  named  pursued  his  education  in  the 
public  schools  of  Henry  and  in  the  periods  of  va- 
cation devoted  his  attention  to  farm  labor.  For 
several  years  after  leaving  school  he  was  engaged 
in  general  agricultural  pursuits  and  then  embarked 
in  the  livery  business  in  Henry,  in  which  he  still 
continues.  He  has  well  appointed  stables,  keeping 
a  number  of  good  horses  and  a  fine  line  of  vehicles, 
and  his  earnest  desire  to  please  his  patrons  has 
secured  to  him  a  large  and  growing  trade. 

In  1899  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Charles 
Hotter  and  Miss  Katherine  Culligan,  of  Henry. 
She  is  a  member  of  St.  Joseph's  Catholic  church. 
Mr.  Motter  holds  membership  with  the  Mystic 
Workers  and  is  a  stalwart  democrat,  recognized  as 
a  leader  in  the  local  ranks  of  his  party.  He  has 
served  as  constable,  as  city  marshal,  as  road  com- 
missioner and  as  deputy  sheriff  and  in  these  vari- 
ous offices  has  discharged  his  duties  with  a  prompt- 
ness and  fidelity  that  have  won  him  uniform  re- 
spect and  commendation. 


JAMES  SMITH. 

James  Smith  is  one  of  the  venerable  citizens 
of  Marshall  county,  having  attained  the  age  of 
eighty-one  years.  He  is,  moreover,  one  of  the 
most  extensive  landowners  of  the  county,  his 
possessions  aggregating  sixteen  hundred  acres. 
His  extensive  holdings  are  the  visible  evidence  of 
a  life  of  thrift  and  enterprise,  for  all  that  he 
possesses  has  come  to  him  as  the  reward  of  his 
energy  and  perseverance.  He  was  born  in  Dum- 


friesshire, Scotland,  May  9,  1825.  His  father, 
William  Smith,  was  likewise  a  native  of  Dum- 
friesshire, and  wa.s  married  in  that  country  to 
Miss  Wilmina  Scott,  who  was  also  born  there. 
He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1840  and  estab- 
lished a  home  in  Steuben  township,  Marshall 
county,  but  afterward  removed  to  Peoria  county, 
where  Mr.  Smith  carried  on  general  farming. 
He  voted  with  the  republican  party,  and  died  in 
1843.  His  widow  survived,  and  died  in  1882 
at  the  home  of  her  son  Andrew  when  she  was 
eighty  years  of  age.  In  the  family  were  three 
sons  and  one  daughter:  William,  now  a  retired 
farmer  living  in  Sparland;  James,  of  this  re- 
view ;  Andrew,  who  was  born  in  1827  and  died 
at  the  home  of  his  brother  James  in  1891 ;  and 
Mary,  who  married  Eobert  Turnbull,  whose  sketch 
is  found  elsewhere  in  this  work. 

Mr.  Smith,  whose  name  introduces  this  record, 
spent  the  days  of  his  youth  in  the  land  of  hills 
and  heather.  He  attended  school  there  and  in 
1840,  when  a  youth  of  fifteen  years,  accompanied 
his  parents  on  their  emigration  to  the  new  world, 
his  first  home  in  this  country  being  in  Steuben 
township.  He  began  farming  on  his  own  account 
in  1848,  and  throughout  his  entire  life  has  car- 
ried on  agricultural  pursuits.  The  record  of  his 
business  is  one  of  ceaseless  toil,  carefully  directed 
labor  and  of  unfaltering  enterprise.  He  started 
out  empty-handed,  having  no  capital  nor  in- 
fluential friends  to  aid  him,  but  he  carefully 
saved  his  earnings  and  in  due  course  of  time 
made  investment  in  property.  He  has  since 
added  to  his  holdings,  until  he  is  now  the  owner 
of  eight  hundred  acres  in  Marshall  county  and 
over  eight  hundred  acres  in  Vermilion  county, 
thus  gaining  a  place  among  the  wealthy  resi- 
dents of  this  part  of  the  state.  He  is  now  the 
only  living  original  stockholder  of  the  Lacon  First 
National  Bank,  and  is  also  a  stockholder  in  sev- 
eral banks  in  different  parts  of  the  state. 

In  1856  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Mr. 
Smith  and  Miss  Lucy  Canterberry,  who  was  born 
in  the  town  of  Rathdrum,  in  the  county  of  Wick- 
low,  Ireland,  and  who  departed  this  life  in  1878, 
leaving  five  children :  Fannie,  who  is  now  the  wife 
of  Louis  Kelter,  a  farmer  of  La  Prairie  town- 
ship; Wilhelmina,  the  wife  of  Charlie  Monier, 
who  is-  also  farming  in  La  Prairie  township; 
Mary  B..  at  home:  Sarah,  the  wife  of  Charles 
Collins,  a  farmer  of  La  Prairie;  Lucy,  at  home; 


*» 


I 


PAST    AND    PHKSKXT    OK    MARSHALL   AND    1TTXAM    COUNTIES. 


Hettie  and  Alda,  both  deceased;  and  Willie,  who 
died  in  infancy.  Mrs.  Smith  is  a  member  of  the 
Episcopal  church. 

Mr.  Smith  is  a  republican  who  has  given  in- 
flexible support  to  the  principles  of  the  party 
since  its  organization.  He  acted  as  supervisor 
during  the  war  and  several  other  times  was 
elected  to  that  office  until  he  finally  refused  to 
serve  any  longer.  He  has  also  been  road  commis- 
sioner and  school  director  for  a  number  of  terms. 
His  life  record  may  well  serve  as  a  source  of  in- 
spiration and  encouragement  to  others,  showing 
what  may  be  accomplished  by  determined  pur- 
pose and  unfaltering  energy.  It  proves  that  suc- 
cess is  not  a  matter  of  genius  as  held  by  many, 
nor  does  it  depend  upon  fortunate  circum- 
stances and  environments.  It  may  be  achieved 
through  close  application  and  unfaltering  dili- 
gence and  it  has  been  upon  that  foundation  that 
Mr.  Smith  has  builded  his  prosperity  until  he 
is  now  one  of  the  wealthiest  residents  of  the 
entire  county,  his  possessions  being  equalled  by 
few,  if  any,  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  district. 
Moreover,  in  all  his  relations  he  has  been  honor- 
able and  upright  and  thus  bears  an  untarnished 
name. 

FRED  VINCENT. 

Fred  Vincent,  who  for  many  years  conducted 
the  "village  smithy"  but  since  1901  has  lived 
retired,  was  born  in  Somersetshire,  England,  June 
16,  1831,  his  parents  being  Richard  and  Eliza- 
beth Vincent,  who  were  also  natives  of  that  coun- 
try. The  father  was  born  in  Devonshire  and  be- 
came a  successful  farmer.  He  died  in  1855  when 
seventy-two  years  of  age,  while  his  wife  passed 
away  in  1841.  She  was  a  member  of  the  Episco- 
palian church.  In  the  family  were  five  children : 
Eliza,  Henry  and  John,  all  of  whom  are  residents 
of  England;  and  Edward  and  Fred,  in  the  new 
world. 

Mr.  Vincent  of  this  review  acquired  his  educa- 
tion in  the  schools  of  his  native  country  and  at 
the  age  of  eighteen  years  came  alone  to  the  United 
States,  landing  at  New  York.  He  worked  at 
various  places  in  the  southern  part  of  New  York 
state  as  a  blacksmith  and  came  to  Illinois  on  the 
17th  of  March,  1856,  locating  at  Sparland.  Dur- 
ing the  first  year  he  built  a  house  and  shop  here 
and  he  continued  to  follow  his  trade  until  1901, 
when  he  retired.  He  was  accorded  a  liberal  pat-^ 
ronage  because  of  his  good  workmanship  and 


was  a  leading  representative  of  the  industrial  life 
of  the  town,  well  known  to  all  of  its  citizens  as 
a  man  of  business  activity  and  integrity. 

Mr.  Vincent  was  married  February  1,  1855,  to 
Miss  Sarah  Adeline  Edland,  who  was  born  March 
17,  1840,  at  West  Farms,  now  a  part  of  New 
York  city,  about  sixteen  miles  from  the  city  hall. 
Her  parents  were  Charles  and  Elizabeth  Edland, 
both  of  whom  died  in  the  Empire  state.  Unto 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Vincent  have  been  born  the  fol- 
lowing named :  Anna  Louise,  who  was  born  in  the 
state  of  New  York  in  a  district  now  comprised 
within  the  city  limits  of  New  York  city  and  who 
died  in  Sparland,  February  17,  1880 ;  Ed,  who  is 
engaged  in  railroading  and  lives  in  Butte,  Mon- 
tana; Fred,  who  is  employed  in  a  wholesale  gro- 
cery store  in  Chicago ;  Tom,  who  is  in  the-  em- 
ploy of  a  large  contractor  in  Peru,  Illinois,  act- 
ing as  boss  of  the  work;  Florence  Ida;  Anna,  who 
was  born  February  4,  1856,  and  died  February 
17,  1880;  Edwin  F.,  born  February  13,  1858; 
Florence,  who  was  born  October  9,  1859,  and  died 
November  18,  1883;  Frederick  Oliver,  born  Jan- 
uary 13,  1862 ;  and  Thomas-  Sherman,  born  May 
28,  1865. 

Mr.  Vincent  exercises  his  right  of  franchise  in 
support  of  the  men  and  measures  of  the  democ- 
racy, and  his  fellow  townsmen,  recognizing  his 
worth  and  ability,  have  frequently  called  him  tJ 
office.  He  has  served  as  town  clerk  for  seven 
years,  has  been  collector  and  school  treasurer. 
He  is  now  president  of  the  town  board  and  is 
supervisor  of  Steuben  fownship.  In  community 
interests  he  takes  a  most  helpful  and  active  part 
and  his  labors  have  been  far-reaching  and  bene- 
ficial. His  wife  is  a  member  of  the  Episcopal 
church  and  they  are  most  highly  esteemed  people. 
Mr.  Vincent  has  now  passed  the  seventy-fifth  mile- 
stone on  life's  journey  but  in  spirit  and  interest 
seems  yet  in  his  prime.  The  careful  husbanding 
of  his  resources  in  former  years  now  enables  him 
to  live  retired  from  business  cares  and  his  time- 
is  largely  occupied  with  his  official  duties,  which 
are  discharged  with  promptness  and  fidelity. 


ADDISON  TANQUARY. 
Addison  Tanquary  is  one  of  the  oldest  residents 
of  Marshall  county  in  years  of  continuous  connec- 
tion with  its  interests,  for  his  birth  occurred  in 
Steuben  township,  August  29,  1837,  and  since  that 
time  he  has  lived  within  its  borders,  covering  a 


348 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


period  of  almost  three  score  years  and  ten.  His 
father,  James  Tanquary,  was  a  native  of  Pick- 
away  county,  Ohio,  born  in  1809  and  in  the  fall  of 
1834  he  came  to  Illinois,  settling  in  Tazewell 
county,  whence  he  removed  to  Marshall  county  in 
the  spring  of  1835.  He  located  two  miles  north 
of  Sparland,  where  he  engaged  in  farming  until 
the  spring  of  1848,  when  he  removed  to  a  farm 
two  miles  west  on  the  prairie,  there  devoting  his 
attention  to  general  agricultural  pursuits  until  his 
death,  which  occurred  January  21,  1849.  In  man- 
ner he  was  quiet  and  reserved.  He  gave  his  pol- 
itical support  to  the  whig  party  and  in  religious 
faith  was  a  Methodist,  serving  as  class  leader  in 
his  church.  He  married  Mahala  Bonham,  who 
was  born  in  Bainbridge,  Ohio,  March  24,  1810. 
They-  were  married  in  the  Buckeye  state  in  1831 
and  thus  came  together  to  Illinois.  Mrs.  Tan- 
quary, who  was  also  a  devoted  member  of  the 
Methodist  church,  long  survived  her  husband,  pass- 
ing away  on  the  4th  of  March,  1883.  In  the  fam- 
ily of  this  worthy  couple  were  eight  children :  Cor- 
nelius, Rebecca  B.,  Addison,  Elizabeth,  Willie, 
Mary,  Newton  and  James  J.  The  eldest  was  born 
in  Pickaway  county,  Ohio,  and  was  three  years  old 
at  the  time  of  the  removal  of  the  family  to  Illinois. 

Addison  Tanquary  was  reared  upon  the  old 
home  farm  in  Steuben  township  and  attended  the 
Bethel  country  school  through  the  winter  months, 
while  in  the  summer  seasons  he  aided  in  the  work 
of  the  farm.  With  the  exception  of  a  period  of 
eleven  years  he  has  always  lived  in  Steuben  town- 
ship and  is  among  its  oldest  residents.  In  1862, 
responding  to  the  country's  call  for  troops,  he  en- 
listed for  service  in  the  Union  army  as  a  member 
of  Company  E,  Eighty-sixth  Illinois  Infantry, 
with  which  he  continued  until  the  8th  of  June, 
1864,  when  he  was  discharged  on  account  of  a 
wound  which  he  had  sustained  in  the  arm.  He 
then  returned  to  Marshall  county  and  soon  after- 
ward settled  upon  a  farm  in  Evans  township  near 
Wenona.  In  1880,  however,  he  returned  to  Steu- 
ben township,  where  he  carried  on  general  agri- 
cultural pursuits  for  twenty  years  and  then  re- 
tired in  1900,  taking  up  his  abode  in  Sparland. 
He  was  one  of  the  energetic,  progressive  and  prac- 
tical farmers  of  his  township,  placing  his  land  un- 
der a  high  state  of  cultivation  and  deriving  a  good 
income  from  the  care  and  labor  he  bestowed  upon 
the  fields. 

On  the  16th  of  October,  1859,  Mr.   Tanquary 


was  married  at  Sparland  to  Miss  Ellen  Williams, 
who  was  born  in  Clay  county,  Illinois,  June  27, 
1839,  a  daughter  of  Thomas  G.  and  Sarah  Will- 
iams, who  were  natives  of  Ohio,  whence  they  re- 
moved to  Clay  county.  In  the  fall  of  1855  they 
became  residents  of  Sparland  and  the  father  fol- 
lowed the  occupation  of  farming  as  a  life  work. 
Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tanquary  have  been  born  seven 
children :  Cassius  M.,  who  married  Eva  Reed 
and  lives  in  Portland,  Oregon;  James,  who  died 
in  infancy;  Minnie  A.,  at  home;  Thomas  E'.,  who 
died  in  infancy ;  George  S.,  a  resident  of  Portland, 
Oregon ;  Lawrence  H.,  who  wedded  Minnie  Pot- 
ter, of  Marseilles,  Illinois,  and  lives  in  Peoria;  and 
Nellie  M.,  who  is  with  her  parents  in  Sparland. 

Mr.  Tanquary  has  been  honored  with  a  number 
of  positions  of  public  trust.  He  has  twice  served 
as  collector  of  Steuben  township,  and  is  now  serv- 
ing for  the  third  term  as  assessor.  His  political 
allegiance  is  given  to  the  republican  party,  while 
fraternally  he  is  connected  with  Clayton  lodge,  No. 
132,  I.  0.  0.  F.,  of  Sparland,  and  with  Lacon 
post,  No.  134,  G.  A.  R.  His  wife  is  a  member  of 
the  Methodist  church.  His  interest  in  community 
affairs  is  manifest  in  many  tangible  ways  and  has 
resulted  in  benefit  to  the  county.  Few  men  have 
for  a  longer  period  witnessed  the  growth  and  de- 
velopment of  this  part  of  the  state.  His  memory 
goes  back  to  the  pioneer  times  when  many  of  the 
homes  were  log  cabins  and  when  much  of  the  land 
was  uncultivated,  being  covered  with  its  native 
prairie  grasses.  The  streams  were  unbridged  and 
the  timber  was  uncut.  In  fact  the  work  of  devel- 
opment had  been  scarcely  begun  at  that  period,  but 
time  and  man  have  wrought  many  changes  and 
Marshall  county  has  taken  its  place  among  the 
leading  counties  of  this  great  commonwealth.  Mr. 
Tanquary  has  aided  largely  in  its  agricultural  de- 
velopment and  has  always  faithfully  performed 
his  duties  of  citizenship. 


HARRY  SNELL. 

Harry  Snell,  who  is  conducting  a  general  store 
at  Whitefield  Corners,  was  born  in  Peoria,  Illi- 
nois, on  the  2d  of  December,  1878,  and  is  a  son  of 
George  Washington  and  Hattie  (McCurdy)  Snell. 
The  father,  a  native  of  Indiana,  removed  to  Illi- 
nois at  an  early  day.  In  1846  he  became  a  resi- 
dent of  Milo  township,  Bureau  county,  and  he  af- 
terward owned  and  operated  a  farm  of  forty  acres 
between  Sparland  and  Lacon  and  also  one  bun- 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


dred  and  sixty  acres  of  land  a  mile  and  a  half 
south  of  Sparland.  He  has  thus  been  associated 
with  the  agricultural  development  and  progress  of 
this  portion  of  the  state  and  he  now  makes  his 
home  in  Sparland.  He  wedded  Miss  Hattie  Mc- 
Curdy,  of  Bushnell,  Illinois,  who  is  also  living. 

Harry  Snell,  their  only  child,  was  reared  upon 
the  home  farm  in  the  usual  manner  of  farm  lads 
and  acquired  a  district  school  education.  He  is 
now  identified  with  mercantile  interests,  being 
connected  with  the  store  at  Whitefield  Corners. 
His  fraternal  relations  are  with  Gem  lodge,  No. 
572, 1.  0.  0.  F.,  in  which  he  is  serving  as  treasurer, 
and  he  has  the  warm  regard  and  friendship  of 
many  of  his  brethren  in  this  organization.  His 
political  views  are  shown  by  earnest  and  stalwart 
support  which  he  gives  to  the  republican  party. 
His  entire  life  has  been  passed  in  this  portion 
of  the  state  and  his  strong  and  salient  character- 
istics are  those  which  make  him  a  popular  citizen. 


•   GEORGE  M.  KUNKLE. 

George  M.  Kunkle,  a  respected  and  representa- 
tive farmer  of  Richland  township,  Marshall 
county,  living  on  section  17,  was  born  in  Cum- 
berland county,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  6th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1862,  and  is  one  of  the  five  living  children 
of  John  and  Elizabeth  (Fosnaut)  Kunkle.  The 
father,  also  a  native  of  the  Keystone  state,  died 
about  twenty-five  years  ago,  passing  away  in  1881, 
while  the  mother's  death  occurred  nine  years  ago. 
The  members  of  their  family  are :  John,  a  farmer 
residing  in  Steuben  township,  Marshall  county, 
Illinois;  William  C.,  who  married  Miss  Iliff,  and 
is  a  farmer  of  Richland  township;  Edward,  who 
is  engaged  in  farming  with  his  brother  John ; 
and  Mary. 

In  the  district  schools  of  his  native  state  George 
M.  Kunkle  acquired  his  education  and  after  start- 
ing out  in  life  for  himself  he  was  employed  for 
five  years  on  a  farm  of  his  uncle  in  Richland 
township,  Marshall  county,  Illinois,  remaining 
there  until  eighteen  years  of  age.  He  had  had 
broad  and  liberal  experience  in  all  departments  of 
farm  work  and  at  that  time  he  rented  his  present 
place,  which  he  leased  for  five  years.  He  then 
purchased  most  of  the  property  and  his  wife  also 
inherited  a  part  of  the  tract.  He  now  has  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  the  rich,  alluvial  soil 
of  Richland  township  and  in  addition  to  culti- 
vating the  fields,  is  extensively  and  successfully 


raising  hogs,  cattle  and  other  stock.  He  farms 
altogether  three  hundred  and  fifteen  acres  of  land 
and  has  a  most  beautiful  place,  in  which  none  of 
the  accessories  of  a  model  farm  of  the  twentieth 
century  are  lacking.  He  is  an  intelligent  and 
progressive  agriculturist,  who  keeps  informed  con- 
cerning the  most  modern  methods  of  tilling  the 
soil  and  caring  for  the  crops  and  has  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  scientific  principles  which  under- 
lie the  work. 

In  1888  Mr.  Kunkle  was  united  in  marriage 
to  Miss  Nellie  Kunkle,  his  cousin.  They 
have  three  children,  Myrtle,  Rowland  and  Eugene, 
aged  respectively  seventeen,  fifteen  and  thirteen 
years.  Mr.  Kunkle  is  a  member  of  Lacon  lodge, 
M.  W.  A.,  and  is  likewise  connected  with  the 
Knights  of  the  Maccabees.  He  gives  his  politi- 
cal support  to  the  republican  party  and  for  six 
years  has  served  as  school  director,  filling  the 
position  at  the  present  time.  He  is  also  one  of  the 
trustees  of  the  township.  The  family  is  a  promi- 
nent one  in  Richland  township  and  Mr.  Kunkle 
has  fully  sustained  the  honorable  record  made 
by  the  representatives  of  the  name.  Without  spe- 
cial advantages  at  the  outset  of  his  career  he  has 
worked  diligently  and  has  achieved  both  char- 
acter and  success.  There  is  no  esoteric  chapter 
in  his  life  history.  On  the  contrary  it  is  an  open 
book  which  all  may  read,  finding  therein  lessons 
of  incentive,  as  it  shows  forth  the  power  of  in- 
dustry and  business  probity  in  the  active  affairs 
of  life.  . 

HODGE  BROTHERS. 

Prominent  among  the  business  men  of  Wenona 
are  numbered  Hodge  Brothers,  bankers,  and  the 
enterprise  which  they  are  now  conducting  is  re- 
garded as  one  of  the  safest  moneyed  concerns  of 
this  part  of  the  state.  It  was  organized  in  1886 
and  conducted  as  the  First  National  Bank  of 
Wenona.  The  stock  of  the  First  National  Bank- 
being  purchased  in  1902  by  L.  J.  Hodge  &  Sons, 
the  bank  was  then  conducted  under  the  firm  style 
of  L.  J.  Hodge  &  Sons,  but  another  change  in 
the  partnership  occasioned  the  change  in  the  name 
to  the  present  style  of  Hodge  Brothers.  The  part- 
ners are  George  0.  and  John  W.  H.  Hodge,  who 
are  now  successfully  conducting  a  private  institu- 
tion, doing  a  general  banking  business.  Back  of 
this  they  have  four  thousand  acres  of  land  ad- 
joining the  town  of  Wenona.  which  affords  ample 
security. 


244 


PAST   AM)    1'liKSKNT    OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


..  The  brothers  are  native  sons  of  Wenona,  and 
are  well  known  here,  where  they  have  a  large  and 
favorable  acquaintance.  George  0.  Hodge  was 
born  July  7,  1867,  and  John  W.  H.  Hodge  on 
the  1st  of  November,  1869.  Both  attended  the 
public  schools  and  have  always  lived  in  Wenona, 
where  they  are  known  as  business  men,  alert,  en- 
terprising and  progressive.  They  conduct  a  bank- 
along  modern  lines,  are  watchful  of  opportunities 
pointing  to  success  and  in  utilizing  the  advan- 
tages which  have  come  to  them  have  broadened 
the  scope  of  their  activity  and  at  the  same  time 
have  maintained  a  moneyed  institution  which  is 
a  credit  to  the  city. 

Both  brothers  are  married  and  have  families. 
George  0.  Hodge  in  1893  wedded  Mary  E.  Sta- 
teler,  a  daughter  of  A.  H.  Stateler,  a  prominent 
resident  of  Marshall  county,  and  unto  them  has 
been  born  a  daughter,  Elvira  Permelia.  John  W. 
H.  Hodge  was  married  to  .Virginia  Law,  of  Henry, 
Illinois,  and  they  have  three  children :  Lura  Vir- 
ginia. John  Law  and  George  Frederick.  The  rec- 
ords of  these  brothers  stand  in  contradistinction 
to  the  old  adage  that  a  prophet  is  never  without 
honor  save  in  his  own  country,  for  in  the  place 
of  their  nativity  they  have  so  directed  their  labors 
as  to  gain  recognition  as  men  of  ability  and  to 
win  in  their  banking  business  a  public  patronage 
which  makes  them"  successful  representatives  of 
the  financial  interests  of  the  countv. 


GEOEGE  SPARLING. 

On  the  list  of  honored  dead  of  Putnam  county 
appears  the  name  of  George  Sparling,  who  became 
a  resident  of  this  part  of  the  state  when  the  work 
of  civilization  had  scarcely  been  begun  here.  In 
fact,  he  was  among  those  who  opened  up  this 
region,  converting  it  from  a  wild  and  uninhabited 
district  to  one  of  rich  fertility  and  aiding  in  the 
growth  and  progress  that  have  wrought  such  a 
wonderful  transformation  here  in  the  last  half 
century.  He  was  born  in  County  Limerick,  Ire- 
land, November  29,  1819,  his  parents  being  James 
and  Mary  (Atkins)  Sparling.  His  forefathers  in 
Ireland  were  called  Palatines,  being  German  peo- 
ple who  came  from  Palatine  on  the  Rhine.  One 
hundred  and  ten  families  from  Germany  started 
to  seek  homes  in  the  new  world,  but  were  ship- 
wrecked on  the  coast  of  Ireland  during  the  reign 
of  Queen  Anne,  who  gave  them  homes  at  Pallas, 
County  Limerick. 


The  father  of  Mr.  Sparling  died  in  1821  and 
in  1832  his  mother,  sister  and  himself  sailed  for 
America,  landing  at  Quebec  in  May  of  that  year. 
Three  weeks  later  his  mother  died  of  cholera,  leav- 
ing the  orphaned  boy  to  battle  for  life  in  a  strange 
land.  He  had  but  six  sovereigns  in  his  pocket. 
For  a  short  time  he  lived  with  relatives  in  Canada, 
but  as  he  grew  older  he  learned  the  carpenter's 
trade  and  started  out  on  his  own  account.  He 
had  the  spirit  of  adventure,  was  self-reliant,  given 
to  industry  and  was  determined  to  make  his  way 
in  the  world.  Taking  his  chest  of  tools  with  him 
he  went  here  and  there,  following  the  carpenter's 
trade  at  various  places.  He  was  employed  on  the 
construction  of  a  hotel  and  a  barn  at  Niagara 
Falls  and  thence  followed  the  march  of  empire 
westward  on  to  Chicago,  which  at  that  time  was 
a  small  place.  There  he  worked  at  his  trade, 
assisting  in  building  operations  in  that  embryonic 
city.  Money  was  very  scarce  and  his  employer 
offered  him  for  several  months  labor  a  lot  of  forty 
acres  in  Chicago  about  where  the  city,  hall  now 
stands.  His  reply  was  "He  couldn't  see  it,"  as  the 
lots  were  only  mud  holes.  Becoming  acquainted 
with  a  Mr.  Harrison  from  Canada,  he  was  pre- 
vailed upon  to  go  to  Dixon,  Illinois,  for  Mr.  Har- 
rison was  greatly  impressed  with  the  country, 
exclaiming,  "You  can  take  a  plow  and 
turn  over  the  wild  prairie  so  that  it  looks 
like  weather  boarding  on  a  large  scale." 
Through  the  influence  of  Mr.  Harrison, 
Mr.  Sparling  and  other  carpenters  started 
on  foot  for  Dixon,  prevailing  upon  a  farmer  to 
haul  their  chests  of  tools,  which  were  too  heavy 
to  be  carried.  They  saw  only  four  houses  between 
Chicago  and  their  destination.  The  hotel  at 
Dixon  was  a  log  cabin  which  served  also  as  a  store 
and  a  small  distillery  and  ferry  were  the  attrac- 
tions of  the  place.  Mr.  Sparling  secured  a  claim 
near  there,  built  a  log  cabin  and  planted  ten 
acres  to  corn  the  first  year.  In  January,  1840,  he 
came  to  Senachwine  township,  Putnam  county,  to 
assist  John  Harrison  in  building  several  houses 
for  which  he  had  taken  contracts.  He  aided  Mr. 
Harrison  in  building  a  log  house  upon  the  farm, 
which  afterward  became  the  property  of  Mr.  Spar- 
ling, who  purchased  it  from  Josiah  Hayes.  He 
also  helped  to  build  the  Bradley  store  in  Henry 
in  the  fall  of  1841 — the  first  frame  building  con- 
structed in  that  place.  Not  having  the  money  to 
pay  Mr.  Sparling  for  his  summer's  labor — the 


GEOKGK  SPAKLING. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


247 


wage  being  two  hundred  dollars — Harrison  sold  to 
him  the  farm  which  became  his  future  home,  and 
he  disposed  of  his  claim  near  Dixon.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1842  he  broke  prairie  for  his  neighbors 
who  had  preceded  him  to  this  new  country,  these 
being  J.  E.  Taliaferro,  S.  C.  Bacon,  Phillip  Read 
and  James  Buchanan.  He  also  improved  his  own 
farm,  turning  the  first  furrows  on  the  prairie  and 
converting  wild  land  into  productive  fields. 

As  a  further  preparation  for  having  a  home  of 
his  own  Mr.  Sparling  was  married  January  12, 
1843,  to  Miss  Adeline  Morgan,  a  daughter  of 
Alanson  and  Melinda  Morgan,  by  whom  he  had 
eight  children :  George  E.,  who  is  living  in  Se- 
nachwine  township;  James  A.,  who  died  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  years;  Mary  M.,  who  is  the 
widow  of  V.  H.  Wheeler  and  resides  upon  a  farm 
near  Putnam ;  Helen,  the  deceased  wife  of  Fred 
Wood;  William  Henry,  who  is  living  in  Iowa; 
John  S.,  who  resides  in  Senachwine  township ;  and 
Albert  and  Adeline,  twins.  The  former  is  now 
deceased,  but  the  latter  is  the  wife  of  John  Mc- 
Kenzie  and  lives  in  Henry.  Mrs.  Sparling  died 
April  13,  1857,  when  her  youngest  children  were 
but  eight  months  old.  On  the  8th  of  April,  1858, 
Mr.  Sparling  was  again  married,  his  second  union 
being  with  Sarah  McClung,  a  daughter  of  Harvey 
and  Mary  McClung.  The  children  of  this  mar- 
riage were:  Martha  Jane,  Sarah,  Eveline,  Kate 
B.,  Samuel  M.,  Frederick  L.  and  Emory  H.  The 
mother  died  February  8,  1871,  and  for  his  third 
wife  Mr.  Sparling  chose  Margaret  McElroy,  the 
widow  of  his  cousin,  James  Sparling,  who  still 
survives  him  and  is  now  living  in  Henry.  They 
became  the  parents  of  two  children :  Susan  Mabel 
Atkins  and  Homer  Lewis.  In  1844  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Sparling  adopted  a  little  daughter  of  Louis 
Thompson. 

Mr.  Sparling's  investment  at  Senachwine  Lake 
was  a  fortunate  one,  as  it  proved  to  be  one  of 
the  best  fisheries  in  this  part  of  the  county.  He 
began  with  spear  and  hook  and  found  a  ready 
market  for  all  he  could  catch,  customers  coming 
as  far  as  twenty  miles.  The  lake  was  filled  with 
fish.  In  the  fall  of  1843  Joseph  Goodrich  took  a 
seine  to  the  lake  and  proposed  to  Mr.  Sparling 
that  they  should  try  using  it.  On  the  3d  of  No- 
vember they  made  a  haul  and  caught  twenty-five 
hundred  pounds  of  fish,  averaging  ten  pounds 
each.  Mr.  Sparling  then  bought  up  the  land 
about  the  lake,  purchased  a  seine  and  found  farm- 


ing and  fishing  profitable.  The  lake  proved  the 
more  remunerative,  as  he  often  caught  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  barrels  at  a  haul  and  the  demand 
was  as  great  as  the  supply.  In  a  single  season  he 
iised  on  an  average  of  forty-five  teams  a  day  for 
three  weeks  to  haul  away  the  fish.  He  sold  one 
haul  for  two  hundred  and  twenty-three  dollars 
and  before  the  dam  was  built  his  income  was  about 
three  thousand  dollars  a  year  from  this  source. 
He  also  carried  on  his  farm  work  and  brought  his 
land  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation. 

In  1857  Mr.  Sparling  became  identified  with  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church  of  Putnam,  of  which 
he  remained  a  consistent  member  and  zealous 
worker  until  his  death.  He  was  a  man  of  most 
generous  and  benevolent  spirit  and  the  poor  and 
needy  indeed  found  in  him  a  friend.  No  one  ever 
appealed  to  him  for  assistance  in  vain  and  no  one 
was  ever  turned  hungry  away  from  his  hospitable 
door.  Mr.  Sparling  was  perhaps  as  widely  known 
as  any  resident  of  Crow  Meadows  and  no  man 
of  the  community  had  more  friends.  He  was  gen- 
erous to  a  fault  and  was  most  hospitable,  giving 
with  an  open  hand.  In  his  home  was  extended 
a  cordial  welcome  to  all  who  chose  to  partake  of 
its  hospitality.  He  was  a  very  generous  contrib- 
utor to  the  support  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  at  Putnam  and  to  all  of  its  various  activ- 
ities. He  led  a  most  useful  life,  performing  each 
day's  duties  as  they  came  to  him,  and  he  left  be- 
hind a  memory  that  is  cherished  by  all  who  knew 
him  because  of  his  probity  and  his  faithfulness. 
He  was  familiarly  and  lovingly  called  Uncle 
George  by  all  who  knew  him.  Such  a  name  is 
only  given  as  a  token  of  the  warmest  esteem  and 
friendship  and  such  was  the  case  with  Mr.  Spar- 
ling. That  he  had  prospered  in  his  business  life 
is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  he  left  an  estate  of 
about  sixteen  hundred  acres  of  land,  yet  he  never 
selfishly  hoarded  his  means,  but  was  most  generous 
in  his  donations  to  many  worthy  causes  and  ren- 
dered assistance  to  the  poor  that  is  immeasurable, 
for  it  was  done  unostentatiously,  frequently  none 
knowing  about  it  save  the  recipient. 


ROBERT  RIDDELL. 

Robert  Riddell,  who  for  many  years  was  a  re- 
spected and  prominent  farmer  of  Marshall  county, 
was  born  in  the  parish  of  Glassford,  Lanark,  Scot- 
land, in  1819.  The  days  of  his  boyhood  and  youth 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


were  spent  in  his  native  country  and,  thinking  to 
enjoy  better  business  opportunities  in  the  new 
world,  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  the  United  States 
in  the  fall  of  1842  and  located  at  Chillicothe,  Il- 
linois. He  afterward  removed  to  St.  Louis,  Mis- 
souri, where  he  worked  at  his  trade  of  shoemaking, 
which  he  had  mastered  in  his  native  country,  but 
ambitious  to  own  property,  when  his  financial  re- 
sources permitted  he  made  investment  in  land,  be- 
coming owner  of  a  farm  on  section  11,  La  Prairie 
township,  Marshall  county.  He  then  turned  his 
attention  to  farming  and  was  thus  engaged  until 
1849,  when  he  went  to  California,  attracted  by 
the  discovery  of  gold  in  the  hope  of  rapidly  ac- 
quiring wealth — that  has  been  the  doom  of  so 
many.  There  he  lost  both  health  and  wealth  and 
resolved  to  return  to  the  farm.  Fate  was  more 
kind  to  him  in  the  middle  west  and  soon  he  re- 
gained his  health  and  was  once  more  on  the  high- 
road to  success.  As  the  years  passed  he  prospered 
in  his  undertakings,  carefully  conducting  his  farm- 
ing interests  until  he  became  the  owner  of  a  very 
valuable  property  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres, 
on  which  he  erected  a  beautiful  residence  and  made 
other  modern  improvements.  He  was  conservative 
in  business  affairs,  thoroughly  reliable  and  mani- 
fested as  well  the  qualities  of  diligence  and  enter- 
prise. Thus  he  accumulated  a  goodly  competence 
and  was  enabled  to  leave  his  family  in  comfortable 
circumstances. 

Mr.  Riddell  was  married  in  1863  to  Miss  Eliza- 
beth Cameron  and  unto  them  were  born  four  chil- 
dren :  John,  who  is  now  with  the  Northwestern 
Railway  Company;  Harriet,  Margaret  and  Flora 
A.,  all  with  their  mother.  Mr.  Riddell  held  mem- 
bership in  the  United  Presbyterian  church,  to 
which  his  family  also  belong.  He  was  a  school 
director  and  was  interested  in  the  educational  prog- 
ress of  the  community.  In  fact  he  was  the  friend 
of  all  interests  that  promised  to  be  of  public  bene- 
fit and  his  co-operation  could  be  counted  upon  to 
further  many  progressive  public  movements.  Fol- 
lowing his  return  from  California  he  continuously 
engaged  in  farming  up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
which  occurred  on  the  5th  of  August,  1893,  when 
he  was  seventy-four  years  of  age.  All  who  knew 
him  respected  him  and  therefore  his  loss  was  the 
occasion  of  deep  regret  to  many  friends  as  well  as 
his  immediate  family. 

Following  her  husband's  death  Mrs.  Riddell  re- 
moved to  Peoria,  where  she  resided  until  about 


five  years  ago.  She  now  makes  her  home  in  Henry, 
where  she  is  living  with  her  daughters,  and  she 
has  attained  the  age  of  seventy-three  years. 


JOHN  BUCHANAN. 

John  Buchanan,  a  venerable  citizen  of  eighty- 
three  years,  whose  life  record  has  won  him  the 
respect  and  admiration  of  his  fellowmen,  was  born 
in  County  Tyrone,  Ireland,  February  23,  1823.  He 
was  reared  in  his  native  country,  and  having  ar- 
rived at  years  of  maturity  was  married  there  to 
Miss  Ann  Gallagher,  a  native  of  Ireland,  who  is 
now  eighty  years  of  age.  They  have  traveled  life's 
journey  together  for  about  six  decades,  sharing 
with  each  other  its  joys  and  sorrows,  its  adversity 
and  prosperity. 

Mr.  Buchanan  came  to  America  in  1849,  and 
here  began  work  at  the  baker's  trade  in  Phila- 
delphia, where  he  remained  until  1855,  when  he 
removed  to  Putnam  county,  where  he  has  now 
made  his  home  for  over  a  half  century.  He  first 
purchased  twenty  acres  of  land  on  section  31, 
Granville  township,  for  which  he  paid  fifteen  dol- 
lars per  acre.  About  four  acres  of  this  was  cleared, 
while  the  remainder  was  covered  with  timber.  He 
cut  the  trees  and  his  wife  assisted  in  sawing  them 
with  a  cross-cut  saw,  after  which  he  took  the  logs 
to  the  old  Fennel  sawmill,  where  he  had  them 
converted  into  boards.  With  these  he  built  a  board 
shanty,  the  boards  being  placed  up  and  down  after 
the  most  primitive  methods  of  building.  In  this 
home  they  lived  for  twelve  years,  at  the  end  of 
which  time,  having  prospered  in  his  undertakings, 
Mr.  Buchanan  was  enabled  to  erect  a  comfortable 
frame  residence  on  a  tract  of  twenty  acres  adjoin- 
ing his  original  purchase,  and  which  he  had  added 
to  his  farm  in  the  meantime.  The  sills  in  this 
house  were  hewed  from  trees  cut  on  the  farm  and 
the  lumber  was  hauled  from  Hennepin.  This 
has  been  their  home  continuously  since  locating 
here  in  the  woods,  and  they  are  among  the  few 
remaining  pioneers  of  the  township  left  to  tell  the 
story  of  the  early  days  when  Putnam  county  was 
a  frontier  district  and  the  work  of  improvement 
and  progress  had  scarcely  been  begun  here.  They 
have  vivid  recollections  of  the  early  times  when 
deer  were  frequently  seen  and  wild  turkeys  could 
be  had  in  abundance.  Not  being  accustomed  to 
hunting,  Mr.  Buchanan  never  did  any,  but  could 
have  had  ample  opportunity  to  indulge  in  that 
sport  had  he  so  desired.  He  has  seen  many 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


changes  in  the  farms  and  the  fields  and  has 
witnessed  the  passing  of  nearly  all  the  old  settlers 
who  were  here  when  he  arrived.  Squire  Laughlin 
of  Granville  is  the  only  one  now  living  who  was 
a  resident  of  the  village  in  1855. 

Since  coming  to  the  county  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Buchanan  have  remained  continuously  upon  the 
farm  where  they  first  settled  and  which  has  there- 
fore been  their  home  for  fifty-one  years.  Without 
desire  to  become  wealthy,  they  have  lived  a  happy 
life,  prosecuting  their  labors  so  as  to  add  to  their 
home  the  comforts  of  life,  yet  not  bending  every 
energy  to  the  acquirement  of  wealth,  which  so 
often  precludes  the  opportunity  of  enjoying  the 
blessings  of  the  passing  day.  They  now  own 
eighty  acres  of  good  land  and  have  substantial 
improvements  upon  it.  The  farm  is  in  good 
shape  and  brings  to  them  a  competence  sufficient 
to  supply  them  with  all  of  the  necessities  and  some 
of  the  luxuries  of  life. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Buchanan  have  been  born 
ten  children.  The  two  eldest  were  natives  of  Phil- 
adelphia and  the  first  born  died  in  that  city  in 
infancy,  while  James  passed  away  at  the  age  of 
six  years.  They  also  lost  their  youngest  child 
in  infancy,  and  Mrs.  Isabella  Sutcliffe,  who  was 
the  ninth  in  order  of  birth  and  lived  in  Lostant, 
La  Salle  county,  has  also  passed  away.  The  sur- 
viving members  of  the  family,  in  order  of  birth, 
are  as  follows:  William  John,  who  was  born  in 
Putnam  county  and  is  now  living  in  Hancock 
county,  Iowa;  Joseph  A.,  who  resides  in  Wright 
county,  Iowa ;  George  W.,  at  home ;  James  T.,  who 
is  also  a  resident  of  the  Hawkeye  state;  Matilda 
J.,  the  wife  of  Frank  Olmstead,  of  La  Salle,  Illi- 
nois; and  Margaret  Ann,  the  wife  of  Richard 
Shepherd,  who  is  living  in  Iowa. 

The  son,  George  W.  Buchanan,  has  always  made 
his  home  upon  the  old  farm,  of  which  he  now  has 
the  management.  He  was  educated  in  the  com- 
mon schools  and  was  trained  to  the  work  of  the 
fields.  He  is  now  caring  for  his  aged  parents  and 
manages  the  home  property,  thus  repaying  his 
father  and  mother  by  his  filial  devotion  for  their 
love  and  attention  to  him  in  his  youth.  He  has 
certainly  followed  the  commandment  given  to  the 
world  ages  ago  to  "honor  thy  father  and  thy 
mother."  Moreover,  he  is  a  man  of  good  business 
ability  and  unfaltering  industry  and  perseverance, 
who  in  the  management  of  the  home  property  is 
producing  good  crops,  for  which  he  finds  a  ready 


sale  upon  the  market.  In  community  affairs  he 
is  interested  and  the  cause  of  education  has  found 
in  him  a  very  warm  friend.  He  is  now  serving  as 
school  director,  and  this  term  constitutes  his 
twelfth  year  in  that  position,  although  his  serv- 
ice has  not  been  consecutive.  The  present  contro- 
versy in  the  community  and  the  attitude  held  by 
George  W.  Buchanan  in  regard  to  the  building  of 
a  new  schoolhouse  speaks  well  for  his  devotion  to 
the  general  good  and  certainly  convinces  one  of 
the  popularity  and  esteem  in  which  he  is  held  in 
his  district.  His  political  allegiance  is  given  to  the 
republican  party  and  he  is  recognized  as  a  leading 
representative  in  its  local  ranks.  In  all  life's  re- 
lations he  commands  the  respect  and  confidence  of 
those  with  whom  business  or  social  relations  have 
brought  him  in  contact. 

Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Buchanan  are  members  of 
the  Congregational  church.  In  earlier  years  they 
joined  the  Presbyterian  church,  but  have  since 
transferred  their  allegiance.  In  politics  Mr. 
Buchanan  has  always  been  a  republican,  but  has 
never  aspired  to  office.  Both  he  and  his  wife  en- 
joy good  health  for  people  of  their  age  and  theirs 
has  been  a  most  interesting  record.  Coming  to 
the  new  world  empty-handed  but  hopeful  and 
courageous,  they  started  out  to  establish  a  home 
here,  and  as  the  years  have  passed  have  been 
enabled  to  enjoy  the  comforts  of  life  and  have 
reared  a  family  who  are  a  credit  and  honor  to 
their  name.  No  history  of  this  community  would 
be  complete  without  mention  of  this  worthy  couple 
who  have  so  long  traveled  life's  journey  together. 


LUTHER  D.  WILLIAMS. 

Luther  D.  Williams,  who  for  fifty-two  years 
has  been  a  resident  of  Steuben  township  and  is 
familiar  with  its  history  from  pioneer  times  to 
the  present  period  of  prosperity  and  progress,  was 
born  in  Marietta,  Ohio,  on  the  llth  of  January. 
1836.  Robert  Williams,  grandfather  of  Luther 
D.  Williams,  was  a  native  of  Wales,  and  emi- 
grated to  America,  settling  in  Pennsylvania  in 
1798.  His  son,  Thomas  Williams,  was  a  native 
of  Pennsylvania,  born  north  of  Philadelphia  on 
the  17th  of  January,  1798.  He  was  a  farmer, 
and  in  the  year  1854  came  with  his  family  to 
Illinois,  being  twenty-thr,ee  days  upon  the  road." 
His  son  Luther  drove  one  of  the  wagons  on  that 
trip.  They  only  passed  one  building  between 
Urbana  and  Paris,  Illinois,  and  it  was  a  kind 


254 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


of  a  tavern.  Prior  to  this  time  Mr.  Williams 
of  this  review  never  saw  a  man  with  a  cattle 
whip,  and  he  also  saw  his  first  prairie  chickens 
on  this  prairie.  No  regular  roads  had  been  laid 
out  and  they  drove  on  over  the  prairie,  crossing 
the  sloughs  and  other  depressions  of  the  ground, 
which  made  travel  by  wagon  very  hard.  At  length 
the  family  home  was  established  on  section  29, 
Steuben  township,  where  Luther  D.  Williams  yet 
resides.  The  father  was  fifty-six  years  of  age  at 
the  time  of  his  arrival,  and  was  in  poor  health. 
He  purchased  one  hundred  acres  of  land,  but  was 
not  long  permitted  to  enjoy  his  now  home,  for  his 
death  occurred  in  1858,  when  he  was  sixty-one 
years  of  age.  He  was  a  Jacksonian  democrat, 
and  both  he  and  his  wife  were  members  of  the 
Baptist  Theological  Seminary  of  Chicago,  which 
he  called  the  Theological  Baptist  church — tho 
only  one  of  the  kind  at  that  time.  Mrs.  Williams 
bore  the  maiden  name  of  Jane  M.  Guitto  and 
was  born  in  Fearing  township,  Washington 
county,  Ohio,  November  5,  1811,  her  father  being 
Benjamin  Guitto. 

Luther  D.  Williams  was  an  only  child  and  was 
reared  in  the  east  to  the  age  of  eighteen  years, 
during  which  time  he  acquired  a  fair  public 
school  education.  He  then  accompanied  his  par- 
ents on  their  removal  to  Illinois,  and,  as  before 
stated,  drove  a  team  across  the  country.  He  has 
now  lived  in  Steuben  township  for  more  than  a 
half  century.  He  attended  the  Yankee  street 
school,  which  was. the  second  schoolhouse  built  in 
the  township,  the  lumber  all  being  haxiled  from 
Chicago.  He  began  farming  on  his  own  account 
in  the  spring  of  1859  and  being  the  only  child 
he  inherited  the  old  homestead  place  from  his 
father,  comprising  one  hundred  acres  of  land.  To 
this  he  has  since  added,  however,  until  he  now  has 
a  valuable  property  of  three  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  acres  which  he  has  brought  under  a  high 
state  of  cultivation  and  which  has  become  thereby 
a  valuable  property.  He  has  also  added  to  it 
many  modern  improvements  and  now  has-  one 
of  the  most  desirable  farms  of  the  county.  In 
1862  he  began  running  a  threshing  machine,  pur- 
chasing the  first  machine  of  Dana  Hull,  of 
Henry.  He  has  owned  four  different  machines 
and  he  continued  actively  in  threshing  until  1887, 
since  which  time  his  son  has  carried  on  the  busi- 
ness. He  also  owns  three  hundred  and  twenty 
acres  in  Crawford  coiinty,  Michigan. 


Mr.  Williams  was  married  December  29,  1860, 
to  Miss  Harriet  Carver,  who  was  born  in  New- 
port township,  Washington  county,  Ohio.  They 
played  together  when  children,  but  never  met 
again  until  the  Carver  family  started  for  Iowa 
in  1854.  Passing  through  Illinois,  they  stopped 
for  a  visit  at  the  home  of  the  Williams  family  and 
concluded  to  remain  in  this  state.  The  early 
acquaintance  of  the  young  people  was  resumed  and 
the  friendship  ripened  into  love,  being  consum- 
mated in  marriage  in  1860.  The  wedding  was 
celebrated  in  Steuben  township  about  two  miles 
from  Mr.  Williams'  present  farm.  The  lady  was 
a  daughter  of  James  F.  and  Sarah  (Toothacher) 
Carver,  the  former  a  native  of  Newport  township, 
Washington  county,  Ohio,  and  the  latter  of  Vir- 
ginia. The  father,  who  was  a  cooper  by  trade, 
died  in  McLean  county,  Illinois,  in  1892.  Mrs. 
Carver  and  the  mother  of  our  subject  were  school 
children  together.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Luther  D. 
Williams  traveled  life's  journey  happily  as-  man 
and  wife  for  forty-three  years  and  were  then 
separated  through  the  death  of  Mrs.  Williams  on 
the  29th  of  September,  1903.  She  had  gained 
many  friends  in  the  community,  so  that  her  loss 
was  deeply  regretted  throughout  this  part  of  the 
county  as  well  as  by  her  immediate  family.  Unto 
them  had  been  born  six  children :  Timothy  J., 
who  wedded  Mary  Thomas,  of  Chillicothe,  Illi- 
nois, now  follows  farming  on  section  32,  Steuben 
township.  J.  Thomas,  living  on  section  29,  Steu- 
ben township,  married  Amelia  Hill,  who  died  in 
February,  1892,  leaving  one  son.  Eoscoe  is 
operating  a  threshing  machine.  Mary  A.  W.  is 
the  wife  of  Joseph  Hart,  and  they  live  with  her 
father,  her  husband  conducting  the  home  farm. 
Charles  D.,  born  July  14,  1867,  died  in  1889. 
James  Howel  died  very  suddenly  in  1892.  He 
was  planting  corn  on  Wednesday,  and  on  Friday 
he  passed  away. 

Mr.  Williams  served  as  collector  of  Steuben 
township  in  1865,  and  collected  ten  thousand 
dollars,  which  was  the  largest  collection  ever  made 
in  the  township.  He  has  also  been  road  com- 
missioner. He  belongs  to  the  Odd  Fellows  lodge 
at  Chillicothe,  of  which  he  has  been  a  member  for 
a  quarter  of  a  century.  His  long  residence  in  the 
county  has  made  him  widely  known,  while  his 
many  good  qualities  have  gained  for  him  the 
favorable  regard  of  those  with  whom  business  or 
social  relations  have  brought  him  in  contact.  He 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


•„>.->  5 


has  worked  diligently  and  perseveringly  in  the 
conduct  and  improvement  of  his  farm,  which  is 
today  a  valuable  property,  making  him  one  of  the 
leading  agriculturists  of  the  community. 


JASPER  NEWTON  YOUNG. 

Jasper  Newton  Young,  who  is  engaged  in  gen- 
eral farming  on  section  8,  Whitefield  township, 
was  born  in  Birchwood,  Tennessee,  on  the  25th 
of  November,  1868,  and  is  one  of  the  eleven 
children  of  John  Rufus  and  Katherine  (Bare) 
Young,  who  were  likewise  natives  of  Tennessee. 
The  father  has  devoted  his  entire  life  to  farm- 
ing, and  by  following  that  occupation  has  pro- 
vided for  his  family.  He  and  his  wife  now  re- 
side at  School,  Missouri,  and  unto  them  have 
been  born  eleven  children,  of  whom  nine  are  now 
living:  William  Henry;  Lodeamie,  the  wife  of 
Robert  Estes;  Mary  Alice,  the  wife  of  William 
Kemp;  Charles  Franklin;  John  Arthur;  Annie, 
the  wife  of  Thomas  Welch ;  Frederick ;  Lawrence ; 
and  Jasper  Newton. 

When  Jasper  N.  Young,  of  this  review,  wa» 
only  a  year  and  a  half  old  the  parents  started 
for  Missouri,  traveling  with  ox  teams  and  spend- 
ing seven  and  a  half  weeks  on  the  road  between 
their  old  home  in  Tennessee  and  Billings,  Mis- 
souri. On  reaching  their  destination  the  father 
purchased  land  and  began  farming,  the  boys  work- 
ing with  him  in  the  arduous  task  of  developing 
and  cultivating  a  new  farm.  In  citizenship  he 
has  displayed  many  good  qualities  and  he  sup- 
ports the  republican  party  by  his  ballot,  while 
his  religious  faith  is  indicated  by  his  membership 
in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 

It  was  in  the  district  schools  of  Stone  county, 
Missouri,  that  Jasper  N.  Young  acquired  his 
education  and  after  leaving  school  he  began  earn- 
ing his  own  living  by  working  as  a  farm  hand 
for  others.  He  was  thus  employed  for  two  years, 
but  ambitious  to  enjoy  better  educational  privi- 
leges he  then  resumed  study  in  Chattanooga,  Ten- 
nessee. Subsequently  he  came  to  Illinois,  set- 
tling in  Whitefield  township,  Marshall  county,  in 
the  spring  of  1892.  Here  he  has  since  made  his 
home  and  he  is  now  cultivating  a  small  but 
good  farm  of  thirty-one  acres  which  he  has  brought 
under  a  high  state  of  cultivation.  He  is  also 
well  known  as  a  raiser  of  fine  poultry  and  makes 
a  specialty  of  barred  Plymouth  Rocks. 

In  1894  Mr.  Young  was  united  in  marriage  to 


Miss  Fannie  Fountain,  a  daughter  of  Edward  and 
Elizabeth  Fountain,  of  Whitefield.  They  now 
have  four  children :  Lola  Arietta  and  Harry  Glen, 
who  are  in  school ;  and  Clyde  W.  and  Florence, 
yet  at  home. 

Mr.  Young  holds  membership  relations  with 
the  Modern  Woodmen  of  America,  being  identified 
with  Whitefield  camp,  No.  1653,  of  which  he  is 
now  serving  as  clerk.  He  also  belongs  to  Gem 
lodge,  No.  572,  I.  0.  0.  F.,  and  is  a  worthy  ex- 
emplar of  the  beneficent  principles  upon  which 
these  organizations  are  based.  He  has  served  as 
school  treasurer  for  twelve  years  and  has  proved 
a  capable  incumbent  in  the  office  of  assessor  for 
a  number  of  years,  the  duties  devolving  upon  him 
being  promptly  and  faithfully  performed.  He 
gives  his  political  support  to  the  republican  party. 
His  life  is  characterized  by  high  and  honorable 
principles  and  his  actions  are  manly  and  sincere, 
while  in  his  business  relations  he  has  been  found 
straightforward  and  reliable  as  well  as  indus- 
trious and  enterprising. 


WILLIAM  W.  DEWEY. 

William  W.  Dewey,  engaged  in  the  grain  trade, 
has  been  a  resident  of  Henry  since  1901  and 
operates  at  various  points  in  this  section  of  the 
state.  A  native  of  Vermont,  he  was  born  in  Essex 
county  on  the  14th  of  July,  1851.  His  father, 
Harry  H.  Dewey,  was  a  native  of  the  Green 
Mountain  state  and  died  in  the  year  1900.  Com- 
ing to  Illinois  in  1863,  he  settled  at  Sheffield, 
Bureau  county,  where  he  resided  for  a  few  years 
and  then  removed  to  Van  Buren  county,  Iowa. 
There  he  engaged  in  farming  until  he  had  reached 
the  evening  of  life,  when  he  returned  to  Sheffield, 
where  he  passed  away  at  the  venerable  age  of 
ninety  years.  He  filled  the  office  of  justice  of  the 
peace  and  his  decisions  were  strictly  fair  and  im- 
partial. His  religious  faith  was  indicated  by  his 
membership  in  the  Congregational  church  and  his 
long  life  of  usefulness  and  activity  was  crowned 
with  the  honor  and  respect  which  should  ever  be 
accorded  so  venerable  a  man.  He  wedded  Mary 
Louise  Cummings,  a  native  of  Montpelier,  Ver- 
mont, and  she,  too,  has  passed  away.  In  their 
family  were  six  children,  of  whom  four  sons  and 
a  daughter  are  yet  living. 

William  W.  Dewey,  leaving  the  Green  Mountain 
state,  accompanied  his  parents  on  their  removal  to 
Illinois  when  a  youth  of  twelve  years  and  after- 


256 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTXAM   COUNTIES. 


ward  went  to  Iowa.  His  early  educational  privi- 
leges, such  as  were  afforded  by  the  public  schools 
of  New  England  and  of  Bureau  county,  were  sup- 
plemented by  study  in  Iowa  College  and  in  the 
preparatory  schools  of  that  state.  In  early  man- 
hood he  became  connected  with  the  coal  trade,  be- 
ing employed  on  a  salary  by  a  coal  company  at 
Sheffield.  The  grain  business,  however,  has  been 
his  principal  life  work  and  he  has  conducted  opera- 
tions in  this  line  at  Sheffield,  Mineral  and  Henry, 
removing  to  the  last  named  city  in  1901.  Here  he 
has  built  up  an  excellent  trade,  his  business  prov- 
ing a  good  market  for  the  grain  producers  of  the 
surrounding  country.  His  purchases  and  ship- 
ments are  now  extensive  and  he  is  a  leading  repre- 
sentative of  this  line  of  business  activity  in  Mar- 
shall county. 

Mr.  Dewey  was  married  in  1876  to  Miss  May 
Williams,  of  Sheffield,  Illinois,  the  wedding  being 
celebrated  in  Sheffield.  Unto  them  have  been  born 
four  children:  Margaret  L.,  now  the  wife  of  R. 
R.  Curtis,  of  Sheffield ;  Charles  B.,  who  is  assistant 
in  his  father's  office;  Homer  H.,  who  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  University  of  Illinois  in  190(5 ;  and 
William  H.,  who  is  now  a  student  in  the  high 
school  of  Henry.  The  parents  and  family  attend 
and  are  members  of  the  Unitarian  church  and  in 
Henry  they  have  a  wide  circle  of  acquaintance  in 
those  homes  where  true  worth  and  intelligence  are 
received  as  the  passports  into  good  society.  Mr. 
Dewey  gives  his  political  allegiance  to  the  repub- 
lican party  and  has  served  as  trustee  of  the  schools 
and  as  alderman  of  the  Third  ward.  His  inter- 
est in  community  affairs  has  been  manifest  in  the 
tangible  support  which  he  has  given  to  many  bene- 
ficial public  measures  and  his  position  in  trade 
circles  is  indicated  by  the  confidence  reposed  in 
him  by  those  who  have  had  business  dealings  with 
him. 


MELCH1   GROVE. 

Melchi  Grove,  deceased,  was  for  many  years 
identified  with  farming  interests  in  Marshall 
county.  He  was  born  in  Lewisburg,  Pennsylva- 
nia, in  1820  and  when  but  six  years  of  age  ac- 
companied his  parents  on  their  removal  from  the 
Keystone  state  to  Ohio,  acquiring  his  education 
in  the  schools  of  Portage  county.  At  the  same 
time  Amelia  Clemmer  was  numbered  among  the 
pupils  of  that  school  and  the  friendship  which 
they  formed  in  early  days  afterward  ripened  into 


love  and  was  consummated  in  marriage  in  Ohio 
in  1843.  She  was  born  in  1821  in  Upper  Canada 
and  was  only  six  years  of  age  when  her  parents 
removed  to  the  Buckeye  state,  locating  about  four 
miles,  from  Canton,  where  she  was  reared  and  edu- 
cated. Her  ancestors  were  of  Holland  Dutch  ex- 
traction and  came  to  America  with  William  Penn, 
settling  in  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania.  Her 
father,  Joseph  Clemmer,  was  a  native  of  the  Key- 
stone state  and  married  Nina  Swartz,  who  was 
also  born  in  that  state.  They  spent  their  last  days 
in  Ohio,  the  former  passing  away  at  the  age  of 
seventy-four  years  and  the  latter  at  the  advanced 
age  of  eighty-eight  years.  In  politics  he  was  a 
republican. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grove  began  their  domestic  life 
in  Ohio,  where  they  lived  for  six  years  after  their 
marriage,  and  then  came  to  Illinois  in  the  fall 
of  1848,  locating  near  Farmington.  In  the  year 
1850  they  took  up  their  abode  upon  the  farm  in 
La  Prairie  township  where  Mrs.  Grove  has  since 
resided,  Mr.  Grove  there  carrying  on  general  ag- 
ricultural pursuits  until  his  life's  labors  were 
ended  in  death  in  the  spring  of  1881.  He  started 
upon  his  business  career  empty  handed,  but  pos- 
sessed a  resolute  spirit  and  unfaltering  determina- 
tion and; these  qualities  served  him  in  place  of  cap- 
ital and  enabled  him  to  work  his  way  upward  until 
he  was  comfortably  situated  in  life.  He  owned  at 
the  time  of  his  demise  one  hundred  and  fifty-four 
acres  of,  land.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  war 
he  joined  the  army,  becoming  a  member  of  the 
Eighty-sixth  Illinois  Regiment,  but  was  discharged 
on  account  of  illness.  He  was  always  progressive 
and  public  spirited  in  citizenship  and  for  six 
years  lie  held  the'  office  of  justice  of  the  peace, 
the  duties  of  which  he  discharged  with  promptness 
and  fidelity,  his  decisions  being  strictly  fair  and 
impartial. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grove  were  born  the  follow- 
ing named:  John,  who  is  engaged  in  the  real- 
estate  business  in  Dixon ;  Henry,  a  machinist,  re- 
siding in  Moline,  Illinois;  Reuben,  who  was  born 
in  1847  and  died  in  1872;  Montgomery,  who  was 
a  twin  brother  of  Reuben  and  passed  away  in 
1855;  Clara,  who  was  born  September  15,  1851, 
married  David  Lapsley  and  died  in  October,  1886 ; 
Belle,  who  was  born  in  1856  and  married  Jerome 
Willard,  living  in  La  Prairie  township;  Shirley, 
who  was  born  in  1858  and  died  in  1886;  and 
Sheridan,  who  married  Elsie  Stewart  and  is  farm- 


' 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


259 


ing  in  La  Prairie  township.  Three  of  the  sons 
were  soldiers  of  the  Civil  war,  belonging  to  the 
Forty-seventh  Illinois  Infantry.  John  served  for 
three  years  and  four  months  and  participated  in 
twenty-one  battles.  Both  he  and  Reuben  entered 
the  service  as  drummer  boys,  the  latter  being  then 
in  his  teens. 

Mrs.  Grove  still  survives  her  husband  and  has 
always  remained  true  to  his  memory,  having  never 
married  again.  She  lias  long  been  a  devoted  and 
faithful  member  of  the  Congregational  church  and 
is  a  most  highly  esteemed  Jady.  She  is  now  num- 
bered among  the  pioneer  residents  of  Marshall 
county,  where  she  has  lived  for  more  than  half 
a  century,  having  made  her  home  upon  her  pres- 
ent farm  since  1850.  With  the  passing  years  she 
has  witnessed  many  changes  and  has  noted  with 
interest  the  growth  and  development  of  the  county. 


WILLIAM   MONIER, 

It  has  been  said  that  "biography  is  the  only 
true  history"  and  the  truth  of  this  assertion  is 
verified  in  the  life  records  of  such  men  as  William 
Monier — men  who  make  the  history  of  their  re- 
spective communities  by  reason  of  the  extent  and 
prominence  of  their  business  interests  and  their 
activity  in  promoting  the  welfare  and  prosperity 
of  the  counties  in  which  they  live.  William 
Monier  is  certainly  deserving  of  mention  on  the 
pages  of  this  volume,  as  he  is  one  of  the  most 
prominent  and  prosperous  agriculturists  of  Mar- 
shall county  and  one  of  its  most  extensive  land 
owners,  his  possessions  aggregating  fourteen  hun- 
dred acres.  He  is,  moreover,  entitled  to  praise  by 
reason  of  the  fact  that  all  that  he  possesses  has 
been  acquired  through  his  own  labors  and  his  life 
record  demonstrates  that  success  is  ambition's 
answer. 

A  native  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  Mr.  Monier  was 
born  May  1,  1834,  his  father  being  William 
Monier,  Sr.  The  family  is  of  French  descent,  the 
great-great-grandfather  of  our  subject  having  been 
a  native  of  France.  William  Monier,  Sr.,  was 
born  on  the  Isle  of  Man  in  1800  and  was  a  miller 
by  trade  but  in  his  later  years  devoted  his  energies 
to  agricultural  pursuits.  In  1850  he  crossed  the 
Atlantic  to  the  new  world  with  his  family  and  set- 
tled upon  a  farm  twenty  miles  west  of  Peoria.  He 
started  out  in  business  life  empty-handed  but  he 
and  his  family  all  worked  together  and  soon  ac- 
cumulated quite  a  little  fortune.  He  crossed  the 


water  on  a  sailing  vessel  called  the  Acma  Aglasgo 
and  were  twenty-one  days  on  the  voyage.  It,  how- 
ever, required  a  longer  time  for  them  to  come  from 
New  York  to  Peoria,  Illinois,  than  it  did  to  cross 
the  ocean.  They  made  the  journey  all  the  way  by 
water,  going  from  New  York  city  to  Albany  by 
steamer,  thence  by  way  of  the  Erie  canal  to  Buf- 
falo, from  Buffalo  around  the  lakes  to  Chicago  and 
then  by  canal  to  La  Salle  county  and  by  way  of 
the  river  to  Peoria.  They  located  at  Brimfield, 
Illinois,  where  they  remained  for  six  years  and 
then  removed  to  Saratoga  township,  Marshall 
county,  in  1857,  settling  at  a  place  called  Camp 
Grove.  The  wife  and  mother  bore  the  maiden 
name  of  Jane  Quaile  and  their  family  numbered 
five  sons  and  three  daughters :  John,  who  died  in 
Saratoga  township  in  June,  1890,  at  the  age  of 
sixty-two  years;  Catherine,  who  became  the  wife 
John  Neil,  and  died  in  Marshall  county,  while  Mr. 
Neil  passed  away  in  Peoria  county,  leaving  one 
child  who  was  named  for  his  father  and  who  died 
at  the  age  of  twenty-four  years ;  Anna,  who  died  in 
1851  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years ;  Margaret,  who 
married  Patrick  Collins  and  died  in  February, 
1895;  Thomas,  living  in  Henry,  Illinois;  James, 
formerly  a  resident  of  Emerson,  Nebraska,  but 
now  in  South  Dakota;  and  Charles,  living  in 
Bosworth,  Carroll  county,  Missouri.  Upon  the 
farm  in  Saratoga  township  the  parents  continued 
to  reside  until  they  departed  this  life,  the  mother 
passing  away  in  May,  1884,  while  the  father  died 
on  the  4th  of  November  of  the  same  year,  both 
being  more  than  ninety  years  of  age.  Their  son 
John  also  died  on  that  farm. 

William  Monier,  of  this  review,  was  a  youth  of 
fifteen  years  when  he  accompanied  his  parents  to 
America  and  after  the  family  home  was  estab- 
lished in  Peoria  county  he  and  his  brother  John 
began  working  as  farm  hands  in  that  locality  and, 
saving  their  money,  purchased  an  eighty-acre 
tract  of  partially  improved  land  on  which  was  a 
small  house.  It  was  that  house  that  was  the 
family  home  until  the  spring  of  1857,  when  they 
came  to  Marshall  county,  settling  in  Saratoga 
township,  where  all  worked  together  for  a  year. 
William  Monier,  Jr.,  remained  at  home  until  he 
was  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  when  he  started  out 
in  life  on  his  own  account,  purchasing  eighty  acres 
of  land  near  that  of  his  brother  John  in  Sara- 
toga township.  From  time  to  time  he  has  added 
to  his  possessions  until  he  now  owns  about  four- 


2(10 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


teen  hundred  acres  of  land,  of  which  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty  acres  lies  in  Bureau  county  about 
two  and  a  half  miles  from  Broadmoor.  His  suc- 
cess has  been  the  result  of  almost  ceaseless  toil 
and  the  accumulation  of  many  years.  In  addition 
to  his  farm  lands  he  has  about  forty  head  of  high- 
bred Norman  Percheron  horses  and  he  also  owns 
a  fourth  interest  in  a  full-blood  Percheron  stallion. 
He  likewise  has  a  fine  herd  of  shorthorn  cattle 
and  is  today  one  of  the  most  prominent  farmers 
and  stock  raisers  of  Marshall  county.  He  has 
made  extensive  improvements  upon  his  farm,  in- 
cluding the  erection  of  a  beautiful  and  commodi- 
ous residence,  together  with  all  necessary  outbuild- 
ings for  the  shelter  of  grain  and  stock.  His  land 
is  richly  cultivated  and  his  life  has  certainly  been 
a  successful  one,  owing  to  his  close  application  and 
his  unremitting  diligence.  He  has  won  many  prizes 
on  his  exhibits  of  stock  at  the  Wyoming  fair,  in 
which  he  has  been  interested  from  its  inception. 

Mr.  Monier  was  married  on  the  25th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1860,  to  Miss  Wilmina  Doran,  who  was  born 
at  Frederickton  Junction,  New  Brunswick,  July  5, 
1841.  Her  father,  James  Doran,  was  a  native  of 
Dublin,  Ireland,  and  moved  from  the  Emerald  Isle 
to  the  Isle  of  Man,  after  which  he  crossed  the  Atlan- 
tic to  Canada  and  thence  came  to  Illinois  in  1850. 
At  one  time  he  was  the  owner  of  four  hundred 
and  eighty  acres  of  land,  which  he  divided  among 
his  children.  In  politics  he  was  a  stalwart  repub- 
lican. His  birth  occurred  in  1813  and  he  passed 
away  in  1893  at  the  age  of  eighty  years.  His  wife 
bore  the  maiden  name  of  Rebecca  Maxwell  and  was 
bom  in  County  Tyrone,  Ireland.  Their  marriage 
was  celebrated  at  Frederickton  Junction.  After 
living  for  some  years  in  Illinois  they  removed  to 
Chase,  Rice  county,  Kansas,  where  the  death  of 
the  father  occurred  and  the  mother  still  makes  her 
home  there. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Doran  were  born  the  follow- 
ing named :  Mary  Jane,  now  living  in  Irwin 
county,  Iowa ;  John,  who  died  in  Nodaway  county, 
Missouri;  Edward,  a  resident  of  Topeka,  Kansas; 
William,  of  Oklahoma ;  Margaret,  of  Nodaway 
county,  Missouri;  Thomas,  who  is  living  in  Isa- 
belle,  Barton  county,  Kansas ;  Andrew,  who  was  a 
member  of  Company  E,  Eighty-sixth  Illinois  In- 
fantry, and  died  from  a  wound  at  Chattanooga, 
Tennessee ;  Robert,  a  twin  brother  of  Andrew,  now 
a  resident  of  Henry,  Illinois ;  and  Phebe,  who  is 
living  in  Stafford  county,  Kansas. 


Mrs.  Monier  came  to  Illinois  with  her  parents 
in  1850  when  a  little  maiden  of  nine  summers, 
the  family  home  being  established  in  Marshall 
county.  They  made  the  journey  from  Chicago  by 
canal  to  La  Salle  and  thence  to  Lacon  by  way  of 
the  river.  After  a  short  time,  however,  they  re- 
moved from  Lacon  to  the  farm  which  is  now 
owned  by  Mr.  Monier  on  section  6,  Steuben  town- 
ship. Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Monier  have  been 
born  seven  children:  Charles,  who  married  Mina 
Smith  and  has  three  children ;  Edward,  who  wed- 
ded Clara  Casey;  Annaj  Alice,  Thomas,  John  and 
Halsey,  all  at  home. 

In  his  political  affiliation  Mr.  Monier  is  a  stal- 
wart republican,  having  given  his  support  to  the 
party  since  casting  his  ballot  for  Lincoln  in  1860. 
He  has  been  road  commissioner  for  three  years 
and  school  director  for  thirty  years,  serving  at  the 
present  time.  Both  he  and  his  wife  are  members 
of  the  Methodist  church  and  are  most  highly  es- 
teemed people.  He  has  lived  at  peace  with  all  men 
and  in  his  business  life  has  never  taken  advantage 
of  the  necessities  of  a  fellowman  in  any  business 
transaction  but  has  placed  his  dependence  upon 
the  safe  and  substantial  qualities  of  untiring  labor 
and  careful  management.  It  has  been  through  his 
judicious  investment  and  his  unceasing  toil  that 
he  has  won  a  most  gratifying  measure  of  success 
and  become  one  of  the  large  land  owners  of  the 
county. 

REV.   GUSTAF  ERIKSON. 

Rev.  Gustaf  Erikson,  minister  of  the  Bethany 
Lutheran  church  at  Wenona,  was  born  at  Stora 
Tuna,  Falulan,  Sweden,  June  12,  1867,  his  pa- 
rents being  Erick  Hanson  and  Anna  (Johnson) 
Hanson,  who  were  natives  of  Sweden.  The  father 
was  a  farmer  by  occupation  and  both  he  and  his 
wife  died  in  their  native  land.  They  had  five 
children,  three  daughters  and  two  sons. 

Rev.  Gustaf  Erikson  was  educated  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  Sweden  and  was  reared  to  the  work 
of  the  farm.  In  1888  he  sailed  for  America, 
landing  at  New  York  and  there  passing  through 
the  famous  Castle  Garden.  He  went  to  Negaunee, 
Michigan,  where  he  worked  in  a  sawmill  for 
several  months  and  afterward  removed  to  Repub- 
lic, Michigan,  where  he  was  employed  in  the 
ore  mines  for  about  a  year.  On  the  expiration  of 
that  period  he  proceeded  to  Rock  Island,  Illinois, 
having  determined  to  enter  the  ministry,  and  in 
that  city  he  matriculated  in  Augustana  College, 


:•« 


fe^ 


TAST    AND    1'HKSKNT    OK    M  AUS1I A  1,1.    AM)    ITTXAM    COT  N'I'I  F.S. 


263 


where  ho  pursued  the  regular  theological  course, 
being  ordained  in  Moline,  Illinois,  in  June,  1897. 
He  immediately  came  to  Wenona,  Illinois,  where 
he  lias  since  had  charge  of  the  Bethany  Lutheran 
church  and  here  he  has  done  a  splendid  work, 
building  up  a  large  congregation,  the  member- 
ship now  numbering  about  three  hundred  and 
fifty,  this  being  a  growth  of  two  hundred  during 
his  pastorate,  for  the  church  numbered  only  one 
hundred  and  fifty  at  the  time  of  his  arrival.  The 
attendance  at  the  Sunday-school  has  also  largely 
grown,  there  being  now  more  than  one  hundred 
children.  Mr.  Erikson  has  made  many  friends 
in  this  section  of  the  state.  He  has  also  conducted 
a  small  church  at  Streator,  one  at  Granville  and 
another  at  Utica,  to  all  of  which  he  gives  his 
personal  care  and  supervision.  His  life  is  a  very 
busy  one,  devoted  to  the  welfare  of  mankind  and 
the  dissemination  of  the  truths  of  the  gospel. 
In  Wenona  the  congregation  owns  a  good  house 
of  worship  and  also  a  handsome  parsonage.  Mr.  " 
Erikson  in  connection  with  his  other  church  work 
publishes  a  small  Swedish  magazine,  the  Betania 
H emmet,  which  has  a  circulation  of  about  fifteen 
hundred  copies  among  his  parishioners.  It  is  pub- 
lished in  the  Index  office  at  Wenona, 

On  the  27th  of  April,  1898,  was  celebrated  the 
marriage  of  Rev.  Erikson  and  Miss  Marie  Ede, 
a  native  of  Rock  Island,  ; Illinois.  She  is  of 
much  assistance  to  him  in  the  work  of  the  church 
and  among  his  parishioners.  Of  firm  purpose  and 
of  unfaltering  zeal,  giving  his  life  for  the  benefit 
of  his  fellowmen.  Rev.  Erikson  has  accomplished 
a  great  and  good  work  in  Wenona  and  in  this 
part  of  the  state. 

JOSEPH    CALEY. 

Joseph  Caley  is  identified  with  the  development 
of  the  natural  resources  of  Marshall  county  and  is 
now  operating  in  the  coal  fields,  being  a  well 
known  representative  of  the  mining  interests  of 
Whitefield  township.  His  home  is  on  section  22 
of  that  township  and  in  this  locality  he  has  spent 
the  greater  part  of  his  life.  He  was  born  in  Staf- 
fordshire, England,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1843, 
and  was  a  son  of  John  Caley,  also  a  native  of  Eng- 
land, whence  he  came  to  America  about  seven  years 
prior  to  the  arrival  of  his  son  Joseph.  The  year 
of  his  emigration  was  1851  and  he  made  his  way 
into  British  America,  where  he  accepted  the 
position  of  foreman  for  the  London  Coal  Com- 
pany. He  afterward  returned  to  the  United  States 


and  located  midway  between  Lacon  and  Peoria, 
where  he  opened  coal  mines.  Subsequently  he  re- 
moved to  Marshall  county  and  again  was  con- 
nected with  the  development  of  the  rich  coal  fields 
of  this  part  of  the  state.  As  soon  as  he  took  up 
his  abode  in  this  country  he  took  out  naturaliza- 
tion papers  and  was  ever  most  loyal  in  his  citizen- 
ship, being  a  stalwart  champion  of  the  institutions 
of  our  free  republic.  He  was  a  prominent  mem- 
ber of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and  in  its 
work  took  a  most  active  and  helpful  part,  while 
his  life  was  characterized  by  his  faithful  following 
of  its  teachings.  He  died  about  twelve  years  ago 
at  the  age  of  seventy,  having  long  survived  his 
wife,  who  died  when  their  son  Joseph  was  only 
two  and  a  half  years  of  age. 

The  subject  of  this  review  is  a  self-educated  and 
a  self-made  man  and  an  understanding  of  his  in- 
tellectual progress  and  his  advancement  in  the 
material  things  of  life  awakens  admiration  and 
respect.  He  has,  by  reading,  observation  and  ex- 
perience, continually  broadened  his  knowledge  and 
is  today  a  well  informed  man.  Moreover,  he  has 
prospered  in  his  business  undertakings  and  he  cer- 
tainly deserves  much  credit  for  what  he  has  ac- 
complished. He  came  to  America  in  1858  when  a 
youth  of  fifteen  years  and  from  that  time  to  the 
present  has  been  dependent  upon  his  own  re- 
sources. When  the  Civil  war  was  in  progress  he 
felt  that  his  duty  to  his  country  was  paramount  to 
all  other  interests  and  in  1862  he  enlisted  as  a 
private,  becoming  a  member  of  Company  K,  One 
Hundred  and  Twenty-ninth  Illinois  Volunteer  In- 
fantry, joining  the  regiment  at  Pontiac,  although 
his  enrollment  was  at  Moline,  Illinois.  He  then 
served  until  the  close  of  the  war  and  participated 
in  many  hotly  contested  and  sanguinary  engage- 
ments. He  was  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Golds- 
boro,  South  Carolina,  and  he  faced  the  rebel  fire 
on  many  another  battlefield,  including  Perryville, 
Stone  River,  Lookout  Mountain,  Missionary  Ridge 
and  the  siege  of  Atlanta.  He  had  many  narrow 
escapes  from  injury  and  death  and  it  was  on  the 
16th  of  March,  1865,  that  he  sustained  a  wound. 

When  the  country  no  longer  needed  his  military 
aid  Mr.  Caley  returned  to  the  north  and  has  since 
been  a  factor  in  the  business  life  of  this  portion 
of  the  state.  He  now  owns  thirty-six  acres  of  rich 
coal  lands  on  which  he  has  opened  mines  that 
are  now  being  successfully  operated  and  the  out- 
put finds  a  ready  sale  on  the  market,  bringing  to 


264 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


him  a  merited  and  gratifying  financial  income. 

On  the  25th  of  December,  1867,  Mr.  Caley  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Augusta  Owen,  a  lady 
of  German  birth.  The  wedding  was  celebrated  in 
Rock  Island  county,  Illinois,  and  unto  them  have 
been  born  nine  children :  Elizabeth  Ann,  who  was 
born  August  20,  1868,  and  is  the  wife  of  Dennis 
Farlin,  a  fanner  of  Kansas ;  John  Frederick,  who 
was  born  March  9,  1871,  and  died  March  9,  1885 ; 
Augusta  Owen,  who  was  born  July  7,  1872,  and  is 
the  wife  of  Hiram  Monier,  who  lives  near  Brad- 
ford, Illinois ;  Tama  Jane,  who  was  born  May  12, 
1874,  and  is  living  in  Kansas;  Sarah  Alice,  born 
October  1,  1876,  and  now  deceased;  Mary  Joseph- 
ine, who  was  born  June  18, 1879,  and  now  the  wife 
Clark  C.  Righthouse,  a  farmer  residing  near  Brad- 
ford, Marshall  county;  Mrs.  Clara  Belle  Motell, 
who  was  born  March  9,  1881,  and  lives  south  of 
Sparland ;  Joseph  Sherman,  who  was  born  January 
23,  1885,  and  died  on  the  9th  of  March  of  the 
same  year ;  and  Rosa  Emma,  who  was  born  Octo- 
ber 27,  1888,  and  is  now  the  wife  of  Roy  Rowe, 
living  in  Whitefield  township.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Caley  have  reared  a  family  of  whom  they  have 
every  reason  to  be  proud  and  have  lived  to  see 
them  become  comfortably  situated  in  life.  In  poli- 
tics Mr.  Caley  is  independent  and  he  has  always 
been  so  busy  that  he  has  had  no  time  to  take  part 
in  political  work.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic  and  is  as  true  and  loyal  in 
his  duties  of  citizenship  as  when  he  followed  the 
old  flag  upon  southern  battlefields.  His  is  a  most 
creditable  record  and  should  serve  a&  a  source  of 
emulation  and  encouragement  to  others,  for  start- 
ing out  in  life  empty-handed  when  a  young  lad 
he  soon  came  to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that  suc- 
cess is  the  reward  of  enterprise  and  diligence  and 
it  has  been  along  these  lines  that  he  has  made  ad- 
vancement, from  a  humble  financial  position  to 
one  of  affluence. 


JEROME    HOWE. 

Jerome  Howe,  banker  and  capitalist  of  Wenona, 
is  too  well  known  in  Marshall  county  and  Illinois 
to  need  special  introduction  to  the  readers  of  this 
volume.  His  business  interests  are  so  important 
and  extensive  as  to  make  him  a  representative  citi- 
zen of  the  state  and  his  strict  conformity  to  a  high 
standard  of  business  ethics  stands  as  an  unques- 
tioned fact  in  his  career.  The  secret  of  his  suc- 
cess lies  in  his  ready  recognition  and  utilization 


of  opportunities,  his  quick  solution  of  intricate 
business  problems  and  his  ready  adaptability  of 
the  means  at  hand  toward  the  accomplishment  of 
desired  ends.  All  this  entitles  Mr.  Howe  to  prom- 
inent mention  in  the  history  of  his  county  and 
moreover  he  is  descended  from  an  ancestry  honor- 
able and  distinguished. 

Born  in  Mount  Palatine,  Putnam  county,  Illi- 
nois, August  1,  1848,  he  is  a  son  of  Peter  and 
Arvilla  (Park)  Howe,  natives  of  Vermont  and 
Massachusetts,  respectively,  while  the  mother  was 
a  sister  of  the  well  known  George  Park.  Her  par- 
ents came  to  Illinois  just  a  year  prior  to  the  Black 
Hawk  war  and  settled  in  Pekin,  Tazewell  county. 
They  were  farming  people  and  afterward  took  up 
their  abode  upon  a  farm  near  Pekin.  At  that  time 
the  country  was  full  of  Indians  and  it  required 
great  personal  courage  to  settle  alone  in  the  forest 
and  aid  in  the  reclamation  of  the  frontier  for  the 
purposes  of  civilization.  However,  bravery  has 
ever  been  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the 
family.  Various  representatives  of  the  name  served 
as  soldiers  of  the  Revolutionary  war  and  two  were 
ranking  officers.  George  S.  Park,  brother  of  Mrs. 
Arvilla  Howe,  served  as  state  senator  from  Mis- 
souri and  was  a  very  prominent  man.  He  was  a 
soldier  of  the  Mexican  war  and  was  the  founder  of 
the  town  of  Parkville,  Missouri — a  few  miles  from 
Kansas  City,  although  the  latter  place  had  not  yet 
been  established.  He  opened  a  trading  post  for 
dealing  with  the  Indians  to  whom  he  traded  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  clothing  (purchased  from  the 
government)  for  land.  He  became  the  owner  of 
several  thousand  acres  of  land  in  various  states 
from  Maine  to  Texas.  He  was  in  the  latter  state 
at  the  time  of  the  massacre  in  the  Alamo,  when  he 
and  only  one  other  soldier  escaped  the  butchery  of 
the  savage  Mexican  troops.  He  died  at  Magnolia, 
Putnam  county,  Illinois,  after  a  most  eventful 
career,  distinguished  by  military  service,  political 
prominence  and  business  successes. 

The  Howe  family  was  established  in  the  middle 
west  about  1835  and  Peter  Howe,  then  a  single 
man,  went  to  St.  Louis,  where  he  worked  at  the 
mason's  trade  and  also  engaged  in  contracting 
along  that  line.  He  remained  for  some  time  in 
that  city  and  was  the  builder  of  Shurtleff  College 
at  Alton,  Illinois,  and  also  some  of  the  first  large 
brick  buildings  in  St.  Louis.  A  singular  coinci- 
dence in  his  life  was  the  fact  that  he  and  Asa  L. 
Hill  started  from  Buffalo,  New  York,  together  and 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MAESHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


thus  drove  through  to  St.  Louis.  They  made  the 
journey  in  a  sled,  but  carried  with  them  some 
wagon  wheels  as  a  precaution  lest  the  snow  should 
melt  and  they  would  be  unable  to  continue  on  run- 
ners. Atfer  leaving  St.  Louis,  Mr.  Howe  made 
his  way  up  the  river  and  when  he  had  accumulated 
a  little  money  he  went  to  Magnolia,  Putnam 
county,  Illinois,  on  a  visit,  and  while  there  entered 
land — a  quarter  section  at  a  time.  He  would  chop 
and  split  enough  posts  in  the  winter  to  fence  a 
quarter  section  in  the  summer.  He  finally  settled 
at  Mount  Palatine,  Illinois,  and  in  the  fall  of 
1859  removed  to  Wenona,  where  he  retained  his 
residence  until  called  to  his  final  home,  November 
11,  1888.  His  time  was  given  to  the  supervision 
of  his  landed  interest,  which  had  become  quite 
extensive,  for  as  his  financial  resources  increased 
and  favorable  opportunity  offered  he  made 
investment  in  real  estate.  In  antebellum  days  he 
was  a  strong  abolitionist,  advocating  the  cause 
when  it  was  very  .unpopular  to  do  so.  He  was  a 
warn  personal  friend  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  David 
Davis,  Owen  Lovejoy  and  other  leaders  in  the 
'  political  movements  of  that  period  and  his  interest 
in  the  negro  question  led  him  to  found  the  Howe 
Institute  at  Memphis,  Tennessee,  and  also  the  one 
at  New  Iberia,  Louisiana,  for  the  education  of  the 
colored  people — both  schools  still  in  existence  and 
doing  well.  His  was  a  work  of  philanthropy  and 
was  thus  of  great  benefit  to  the  race.  His  wife 
died  on  the  same  day  of  his  death,  both  being  mur- 
dered. In  the  family  were  three  daughters  and 
two  sons :  Mrs.  M.  A.  Ervin,  of  Galesburg,  Illi- 
nois ;  Mrs.  L.  J.  Hodge,  who  died  in  1889 ;  Jerome ; 
Charles ;  and  Ida  E. 

Educated  in  Knox  College,  at  Galesburg,  Illi- 
nois, Jerome  Howe  afterward  had  the  supervision 
of  his  father's  farms  for  a  number  of  years.  In 
1883  he  joined  his  father  and  brother  in  the  bank- 
ing business  at  Wenona  and  in  1889  he  .purchased 
his  brother's  interest  and  has  since  been  alone  in  . 
the  ownership  and  conduct  of  the  institution, 
which  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  strongest  finan- 
cial concerns  in  this  state,  having  back  of  it  val- 
uable real  estate  interests.  A  general  banking 
business  is  carried  on,  of  which  his  sons,  Charles 
R.  and  Walter  V.,  largely  have  charge,  while  Mr. 
Howe  gives  his  attention  principally  to  the  super- 
vision of  his  extensive  landed  interest  in  New  Mex- 
ico, Louisiana,  Texas,  Iowa,  Illinois  and  other 
states.  His  business  interests  and  investments  are 


found  in  so  many  parts  of  the  country  that  he 
necessarily  spends  much  of  his  time  away  from 
Wenona,  in  the  supervision  of  his  extensive  busi- 
ness affairs.  He  is  largely  interested  in  the  oil 
fields  of  Kansas  and  the  oil  refinery  in  Kansas 
City. 

Mr.  Howe's  first  introduction  to  the  "negro 
problem"'  came  when  a  small  boy.  His  father,  a 
champion  of  abolition,  kept  a  darkey  over  night. 
Mr.  Howe  had  never  before  seen  a  member  of  the 
colored  race  and  asked  his  mother  why  the  man 
did  not  wash  his  face.  He  was  also  very  much 
afraid  of  the  man  whose  black  would  not  wash  off. 
He  was  reared  in  the  faith  of  the  republican  party, 
formed  to  prevent  the  further  extension  of  slavery, 
and  has  usually  supported  its  candidates,  but  has 
never  been  active  in  political  work,  as  his  atten- 
tion has  been  fully  occupied  with  his  extensive 
business  interests. 

On  the  5th  of  June,  1872,  Mr.  Howe  was  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Fannie  Hall,  a  native  of  Pike  county, 
Illinois,  and  they  have  two  sons  and  two  daugh- 
ters: Cora,  wife  of  C.  H.  Pingrey,  of  Blooming- 
ton;  Charles  R.,  of  Wenona;  Walter  V.  and  Char- 
lotte A.  The  family  are  members  of  the  Presby- 
terian church  and  are  welcome  guests  in  the  homes 
where  culture  and  refinement  are  supreme,  while 
their  own  home  is  the  scene  of  many  a  delightful 
social  function.  Mr.  Howe  has  always  resided  in 
the  middle  west  and  has  ever  been  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  enterprise  and  progress  which  has  led  to 
the  rapid  and  substantial  upbuilding  of  this  sec- 
tion of  the  country  and  while  a  man  of  wealth,  he 
has  allowed  the  accumulation  of  a  fortune  to  affect 
in  no  degree  his  relations  with  his  friends  of 
earlier  years  less  forunate  in  the  business  world. 
He  measures  a  man  by  character,  not  by  posses- 
sions, and  his  own  sterling  worth  has  made  him 
one  of  the  most  respected  citizens  of  Marshall 
countv. 


WILLIAM  HORROCKS. 

William  Horrocks  is  a  self-made  man  and  as 
the  architect  of  his  own  fortunes  he  builded  wisely 
and  well.  For  a  considerable  period  he  was  close- 
ly identified  with  agricultural  and  industrial  in- 
terests in  Whitefield  township  and  was  accounted 
one  of  its  representative  business  men,  but  is  now 
practically  living  retired,  having  turned  over  his 
business  to  his  two  youngest  sons. 

A  native  of  England,  Mr.  Horrocks  was  born 


PAST   AND   PKESKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AXD   PUTNAM   COUXTIES. 


in  Lanarkshire  on  the  24th  of  November,  1830, 
and  is  a  son  of  William  N.  and  Margaret  (Tis^ 
dell)  Horrocks,  who  were  likewise  natives  of  Eng- 
land, the  mother  having  been  born  in  Westmore- 
land county.  Both  are  now  deceased.  In  their 
family  were  eight  children :  John,  James,  George, 
Benjamin,  William,  Elizabeth,  Mary  and  Isabella. 

The  boyhood  days  of  William  Horrocks  passed 
without  event  of  special  importance  to  vary  the 
routine  of  life  for  him.  He  was  trained  to  habits 
of  industry  and  economy  and  was  educated  in  pri- 
vate schools  and  also  took  a  course  in  music.  Af- 
ter reaching  manhood  he  gave  careful  considera- 
tion to  the  business  outlook,  weighing  the  chances 
for  advancement  in  his  native  country  with  the 
opportunities  of  the  new  world  and,  deciding  that 
the  latter  were  more  favorable,  he  came  to  the 
United  States  in  1852,  landing  in  October.  He 
had  previously  worked  in  his  native  country  as  a 
coal  miner  and  after  reaching  the  new  world,  his 
financial  resources  being  so  limited  as  to  render 
immediate  employment  a  necessity,  he  secured 
work  in  the  coal  mines  and  was  thus  engaged  in 
several  states  in  the  Union.  He  became  a  resi- 
dent of  Illinois  in  1855  and  took  up  his  abode  in 
Marshall  county  in  1865.  The  years  witnessed  his 
steady  progress  and  he  gradually  advanced  from  a 
humble  financial  position  until  he  had  acquired 
capital  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  purchase  land. 
He  became  the  owner  of  one  hundred  and  ten 
acres,  constituting  an  excellent  farm  on  section  6, 
Whitefield  township.  Here  in  connection  with  the 
tilling  of  the  soil  he  also  engaged  extensively  in 
raising  hogs,  which  proved  a  profitable  branch  of 
his  business.  He  likewise  had  good  coal  banks 
upon  his  place  and  was  engaged  successfully  in 
mining,  but  now  leaves  the  active  management  of 
his  business  affairs  to  his  sons. 

Mr.  Horrocks  was  married  a  few  years  after  his 
arrival  in  the  new  world,  the  lady  of  his  choice  be- 
ing Miss  Frances  Clarke,  a  native  of  Suffolk,  Eng- 
land, whom  he  wedded  on  the  12th  of  November, 
1856,  in  Peoria,  Illinois.  They  became  the  par- 
ents of  six  children,  of  whom  four  are  yet  living: 
James,  who  is  a  mine  overseer,  residing  at  Farm- 
ington,  Illinois;  John,  who  owns  and  operates  a 
farm  in  Bureau  county ;  and  Benjamin  and  Will- 
iam, who  are  living  on  the  home  place.  They  are 
now  conducting  the  farm  which  is  the  property  of 
their  father  and  they  also  engage  in  raising  hogs. 
They  operate  the  coal  banks  and  their  mining  in- 


terests constitute  no  unimportant  branch  of  their 
business. 

Mr.  Horrocks  is  a  member  of  the  New  York  In- 
stitute of  Science  and  of  English  lodge  of  Odd 
Fellows.  His  political  allegiance  is  given  to  the 
democracy  and  his  religious  faith  is  indicated  by 
his  membership  in  the  Episcopal  church,  in  which 
he  was  reared.  For  many  years  his  life  was  one 
of  continuous  activity  and  he  was  not  denied  the 
reward  of  labor.  On  the  contrary  he  prospered  as 
the  years  went  by  and  at  the  same  time  he  won  the 
honored  name  which  comes  in  recognition  of  a  life 
characterized  by  trustworthiness  and  fair  dealing. 
Mrs.  Horrocks  is  a  member  of  the  Catholic 
church  and  is  a  lady  of  many  estimable  qualities, 
having  a  large  circle  of  friends  in  Whitefield 
township. 

CHAELES  DAVIS,  M.  D. 

Dr.  Charles  Davis,  who  for  many  years  was 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  medicine  in  Marshall 
county  as  a  representative  of  the  homeopathic 
school,  and  who  died  June  28,  1891,  was  born  in 
Columbia,  Herkimer  county,  New  York,  June 
1,  1814.  The  common  schools  of  the  Empire 
state  afforded  him  his  early  educational  privileges. 
He  came  to  Illinois  in  1836,  and  though  the 
Black  Hawk  war  had  occurred  about  four  years 
before,  there  were  still  some  Indians  who  lin- 
gered in  the  state  and  many  evidences  of  pioneer 
life  were  to  be  seen.  He  engaged  first  in  farming 
in  Fulton  and  in  Peoria  counties,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1850  he  removed  to  Henry.  He  pur- 
sued both  an  eclectic  and  homeopathic  course  of 
medicine  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  graduating  from  the 
Eclectic  Medical  Institute,  March  5,  1850.  For 
many  years  he  practiced  successfully  in  Henry, 
and  had  a  large  business  as  a  general  practitioner, 
his  skill  and  capability  being  widely  recognized  by 
the  members  of  the  profession  and  the  general 
public.  Prior  to  coming  to  Henry  he  had  prac- 
ticed allopathy  for  five  years. 

On  the  1st  of  November,  1845,  Dr.  Davis  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Aurelia  Williams,  a 
native  of  Ohio,  born  August  8,  1822.  There 
were  five  children  of  this  marriage,  of  whom  two 
are  now  living :  Maria  L.,  of  Henry ;  and  0.  C. 
Davis,  of  Racine,  Wisconsin.  The  mother  died 
in  Henry,  January  25,  1857,  and  her  death  was 
deeply  regretted  by  many  friends,  for  she  dis- 
played sterling  traits  of  character,  and  her  good 


DH.  CIIAKLKS  DAVIS. 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTXAM   COUNTIES. 


qualities  of  heart  and  mind  endeared  her  to  all 
with  whom  she  came  in  contact.  He  was  again 
married,  November  18,  1857,  his  second  union 
being  with  Polly  Ayles,  by  whom  he  had  two 
children,  but  both  died  before  reaching  the  age 
of  one  year.  The  wife  and  mother  died  May  9, 
1899,  at  the  age  of  eighty  years. 

Dr.  Davis  passed  away  on  the  28th  of  June, 
1891,  at  the  age  of  seventy-seven  years.  He  had 
served  as  a  school  director  and  was  otherwise 
actively  and  helpfully  interested  in  public  affairs 
whereby  the  county  was  benefited  and  its  interests 
materially  advanced.  His  religious  faith  was  "that 
of  the  Swedenborgian  church.  Although  fifteen 
years  have  now  come  and  gone  since  he  departed 
this  life,  he  is  yet  held  in  grateful  remembrance 
in  many  a  household  where  he  was  the  beloved 
family  physician.  He  was  a  man  of  strong  in- 
tellectuality and  marked  individuality,  and  he 
left  behind  an  honored  name. 


LUKE  GREGORY. 

The  old  home  farm  of  the  Gregory  family  is 
now  owned  and  operated  by  Luke  Gregory.  It  is 
an  excellent  property  of  eighty  acres  situated  on 
section  10,  Whitefield  township,  and  is  now  under 
a  high  state  of  cultivation,  responding  readily  to 
the  care  and  labor  that  are  bestowed  upon  it.  It 
was  upon  this  farm  that  Luke  Gregory  was  born 
on  the  3d  of  April,  1856.  His  father,  Francis 
Gregory,  was  a  native  of  Ohio  and  came  to  Illi- 
nois in  the  '40s,  settling  in  Peoria  county,  where 
he  secured  a  tract  of  land  and  began  farming.  He 
lived  there  but  a  few  years,  however,  and  in  1850 
removed  to  Whitefield  township,  Marshall  county, 
where  he  spent  his  remaining  days.  He  always 
carried  on  general  agricultural  pursuits  in  order 
to  support  his  family  and  he  gained  a  good  living 
through  his  unfaltering  industry  and  perseverance. 
He  wedded  Sarah  Barrett,  a  native  of  Virginia, 
and  his  death  occurred  on  the  llth  of  August, 
1874,  when  he  was  fifty-eight  years  of  age.  His 
widow  still  survives  and  now  makes  her  home  with 
her  son  Ross  in  Adams  county,  Iowa.  In  the  fam- 
ily were  five  children,  as  follows :  George,  who 
carries  on  general  agricultural  pursuits  in  Iowa; 
Helen,  also  living  in  that  state;  Mary,  who  died 
at  the  age  of  ten  years ;  Luke,  of  this  review ;  and 
Ross,  who  is  a  stock  farmer  of  Iowa. 

Throughout  his  entire  life  Luke  Gregory  has 
remained  upon  the  old  homestead  farm  and  at  an 


early  age  began  assisting  in  the  work  of  field  and 
meadow.  He  also  attended  the  schools  through 
the  winter  seasons  and  after  completing  his  edu- 
cation he  concentrated  his  undivided  attention  up- 
on the  farm  work,  which  he  has  since  made  his 
life  occupation.  The  place  comprises  eighty  acres 
of  rich  and  arable  land  and  the  fields  are  now 
highly  cultivated,  so  that  good  crops  are  annually 
harvested.  The  improvements,  too,  upon  the  place 
are  of  a  substantial  and  attractive  character,  and 
the  careful  supervision  of  the  owner  is  indicated 
by  the  air  of  neatness  and  thrift  which  pervades 
every  department  of  the  farm. 

In  1878  Mr.  Gregory  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Jennie  Smith,  of  Whitefield,  and  they  have 
one  son,  Clyde  Gregory,  twenty-six  years  of  age, 
who  is  living  in  Whitefield  township,  where  he 
owns  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land.  He 
married  Edith  Quinn  and  they  have  one  son,  Law- 
rence. Mr.  Gregory  has  served  as  school  director 
for  three  years  and  is  interested  in  the  cause  of 
education  and  its  advancement.  His  political  sup- 
port is  given  to  the  republican  party  and  he  is  re- 
miss in  no  duty  of  citizenship,  but  is  alert  and 
enterprising  and  endorses  every  movement  that 
promises  to  beenfit  the  community  at  large.  A  so- 
cial, kindly  nature  has  gained  him  many  friends 
and  he  has  become  widely  known  in  the  county 
during  a  residence  here  of  a  half  century,  in 
which  time  he  has  witnessed  much  of  the  growth 
and  development  of  this  part  of  the  state.  He 
has  seen  many  changes  made  in  the  methods  of 
farming  as  the  improved  machinery  of  today  has 
supplanted  the  crude  implements  of  earlier  years. 
He  has  also  seen  the  pioneer  homes  replaced  by 
fine  farm  residences,  while  the  work  of  cultivation 
has  gained  for  this  district  the  reputation  which 
is  borne  in  other  sections  of  the  state,  making  Il- 
linois one  of  the  greatest  agricultural  districts  of 
the  Union. 


FRANCIS  FREDERICK  THIERRY. 
Francis  Frederick  Thierry,  who  owns  and  oper- 
ates a  farm  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  on 
section  19,  Evans  township,  was  born  in  Gallia 
county,  Ohio,  in  1845.  There  are  comparatively 
few  men  of  his  years  who"  are  numbered  among 
the  veterans  of  the  Civil  war,  but  Mr.  Thierry 
was  a  soldier  at  the  time  when  the  Union  was 
imperiled.  His  father,  Joseph  X.  Thierry,  was 
also  a  native  of  Gallia  county,  born  in  1816,  while 


270 


PAST    AND    I'UKSKNT    OF    MAI.'SJIALL    AM)    ITTXA.M    COUXTIES. 


the  grandfather  of  our  subject  was  a  Frenchman, 
a  native  of  Paris.  Joseph  N.  Thierry  followed 
the  occupation  of  farming  as  a  life  work  and  died 
in  Ohio  at  the  venerable  age  of  eighty-seven  years. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  United  Brethren  church, 
as  was  his  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden  name  of 
Sarah  Elizabeth  Dillman.  She  was  born  in  Brack- 
en county,  Kentucky,  and  died  a  year  prior  to  the 
death  of  her  husband.  Her  father,  Frederick  Dill- 
man, became  a  farmer  of  La  Salle  county,  Illi- 
nois, and  passed  away  when  eighty-four  years  of 
age.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thierry  were  born  ten 
children :  Mary  Frances,  the  wife  of  Silas  Dickey, 
of  Gallia  county,  Ohio ;  Narragansett  Caroline,  the 
wife  of  Alvie  Dickey,  a  resident  of  Illinois ;  Fran- 
cis, of  this  review ;  Alvarado  Lavega,  now  deceas- 
ed; Lorena  Georgiana,  the  deceased  wife  of  Ansel 
Kerns ;  Daniel  Webster,  who  married  Ellen  Gools- 
by,  a  resident  of  Ohio ;  Joseph  Noble ;  Zulika 
Zimro,  the  wife  of  Charles  Clark,  a  resident  of 
Mountain  View,  Oklahoma;  Ansel  Blake,  who  is 
a  brakeman  on  the  Illinois  Central  Eailroad  and 
resides  in  Wenona ;  and  Harriett  Content,  the  wife 
of  Jacob  Kerns,  a  resident  of  Thayer  county,  Ne- 
braska. 

Francis  F.  Thierry  acquired  his  education  in  the 
schools  of  Ohio  and  when  a  youth  of  but  seven- 
teen years  became  a  soldier  of  the  Union  army. 
He  first  joined  the  One  Hundred  and  Seventeenth 
Ohio  Volunteer  Infantry  at  Camp  Portsmouth, 
Ohio,  on  the  15th  of  September,  1862,  being  mus- 
tered in  by  S.  Beall,  U.  S.  A.  He  afterward  be- 
longed to  Company  G  of  the  First  Ohio  Heavy 
Artillery,  serving  under  Lieutenant  Francis  Wal- 
ter and  Captain  Jones.  He  was  mustered  out  at 
Knoxville,  Tennessee,  June  17,  1865,  by  Thomas 
McDermott,  captain  of  the  United  States  Volun- 
teers, First  Cavalry  Division  of  the  District  of 
Columbia.  He  was  thus  only  about  twenty  years 
of  age  at  the  time  he  received  his  discharge  and  in 
the  meantime  he  had  for  about  three  years  served 
his  country  as  a  faithful  defender  of  the  Union 
cause,  his  loyalty  and  bravery  being  equal  to  that 
of  many  a  veteran  of  twice  his  years. 

Mr.  Thierry  has  been  a  resident  of  Illinois  since 
1868,  in  which  year  he  located  in  Evans  town- 
ship. He  was  married  May  25,  1871,  to  .Miss 
Mary  Loretta  Wilson,  who  was  born  in  Belmont 
county,  Ohio,  in  1851,  a  daughter  of  Joshua  and 
Eosanna  Wilson,  who  were  Quaker  people  and  be- 
came residents  of  Marshall  county  in  her  girl- 


hood days,  settling  in  Evans  township.  Mrs. 
Thierry  was  therefore  educated  in  the  district 
schools  of  Evans  township.  By  her  marriage  she 
has  become  the  mother  of  three  children :  Flor- 
ence Lorena,  who  was  born  June  2,  1878,  and 
died  September  3,  1881;  Wollard  Cadet,  who 
married  Wilma  Luetta  Griffin  and  is  a  farmer  of 
Eoberts  township ;  and  Homer  H.,  who  is  living 
with  his  parents. 

At  the  time  of  their  marriage  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Thierry  began  their  domestic  life  upon  a  farm  in 
Evans  township  and  although  he  was  without  cap- 
ital at  the  time  he  has  made  steady  progress  in  his 
business  career  and  is  now  the  owner  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  acres  of  rich  and  valuable  land, 
from  which  he  annually  harvests  good  crops.  His 
political  support  is  given  to  the  republican  party 
and  his  wife  in  religious  faith  is  a  Presbyterian. 
Mr.  Thierry  manifests  the  same  spirit  of  loyalty  in 
matters  relating  to  local  advancement  and  national 
welfare  as  he  did  when  he  followed  the  old  flag 
upon  the  battlefields  of  the  south.  Moreover,  he 
has  made  an  excellent  record  in  business,  for  his 
advancement  is  the  natural  sequence  of  <  nrnest, 
persistent  labor  guided  by  practical  comr  i  sense. 


JONATHAN  LONG. 

Few  men  have  more  vivid  recollecti'  ~  of  the 
early  days  in  Putnam  c>  unty  than  has  .•  mathan 
Long,  an  honored  pioneer  settler  whose  luemory 
forms  a  connecting  link  between  the  primitive  past 
and  the  progressive  present.  He  came  to  Illinois 
when  it  was  upon  the  frontier  aud  when  wolves 
and  catamounts  were  numerous  in  the  forest  and 
upon  the  prairie,  while  herds  of  deer  could  be 
seen  almost  daily.  Little  change  had  been  made 
in  the  surface  of  the  country,  which  largely  re- 
mained just  as  it  came  from  the  hand  of  nature. 
The  few  homes  of  the  settlers  were  scattered  over 
the  prairie  and  there  were  no  railroad  facilities 
to  connect  the  district  with  the  outside  world. 
The  country  was  crossed  and  recrossed  with 
sloughs  and  in  many  places  was  swampy,  it  being 
necessary  to  drain  before  much  could  be  done  in 
the  way  of  cultivation.  Into  such  a  district  came 
Mr.  Long,  casting  in  his  lot  with  the  early  settlers 
and  sharing  with  them  in  the  hardships  and  pri- 
vations incident  to  pioneer  life.  At  the  same  time 
he  bore  his  full  share  in  the  work  of  improvement 
and  progress,  and  thus  deserves  classification  with 
the  founders  and  upbuilders  of  the  county.  He 


r< 


JONATHAN 


PAST    AND    1MJKSKNT    OF    MAI5SHAM.    AND    ITTNAM    ('Of  N'l'l  KS. 


now  resides  on  a  farm  on  section  15,  Senachwine 
township,  Putnam  county,  and  has  passed  the 
eighty-first  milestone  on  life's  journey,  having 
been  born  in  West  Virginia,  February  26,  1825. 
His  father,  Levi  Long,  was  also  a  native  of  that 
state,  born  August  9,  1779,  while  his  death  oc- 
curred in  Putnam  county,  May  12,  1851.  His 
wife,  who  in  her  maidenhood  was  Lydia  Stiles, 
was  born  in  West  Virginia,  February  16,  1783, 
and  died  Octobc-  0,  1833,  in  tht  Old  Dominion. 
For  his  second  wife  Mr.  Long  chose  Sua  Dunn, 
who  was  bom  in  Virginia,  February  10,  1806,  and 
died  in  Putnam  county. 

Jonathan  Long  was  the  youngest  of  a  family 
of  nine  children,  and  as  far  as  he  knows  is  the 
only  one  living.  Lyle,  born  December  12,  1803, 
passed  away  in  Iowa.  Elizabeth,  born  June  19, 
1805,  also  died  in  the  Hawkeye  state.  Mary,  born 
July  21,  1808,  died  in  this  county.  Levi  departed 
this  life  in  Ohio.  Stephen  died  in  infancy.  Sarah 
passed  away  in  Indiana.  Lucretia  died  in  infancy, 
and  Lyda  has  not  been  heard  from  in  some  years, 
so  that  it  is  not  known  whether  or  not  she  is 
living. 

It  was  in  1844  that  Levi  Long  brought  his  fam- 
ily to  Illinois,  settling  on  a  tract  of  land  of  eighty 
acres  that  is  now  the  home  of  his  son  Jonathan. 
All  was  timber,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  forest 
they  built  a  little  log  cabin,  in  which  they  lived  for 
several  years,  when  a  more  modern  and  commodi- 
ous house  was  erected.  The  land  was  purchased 
from  the  government,  and,  in  consequence,  was 
in  a  raw  condition,  not  a  furrow  having  been 
turned  nor  an  improvemet  been  made.  Mr.  Long 
continued  to  reside  with  his  parents  until  they 
passed  away,  after  which  he  carried  on  the  home 
farm  on  his  own  account  and  has  since  resided 
here.  He  was  early  trained  to  the  arduous  work 
of  developing  a  new  farm  at  a  time  when  much 
of  the  labor  was  done  by  hand.  The  scythe  and 
sickle  figured  as  important  farm  implements,  and 
all  of  the  corn  husking  now  done  bv  machinery 
was  done  by  hand. 

On  the  4th  of  August,  1850,  Mr.  Long  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Helen  Frazie,  who  was 
born  in  New  York,  May  17,  1831,  and  has  now 
for  more  than  a  half  century  been  to  him  a  faith- 
ful companion  and  helpmate  on  life's  journey. 
Their  marriage  was  blessed  with  the  following 
children:  Almedia,  who  was  born  August  2,  1852, 
and  is  now  deceased ;  Mary,  who  was  born  Novem- 
ber 26,  1855,  and  is  the  wife  of  Henry  Linkier,  a 


resident  of  Baldwin,  Montana;  William,  who  was 
born  June  9,  1858,  and  is  carrying  on  the  work 
of  the  home  farm ;  Kachel,  who  was  born  June  21, 
1861,  and  is  the  wife  of  Elijah  Montgomery,  who 
resides  at  Bureau  Junction,  Illinois;  Viola,  who 
was  born  May  7,  1864,  and  is  the  wife  of  Perry 
Kane,  living  in  Bureau  county;  and  Beldon,  who 
was  born  December  28,  1870,  and  wedded  Mary 
Williams.  He,  too,  is  living  on  the  old  home- 
stead. 

For  many  years  Mr.  Long  continued  actively  in 
the  farm  work  and  is  now  the  owner  of  one  hun- 
dred and  eighty  acres  of  land  in  Bureau  county. 
He  likewise  has  two  hundred  acres  where  he  lives 
on  section  15,  Senachwine  township,  and  another 
tract  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  a  mile  east 
in  the  same  township.  His  possessions  are  there- 
fore extensive,  and  from  his  farm  property  he 
derives  an  excellent  income.  His  realty  is  the  vis- 
ible evidence  of  his  life  of  industry,  thrift  and 
capable  management,  for  all  that  he  possesses  has 
been  acquired  through  his  own  labors.  In  the 
early  days  he  aided  in  cutting  down  the  timber 
and  in  breaking  the  prairie.  He  did  not  care  to 
indulge  much  in  hunting,  but  it  would  have  been 
possible  for  him  to  obtain  a  deer  any  day.  The 
first  log  house  built  upon  the  farm  was  con- 
structed of  hewed  timbers  cut  from  his  place,  and 
it  was  necessary  to  clear  away  the  trees  and 
brush  before  the  plowing  could  be  done.  Mr. 
Long  has  witnessed  remarkable  changes  in  the 
methods  of  farm  life  as  modern  machinery  .  has 
been  introduced  and  scientific  investigation  have 
brought  a  broader  knowledge  of  the  needs  of  the 
fields  and  the  best  methods  of  carrying  on  farm 
work.  He  has  also  kept  abreast  with  the  work  of 
improvement  and  has  long  been  accounted  one  of 
the  substantial  and  prominent  agriculturists  of  his 
community.  In  politics  he  has  ever  given  his 
support  to  the  democracy,  yet  has  always  been 
without  desire  for  office. 


HENRY  MERDIAN. 

Henry  Merdian,  who  resides  on  section  9,  White- 
field  township,  owns  and  operates  two  good  farms 
in  Marshall  count}7,  one  comprising  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  and  the  other  eighty  acres.  His 
life  has  been  given  to  general  agricultural  pur- 
suits and  his  places  are  both  under  a  high  state  of 
cultivation,  giving  indication  of  the  careful  super- 
vision of  the  owner.  Mr.  Merdian  was  born  in 
Henry  township  on  the  2d  of  February,  1867,  and 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


is  a  son  of  Johann  Joseph  and  Mary  Ursula  (Bur- 
gen)  Merdian.  The  father  was  born  on  the  Rhine 
in  Bavaria,  Germany,  November  18,  1811,  and  in 
that  locality  spent  the  days  of  his  boyhood  and 
youth.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  entered  upon  a 
regular  apprenticeship  to  the  wagon  maker's  trade 
and  thoroughly  mastered  the  business  in  principle 
and  detail.  He  was  a  young  man  of  twenty-five 
years  when  in  1836  he  emigrated  to  the  new  world, 
working  at  the  wagon  maker's  trade  in  New  York 
until  his  removal  to  the  middle  west.  While  yet 
residing  in  New  York  city  he  wedded  Miss  Bur- 
gen  on  the  24th  of  January,  1838.  She  was  born 
in  Lothringen,  France,  February  9,  1822,  and  five 
years  after  their  marriage  they  came  to  Marshall 
county,  Illinois,  stopping  at  the  old  landing  about 
one  mile  below  the  present  city  of  Henry.  Two 
children  had  been  born  to  them  in  the  east  and 
Mr.  Merdian  thought  that  in  this  new  and  rapidly 
growing  country  he  could  better  provide  for  his 
family.  However,  he  was  greatly  discouraged  on 
his  arrival  from  the  fact  that  he  could  find  noth- 
ing to  do  and  had  no  capital  with  which  to  set 
himself  up  in  business.  He  therefore  determined 
to  return  to  New  York  and  work  again  at  his 
trade,  but  not  having  money  sufficient  to  pay  the 
expenses  of  the  family  on  a  return  trip,  he  left 
his  wife  and  children  in  Marshall  county.  A  short 
time  after  his  arrival  in  New  York  he  met  his 
wife's  brother  who  after  hearing  his  story,  kindly 
loaned  him  five  hundred  dollars.  He  then  hastened 
back  to  join  his  family  and  he  invested  a  part  of 
the  five  hundred  dollars  in  forty  acres  of  land, 
which  became  the  nucleus  of  his  large  landed  pos- 
sessions which  he  owned  at  the  time  of  his  death. 
He  at  once  began  the  improvement  of  his  place 
and  while  carrying  on  the  farm  work  he  also  con- 
tinued to  work  at  his  trade,  conducting  a  shop  on 
his  farm.  He  was  very  diligent  and  his  industry 
and  frugality  enabled  him  in  the  course  of  years 
to  add  to  his  possessions  from  time  to  time  until 
he  had  valuable  farm  property  in  several  localities 
in  central  Illinois.  He  raised  both  stock  and 
grain  and  his  consecutive  labor  was  the  secret  of 
his  success. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Merdian  were  born  eleven 
children  of  whom  two  died  in  early  youth.  The 
parents  lived  to  celebrate  their  golden  wedding  an- 
niversary in  1888  and  it  was  a  most  enjoyable  oc- 
casion to  all  present:  They  had  spent  forty-five  of 
the  fifty  years  in  Marshall  county  and  were  there- 


fore widely  known  to  the  early  settlers,  who 
joined  with  them  on  that  happy  occasion,  where 
many  a  tale  was  told  of  the  early  days  and  the  ex- 
periences which  came  in  pioneer  times.  Political- 
ly Mr.  Merdian  was  a  democrat  and  he  and  his 
wife  were  devoted  members  of  the  Catholic  church, 
He  contributed  generously  toward  the  building  of 
the  German  Catholic  church  at  Henry  and  in  that 
faith  he  died  March  8,  1893.  He  was  respected 
and  honored  by  all  who  knew  him  and  were  fa- 
miliar with  his  life  history,  and .  he  left  to  his 
family  not  only  a  generous  competence,  but  also 
an  untarnished  name  and  an  example  that  is  in- 
deed well  worthy  of  emulation. 

Henry  Merdian,  whose  name  introduces  this 
record,  has  been  a  life-long  resident  of  Marshall 
county.  He  was  reared  to  the  occupation  of  farm- 
ing, which  he  has  made  his  life  work.  He  in- 
herited from  his  father  a  goodly  property,  and  in 
its  management  and  care  he  has  displayed  excellent 
executive  ability  and  business  acumen.  He  now 
owns  two  farms,  one  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  and  the  other  of  eighty  acres,  his  home  be- 
ing on  section  9,  Whitefield  township.  He  also 
owns  about  thirty  acres  of  timber  land  in  this 
township.  Here  are  found  substantial  buildings 
standing  in  the  midst  of  well  tilled  fields.  Am- 
ple shelter  is  afforded  for  grain  and  stock  and  the 
place  is  conveniently  divided  by  well  kept  fences. 

Mr.  Merdian  has  been  married  twice.  On  the 
21st  of  January,  1893,  he  wedded  Miss  Christina 
Bogner,  of  Whitefield  township,  a  daughter  of 
Louis  Bogner.  Unto  them  was  born  a  daughter, 
Mary  Christina  Columbia,  now  twelve  years  of 
age.  In  1902  Mr.  Merdian  was  again  married,  his 
second  union  being  with  Gertrude  Bogner,  by 
whom  lie  has  two  children,  Dorothy  and  Leonard  L. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Merdian  is  a  demo- 
crat and  has  served  as  school  trustee  for  eight 
years,  but  has  never  sought  or  desired  office.  He 
is  a  communicant  of  the  Catholic  church,  in  the 
faith  of  which  he  was  reared,  and  he  has  been  a 
champion  of  all  movements  and  measures  for  the 
material,  intellectual  and  moral  progress  of  the 


JOHN  J.  HARTLEY. 

John  J.  Hartley,  proprietor  of  a  meat  market 
in  Henry,  which  business  he  has  conducted  suc- 
cessfully since  1896,  was  born  in  this  city  in  1868, 
his  parents  being  James  and  Ellen  (Fitzgibbons) 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


277 


Hartley,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of  Ireland. 
The  father  came  to  the  United  States  when  a  boy 
with  his  parents,  Philip  and  Mary  Hartley,  and 
after  arriving  at  years  of  maturity  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Ellen  Fitzgibbons,  who  left  her  native 
country  with  her  parents  in  her  girlhood  days  and 
became  a  resident  of  Chicago.  Both  were  mem- 
bers of  the  Catholic  church.  Mr.  Hartley  died  in 
1880,  but  the  mother  is  still  living  at  the  age  of 
sixty-six  years.  In  their  family  were  seven  chil- 
dren. 

John  J.  Hartley,  the  second  in  order  of  birth, 
attended  the  public  schools,  was  reared  under  the 
parental  roof  and  in  early  life  learned  and  fol- 
lowed the  butchering  business,  establishing  a  mar- 
ket of  his  own  in  1896  and  conducting  it  with 
continuous  and  gratifying  success  since  that  time. 
He  now  has  a  well  equipped  shop  and  enjoys  a 
liberal  patronage,  which  is  accorded  him  by  reason 
of  his  moderate  prices,  his  straightforward  deal- 
ing and  his  earnest  desire  to  please  his  customers. 

Mr.  Hartley  was  married  in  1899  to  Miss  Julia 
A.  Kline,  a  daughter  of  Nicholas  and  Lizzie  Kline. 
She  was  born  in  Putnam  county  in  1874  and  has 
become  the  mother  of  two  children :  Helen  Imelda 
and  Lillian  Meryl.  The  parents  hold  membership 
in  St.  Joseph's  Catholic  church  and  Mr.  Hartley 
is  connected  with  the  Modern  Woodmen  of  Amer- 
ica, while  his  political  allegiance  is  given  to  the 
democracy.  His  entire  life  has  been  passed  in 
Henry  and  that  he  has  been  worthy  the  respect 
and  esteem  of  his  fellowmen  is  indicated  by  the 
fact  that  many  of  his  stanchest  friends  are  those 
who  have  known  him  from  his  boyhood  days  to 
the  present  time. 


LEWIS  J.  HODGE. 

Lewis  J.  Hodge  finds  an  appropriate  place  in 
the  history  of  those  men  of  business  and  enter- 
prise in  the  state  of  Illinois  whose  force  of  char- 
acter, whose  sterling  integrity,  whose  fortitude 
amid  discouragements,  whose  good  sense  in  the 
management  of  complicated  affairs  and  marked 
success  in  establishing  and  bringing  to  comple- 
tion schemes  of  trade  and  profit  have  contributed 
in  an  eminent  degree  to  the  development  of  the 
vast  resources  of  this  noble  commonwealth.  His 
career  has  not  been  helped  by  accident  or  for- 
tunate circumstances,  by  wealth  or  family  or 
powerful  friends.  He  is,  in  the  broadest  sense 
of  the  term,  a  self-made  man  who  has  been  both 


the  architect  and  builder  of  his  own  fortunes, 
and  now,  having  retired  from  active  life,  is  en- 
joying the  fruits  of  his  former  toil. 

A  native  of  Monroe  county,  Ohio,  Mr.  Hodge 
was  born  January  1,  1841,  and  is  a  son  of  James 
and  Margaret  A.  (Wilson)  Hodge.  The  father 
was  born  near  .Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  and 
the  mother's  birth  occurred  on  the  ocean  while 
her  parents  were  on  the  voyage  from  Nova  Scotia 
to  this  country.  The  grandfather,  Samuel  Hodge, 
was  a  soldier  of  the  war  of  1812,  and  removed 
from  Pennsylvania  to  Ohio  at  an  early  day,  where 
he  resided  until  called  from  this  life.  James 
Hodge  became  a  builder  and  contractor,  and  in 
1853  removed  to  Illinois,  settling  in  Magnolia. 
Two  years  later,  in  1855,  he  came  to  Wenona  and 
erected  a  planing  mill  here,  carrying  on  the 
business  until  his  death,  February  7,  1887.  His 
widow  died  November  30,  1900.  They  were  the 
parents  of  eight  children,  of  whom  three  are  now 
living:  Lewis  J.,  of  this  review;  George  L.,  a 
resident  of  La  Salle,  Illinois;  and  Mrs.  Eva  Mc- 
Clanahan,  of  Chicago. 

Lewis  J.  Hodge  is  indebted  to  the  public  school 
system  of  Wenona  for  the  educational  privileges 
he  enjoyed,  and  after  putting  aside  his  text-books 
he  worked  with  his  father  in  the  planing  mill 
until  after  the  Civil  war  broke  out.  He  had 
watched  with  interest  the  progress  of  events  in 
the  south  and  noted  the  threatening  attitude  of 
certain  southern  states,  and  on  the  25th  of  July, 

1861,  unable  to  content  himself  longer  at  home 
while  the  Union  was  imperiled,  he  enlisted  in  the 
Forty-second  Regimental  Band  and  served  with 
the  Department  of  the  Missouri  until  honorably 
discharged  at  St.  Louis  on  the  24th  of  February, 

1862.  He  went  with  Hunter  to  relieve  Fremont 
at  Wilson's  creek  and  was  on  active  duty  in  the 
southwest. 

Following  his  discharge  Mr.  Hodge  returned 
home  and  was  appointed  assistant  postmaster  at 
Wenona,  serving  under  S.  J.  Taylor  during  the 
years  1863  and  1864.  He  then  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  his  father  in  the  planing  mill  and 
lumber  business,  which  connection  was  continued 
until  the  fall  of  1878,  when  he  sold  out.  After 
the  failure  of  John  A.  McCall  &  Company,  bank- 
ers in  1878,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  bank- 
ing business,  establishing  the  Howe,  Hodge  & 
Ralston  bank.  He  was  thus  identified  with  the 
financial  interests  of  the  county  until  1881,  when 


278 


PAST    AM)    I'KKSKXT    OF    MAIJSHALI.    AM)    IMTNAM    COVNTIKS. 


again  he  sold  out.  About  this  time  he  became 
interested  in  the  development  of  the  rich  coal 
resources  of  this  part  of  the  state  and  in  the 
sinking  of  the  coal  shaft  and  was  associated  with 
the  work  until  after  the  mine  was  opened  up  and 
had  been  in  operation  for  a  period  of  about  two 
years.  He  then  disposed  of  his  interest  in  that 
line  and  established  the  First  National  Bank  of 
Wenona,  of  which  he  was  president  for  a  number 
of  years,  when  it  was  transformed  from  a  national 
bank  into  a  private  concern  under  the  name  of 
L.  J.  Hodge  &  Sons.  He  was  then  connected 
with  his  sons  in  the  business  until  he  sold  out 
to  them,  and  they  are  still  conducting  the  bank 
under  the  firm  style  of  Hodge  Brothers.  The 
father  has  since  lived  retired  save  that  he  has 
operated  to  a  considerable  extent  in  land,  and 
now  gives  his  supervision  to  his  property  inter- 
ests, owning  large  tracts  of  land  in  Illinois  and 
Iowa. 

On  the  20th  of  December,  1864,  was  cele- 
brated the  marriage  of  Lewis  J.  Hodge  and  Miss 
Harriet  E.  Howe,  a  daughter  of  Peter  Howe,  by 
whom  he  had  two  sons,  George  0.  and  John  W. 
H.  Hodge,  who  constitute  the  banking  firm  of 
Hodge  Brothers.  The  wife  and  mother  died  De- 
cember 3,  1889,  and  on  the  25th  of  June,  1893, 
Mr.  Hodge  was  married  to  Susan  A.  Wright,  by 
whom  he  has  one  son,  Paul  L.  He  owns  and 
occupies  a  beautiful  home  in  Wenona,  in  which 
he  is  now  living  in  comfort.  He  has  helped  to 
build  up  this  section  to  its  present  prosperity, 
having  taken  an  active  interest  in  its  business 
development,  whereon  depends  the  welfare  and 
growth  of  any  community.  He  stands  today  in 
his  mature  years  a  strong  man — strong  in  the 
consciousness  of  well  spent  years,  strong  to  plan 
and  perform,  strong  in  his  credit  and  good  name 
and  a  worthy  example  for  young  men  to  pattern 
after,  as-  showing  what  intelligence  and  perse- 
verance may  accomplish  in  the  way  of  success  in 
life. 


THOMAS  G.  HAWS. 

For  the  long  period  of .  sixty-eight  years  this 
gentleman  has  been  identified  with  the  develop- 
ment and  advancement  in  Putnam  county,  but 
now,  after  an  active  and  well  spent  life,  he  is 
living  retired,  enjoying  a  well  earned  rest,  his 
home  being  in  the  village  of  Magnolia.  He  was 
born  in  Clinton  county,  Ohio.  February  6,  1827, 


and  is  a  son  of  Joel  and  Elizabeth  (Gibson)  Haws, 
who  are  mentioned  elsewhere  in  this  work  in  con- 
nection with  the  sketch  of  William  Haws.  The 
first  eleven  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  his  na- 
tive state,  but  in  1834  he  accompanied  his  parents 
on  their  removal  to  Illinois,  the  family  locating  in 
Putnam  county.  Being  the  oldest  son,  it  devolved 
upon  him  to  go  to  work  when  quite  young  to  assist 
in  the  support  of  the  family,  with  the  result  that 
his  education  was  neglected. 

Mr.  Haws  tells  a  very  interesting  story  of  how 
he  melj  .the  lady  who  afterward  became  his  wife. 
At  that  time  there  were  but  two  buggies  in  the 
neighborhood.  On  a  certain  day  he  and  another 
young  man,  accompanied  by  two  young  ladies, 
drove  thirty  miles  to  attend  a  meeting  on  Otter 
Creek,  where  Streator  now  stands.  They  spent 
the  night  at  a  Mr.  Brock's  home,  and  while  there 
our  subject  met  the  young  lady,  who  was  working 
for  the  family  at  the  meager  wage  of  seventy-five 
cents  per  week.  She  had  been  left  motherless  at 
the  age  of  twelve,  and  was  obliged  to  earn  her 
own  living.  Mr.  Haws  was  very  much  impressed 
by  her  appearance,  and  before  returning  home  had 
arranged  to  call  on  her  at  the  end  of  two  weeks. 
He  visited  her  a  few  times  and  then  discontinued 
his  visits,  but  it  was  not  long  before  he  once  over- 
took her  walking  into  the  village  of  Magnolia, 
where  she  was  to  work  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Cowen. 
He  was  delighted  to  see  her,  and  during  the  fol- 
lowing winter  called  on  her  regularly.  When  he 
finally  asked  her  to  marry  him  she  refused,  be- 
cause she  had  not  the  clothes  or  the  money  with 
which  to  get  them.  He,  however,  had  saved  some 
gold  and  silver  coin  and  this  he  gave  her  to  buy  a 
dress,  and  on  the  26th  of  April,  1848,  at  Fisher's 
Hotel  at  Lacon,  Illinois-,  were  married  Thomas  G. 
Haws  and  Mary  Jane  Ewing  and  also  Henry  Coe 
and  Mary  Ann  Hunt,  all  of  Magnolia,  the  cere- 
mony being  performed  by  Captain  Springer,  jus- 
tice of  the  peace.  Our  subject  brought  his  bride 
to  his  father's  home  and  they  were  all  pleased  with 
their  new  daughter-in-law. 

At  the  time  of  his  marriage  Mr.  Haws'  prop- 
erty consisted  mainly  of  four  horses,  a  wagon,  a 
set  of  harness  and  thirty  dollars  in  money,  but  as 
the  years  passed  he  steadily  prospered  in  his  un- 
dertakings and  soon  became  a  well-to-do  man. 
Locating  in  the  village  of  Magnolia,  he  dealt  in 
horses  for  many  years  and  later  purchased  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land  a  mile  and  a  half 


PAST   AND   PBBSENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


281 


east  of  the  village,  turning  his  attention  to  agri- 
cultural pursuits.  He  has  always  lived,  however, 
in  the  village,  going  back  and  forth  to  his  work 
each  day.  Since  the  Civil  war  he  has  lived  at  his 
present  residence.  For  his  first  eighty  acres  he 
paid  twenty-five  dollars  per  acre,  and  for  the  sec- 
ond eighty,  forty-three  hundred  dollars.  Being  a 
good,  reliable  business  man,  his  credit  has  been 
good  and  he  has  been  able  to  borrow  any  amount 
of  money. 

Mr.  Haws  has  been  called  upon  to  mourn  the 
loss  of  his  estimable  wife,  who  passed  away  on  the 
5th  of  February,  1905,  her  death  being  regretted 
by  all  who  knew  her.  During  the  long  years  of 
their  happy  married  life  she  was  never  known  to 
utter  a  harsh  word,  and  their  relations  were  al- 
ways of  the  most  pleasant.  She  was  the  first  to 
be  laid  to  rest  in  Magnolia  cemetery,  and  he  has 
recently  erected  a  four  hundred  dollar  monument 
to  her  memory.  She  was  a  life-long  member  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  to  which  Mr. 
Haws  also  belonged  in  early  life,  and  she  was  a 
noble  Christian  woman,  loved  by  all  who  knew 
her.  Her  father  and  mother,  belonged  to  the  same 
church. 

Nine  children  were  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Haws, 
namely :  Vivian,  who  lives  on  a  farm  in  Magnolia 
township;  Eva,  now  the  wife  of  Louis  Simpson, 
whose  home  is  in  Henry;  Cyril,  who  resides  on  a 
farm  in  Magnolia  township ;  Delia,  wife  of  Ash 
Judd,  living  in  Wenona,  Illinois;  Clark,  who  is 
single  and  lives  upon  his  father's  farm ;  John,  who 
when  last  heard  from  was  in  a  hospital  at  St. 
Louis,  Missouri;  Wilbur,  who  is  a  clerk  in  the 
office  of  the  Pan-Handle  Railroad  at  Chicago ;  and 
two  children  who  died  in  infancy. 

Since  attaining  his  majority  Mr.  Haws  has  al- 
ways affiliated  with  the  democratic  party,  and  for 
three  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  village  board, 
but  he  has  never  cared  for  political  honors  nor  has 
he  filled  any  other  office.  Since  the  death  of  his 
wife  his  granddaughter  has  kept  house  for  him, 
and  they  have  a  nice  home  in  Magnolia,  surround- 
ed by  ten  acres  of  land.  He  is  today  the  oldest 
Odd  Fellow  living  in  the  village,  and  is  highly 
respected  by  all  who  know  him.  Having  come  to 
the  county  in  early  pioneer  days,  he  has  witnessed 
almost  the  entire  changes  that  have  been  made  in 
transforming  the  wilderness  into  highly  cultivated 
farms  and  beautiful  homes.  He  can  relate  many 
interesting  incidents  of  those  early  days  when 


the  Indians  still  camped  in  the  woods  north  of 
town.  He  used  to  put  a  penny  in  the  split  end 
of  a  stick  and  let  the  Indian  boys  shoot  at  it  at  a 
distance  of  twenty-five  steps.  If  they  hit  the  mark 
at  the  first  shot  the  penny  was  theirs,  but  if  they 
failed  they  must  give  one  to  our  subject.  He  says 
he  never  won  a  penny  from  them  in  this  way,  as 
they  hit  it  every  time.  At  that  time  the  postage 
on  a  letter  was  twenty-five  cents,  and  money  was 
very  scarce.  Mr.  Haws  often  hauled  pork  to  Henry 
and  Lacon  with  a  two-horse  team,  and  made  three 
trips  to  Chicago  with  wheat,  receiving  only  fifty 
cents  per  bushel.  But  all  this  has  long  since  been 
changed,  and  now  his  products  are  conveyed  to  the 
city  market  in  a  few  hours  by  rail. 


WILLIAM  RIDDELL. 

William  Riddell,  one  of  the  most  prominent 
representatives  of  financial  interests  in  Sparland, 
where  as  president  of  the  Sparland  Bank  he  is 
occupying  a  foremost  position  in  business  circles, 
was  born  in  Scotland,  November  21,  1844.  The 
days  of  his  boyhood  and  youth  were  passed  in  that 
country  and  in  1866  he  came  to  the  United 
States  and  made  his  way  to  Marshall  county.  In 
early  years  of  his  residence  here  he  engaged  in 
general  agricultural  pursuits  for  five  or  six  years 
and  subsequently  he  turned  his  attention  to  ship- 
ping stock.  For  thirty-two  years  the  grain  trade 
figured  as  a  prominent  feature  in  his  business  and 
in  May,  1903,  he  became  president  of  the  Spar- 
land  Bank,  with  H.  E.  Westcott  as  its  cashier. 
This  is  a  private  bank,  having  back  of  it  personal 
resources  to  the  amount  of  eight  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  Mr  Riddell  has  also  various  other  finan- 
cial interests  and  his  wise  counsel  and  keen  dis- 
crimination are  valued  factors  in  the  successful  es- 
tablishment and  control  of  a  number  of  important 
business  concerns  of  the  county.  He  possesses 
keen  discrimination  and  marked  sagacity  and  is  a 
man  of  enterprise,  positive  character,  indomitable 
energy,  strict  integrity  and  liberal  views,  and  has 
been  fully  identified  with  the  growth  and  pros- 
perity of  the  state  of  his  adoption. 

In  1881  Mr.  Riddell  was  married  to  Miss  Mary 
Smith,  of  this  county,  and  they  became  parents  of 
three  children,  of  whom  two  are  living.  In  his 
political  views  Mr.  Riddell  is  a  stalwart  republican, 
having  supported  the  party  since  he  became  a  nat- 
uralized American  citizen.  He  holds  member- 
ship in  the  United  Presbyterian  church  and  stands 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


for  all  that  is  ennobling  and  uplifting  in  the  so- 
cial life  of  the  community.  He  has  always  been 
prominent  in  public  affairs,  yet  without  aspiration 
for  office,  and  no  one  has  been  more  actively  or 
commendably  interested  in  the  welfare  and  devel- 
opment of  this  part  of  the  state.  Viewed  from  a 
business  standpoint  he  has  a  most  creditable  rec- 
ord, having  persevered  in  the  pursuit  of  a  per- 
sistent purpose  and  thus  gained  a  most  satisfac- 
tory reward.  His  life  is  exemplary  in  many  re- 
spects and  he  has  the  esteem  of  his  friends  and  the 
confidence  of  those  who  have  had  business  rela- 
tions with  him. 


FREDERICK  W.   SUCHER. 

Native  and  acquired  ability  have  well  qualified 
Frederick  W.  Sucher  to  become  a  leader  of  public 
thought  and  action  and  he  exerts  no  inconsiderable 
influence  in  community  affairs,  as  has  been  mani- 
fest in  the  fact  that  his  fellow  townsmen  have 
frequently  called  him  to  public  office,  thus  giving 
proof  of  their  recognition  of  his  worth  and  ability. 
At  the  present  writing  he  is  serving  as  chairman 
of  the  board  of  county  supervisors  as  representa- 
tive from  Granville  township  and  is  proving  a 
most  capable  official.  His  business  interests  are 
those  of  the  farm  and  he  now  owns  and  operates 
a  good  property  of  three  hundred  and  twenty 
acres  on  section  12,  Granville  township. 

Mr.  Sucher  was  born  in  Downers  Grove,  Du- 
page  county,  Illinois,  on  the  llth  of  March,  1852 
and  is  a  son  of  Jacob  and  Katherine  (Krebs) 
Sucher,  mention  of  whom  is  made  on  another 
page  of  this  volume.  They  removed  from  Down- 
ers Grove  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  about  1858 
and  Frederick  W.  Sucher,  then  six  years  of  age 
became  a  student  in  the  district  schools  here, 
while  later  he  completed  his  education  in  the 
public  school  of  Granville.  He  has  always  re- 
mained upon  the  old  homestead  and  at  the  age 
of  twenty-one  years  he  began  farming  for  himself 
At  length  he  purchased  a  half  section  of  land 
from  his  father,  the  north  quarter  of  which  was 
his  father's  old  homestead.  On  the  south  quarter 
he  erected  buildings,  including  a  fine  residence 
and  other  good  substantial  structures.  Here  he 
has  since  made  his  home  and  his  is  one  of  the 
well  developed  farm  properties  of  the  county 
indicating  in  its  neat  and  attractive  appearance 
a  life  of  industry  and  close  application. 


On  the  22d  of  February,  1881,  Mr.  Sucher  was 
married  to  Miss  Eleanor  A.  Bender,  a  native  of 
Granville  and  a  daughter  of  Jacob  Bender.  Mr 
and  Mrs.  Sucher  now  have  three  children :  Victor 
E.,  twenty-one  years  of  age;  Howard  J.,  a  young 
man  of  twenty  years;  and  Oliver  W.,  a  youth 
of  fifteen.  All  are  still  with  their  parents  upon 
the  home  farm. 

Mr.  Sucher  carries  on  general  agricultural  pur- 
suits and  has  recently  platted  a  town  which  he 
has  named  Standard.  The  Berry  Coal  Company 
has  at  a  late  date  opened  up  and  is  now  operating 
a  shaft  on  the  farm  adjoining  Mr.  Sucher's  place 
and  it  was  this  that  led  him  to  plat  six  blocks  in 
the  northwest  corner  of  his  farm.  It  has  been 
divided  up  into  seventy-five  lots,  thirty-four  of 
which  have  already  been  sold.  Wherever  coal  is 
mined  extensively  a  village  is  bound  to  spring  up 
and  in  a  short  time  there  will  undoubtedly  be  a 
thriving  town  in  this  locality. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Sucher  has  always 
been  a  stalwart  democrat,  having  firm  faith  in 
the  principles  of  that  party.  Upon  its  ticket  he  has 
been  elected  to  several  local  offices,  serving  now  for 
the  second  term  as  supervisor  from  Granville 
township,  whle  at  this  writing,  in  1906,  he  is  act- 
ing as  chairman  of  the  county  board.  He  has  also 
been  assessor  for  two  terms  and  collector  for  one 
term  and  is  regarded  as  a  most  public-spirited 
man,  whose  official  record  is  above  reproach,  while 
in  his  private  life  he  has  manifested  those  sterling 
traits  of  character  which  in  every  land  and  clime 
command  esteem,  confidence  and  good  will.  In 
his  business  affairs  he  shows  keen  discernment  and 
capable  management,  utilizing  modern  methods 
and  the  latest  improved  machinery.  No  man  in 
the  community  occupies  a  higher  position  in  public 
regard  than  Fred  Sucher  and  as  a  representative 
citizen  we  take  pleasure  in  presenting  him  to  our 
readers. 


ARTHUR  McADAM. 

Arthur  McAdam  is  the  owner  of  a  fine  stock 
farm  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  acres  on  sec- 
tions 10  and  11,  Evans  township.  He  was  born 
in  the  city  of  Wenona  in  1868,  and  is  a  son  of 
G.  G.  McAdam,  a  native  of  Ohio,  who  came  to 
Illinois  when  a  young  man  with  his  parents  and 
located  in  Evans  township,  where  he  worked  at 
the  carpenter's  trade.  He  built  a  great  many 
houses  in  this  neighborhood,  and  afterward  gave 


PAST    AiS'D    PRKSKNT    OF    U AKSIIALL    AND    PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


885 


his  attention  to  general  agricultural  pursuits, 
which  he  followed  up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
becoming  owner  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
of  land,  which  he  carefully  tilled  and  improved. 
He  was  called  to  various  public  offices,  serving 
as  tax  collector  for  a  number  of  years,  and  was 
also  secretary  of  the  County  Fair  Association  for 
sixteen  years,  in  which  connection  he  did  much 
to  stimulate  progress  and  improvement  among 
agricultural  pursuits.  He  exercised  his  right  of 
franchise  in  support  of  the  men  and  measures 
of  the  republican  party,  and  in  his  religious  faith 
was  a  Presbyterian.  He  died  a  devoted  member 
of  that  church  in  1903  at  the  age  of  sixty  years. 
In  early  manhood  he  had  wedded  Mary  Elizabeth 
Moore,  who  was  born  in  Kokomo,  Indiana,  a 
daughter  of  David  Moore,  who  was  a  farmer  of 
Evans  township  from  the  time  of  the  Civil  war 
until  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1902.  His 
wife,  Mrs.  Anna  Moore,  passed  away  in  1888.  In 
the  family  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  McAdam  were  three 
children :  Ulysses  Grant,  a  resident  farmer  living 
in  Evans  township;  William  T.,  who  also  follows 
farming  in  the  same  township;  and  Arthur. 

In  his  early  boyhood  days  Arthur  McAdam  ac- 
companied his  parents  on  their  removal  to  a  farm 
in  Evans  township  and  his  boyhood  days  were 
spent  under  the  parental  roof  and  in  attendance 
at  district  school  No.  5.  He  was  early  trained  to 
the  work  of  field  and  meadow,  and  when  twenty- 
one  years  of  age  started  out  upon  an  independent 
business  career,  at  which  time  he  possessed  only 
a  team  and  farming  machinery.  With  this  to 
serve  as  a  nucleus  around  which  to  gather  more 
extensive  possessions  he  has  continually  added  to 
his  holdings,  until  he  is  now  the  owner  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty-five  acres  of  valuable  land 
situated  in  the  edge  of  the  timber  and  constitut- 
ing a  fine  stock  farm.  He  also  owns  property  in 
Wenona  and  in  Streator,  Illinois.  He  is  a  lover 
of  good  road  horses  and  always  keeps  a  number  of 
fine  head  upon  his  place.  All  of  his  live  stock 
is  of  good  grades  and  his  farm  is  well  improved 
in  accordance  with  modern  methods  of  agricultural 
development. 

In  1893  Mr.  McAdam  was  married  to  Miss 
Martha  Butcher,  who  was  born  in  Wetzel  county, 
West  Virginia,  in  1869,  and  is  a  daughter  of 
Eobert  J.  and  Harriett  Butcher.  Mr.  McAdam  is 
a  supporter  of  the  republican  party.  His  wife 
belongs  to  the  Christian  church  and  both  are 


highly  esteemed  people,  having  a  wide  and  favor- 
able acquaintance  in  the  county  in  which  their 
entire  lives  have  been  passed,  both  being  repre- 
sentatives of  worthy  pioneer  families  of  this  part 
of  the  state. 


LOUIS  M.  ELK. 

Louis  M.  Elk,  who  for  three  years  has  resided 
in  Henry,  prior  to  which  time  his  life  was  de- 
voted to  general  agricultural  pursuits,  was  born  in 
the  southern  part  of  Sweden  on  the  24th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1844.  His  parents,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morton 
Larson,  are  both  deceased.  In  the  land  of  his 
birth  Louis  M.  Elk  was  reared  and  educated  and 
when  a  young  man  of  twenty-four  years  he  deter- 
mined to  seek  his  home  in  America,  for  the  busi- 
ness outlook  in  his  native  country  was  not  as 
favorable  as  that  offered  in  the  United  States. 
Accordingly  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  on  the 
20th  of  June,  1869,  landed  at  Quebec,  Canada. 
He  at  once  made  his  way  to  the  middle  Missis- 
sippi valley  and  became  a  resident  of  Princeton, 
Bureau  county.  Having  but  limited  capital  at  the 
time  of  his  arrival,  it  was  necessary  that  he  secure 
immediate  employment  and  he  found  work  as  a 
farm  hand,  being  thus  employed  for  several  years 
or  until  his  labors  had  brought  him  sufficient  cap- 
ital to  enable  him  to  engage  in  farming  on  his 
own  account.  He  first  rented  land  in  Saratoga 
township,  Marshall  county,  in  1878  and  resided 
thereon  for  three  years,  after  which  he  removed 
to  another  farm,  which  was  his  place  of  residence 
for  sixteen  years.  He  then  removed  to  the  north- 
west, settling  in  Douglas  county,  South  Dakota, 
where  he  purchased  two  hundred  and  eighty  acres 
of  land  upon  which  he  lived  for  eight  years.  His 
entire  life  has  been  devoted  to  general  agricultural 
pursuits  until  in  1899  he  retired  from  active  busi- 
ness cares  and  is  now  enjoying  a  rest  which  he  has 
truly  earned  and  richly  deserves.  He  has  resided 
in  this  part  of  the  state  continuously  since  1869 
with  the  exception  of  the  eight  years  passed  in 
Dakota  and  is  well  known  in  agricultural  circles. 

Mr.  Elk  was  married  on  the  24th  of  March. 
1885,  to  Mrs.  Ursula  M.  Tanquary,  widow  of  Mil- 
ton Tanquary,  and  a  daughter  of  J.  P.  and  Mary 
(Foster)  Swift.  Her  father  was  a  farmer  in  Bu- 
reau county,  but  both  he  and  his  wife  are  now 
deceased.  Mrs.  Elk  has  two  children  by  her  first 
marriage,  Curtis  and  Ethel  E.,  now  the  wife  of 


886 


PAST    AND    PHKSEXT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    PUTNAM   COUNTIKS. 


Andrew  Kelly.  Mr.  Elk  is  independent  in  his 
political  views  and  affiliation.  He  belongs  to  the 
Modern  Woodmen  camp  at  Henry,  Illinois.  Both 
he  and  his  wife  are  devoted  members  of  the  Metho- 
dist church,  in  which  he  has  served  as  steward. 
Mr.  Elk  has  no  occasion  to  regret  his  determina- 
tion to  come  to  the  new  world,  for  here  he  has 
found  a  good  home  and  many  warm  friends,  while 
through  the  improvement  of  business  conditions 
he  made  substantial  advancement  and  is  now  in 
possession  of  a  very  desirable  competence  as  the 
reward  of  his  industry  and  perseverance. 


EICHAED  E.  HILLS. 

The  commercial  history  of  Henry  would  be 
incomplete  without  mention  of  Richard  E.  Hills, 
who  for  many  years  figured  prominently  in  busi- 
ness circles  here  and  his  activity  and  enterprise 
made  him  a  leading  merchant  and  gained  him  a 
gratifying  measure  of  success.  He  was  born  in 
Waterloo,  Seneca  county,  New  York,  January  24, 
1825,  and  was  a  representative  of  an  old  New 
England  family,  his  parents  being  Elisha  and 
Elizabeth  (Catlin)  Hills.  The  father  was  born 
in  Connecticut  and  for  forty  years  engaged  in 
merchandising  in  Waterloo,  New  York,  where 
his  death  occurred  in  1856.  His  wife  has  also 
passed  away.  In  their  family  were  eight  children, 
but  only  two  are  now  living,  the  daughter  being 
Helen  P.  Hills,  who  resides  in  Chicago. 

Eichard  E.  Hills,  reared  under  the  parental 
roof,  acquired  his  early  education  in  the  public 
schools  of  Waterloo  and  afterward  attended  the 
academy  there.  Throughout  his  active  business 
career  he  was  identified  with  commercial  inter- 
ests and  while  still  living  in  the  east  engaged 
in  the  grocery  and  dry-goods  business  on  his  own 
account.  The  west,  however,  attracted  'him  and 
in  1855  he  became  a  resident  of  St.  Charles,  Illi- 
nois, where  he  established  a  store  which  he  con- 
ducted for  ten  years.  He  then  came  to  Henry, 
where  he  purchased  a  business  which  he  carried 
on  for  thirty  consecutive  years  and  then  sold  oxit 
to  C.  E.  Smith,  who  still  occupies  the  same  loca- 
tion. Thus  the  name  of  Eichard  E.  Hills  is 
inseparably  interwoven  with  the  commercial  rec- 
ords of  the  city.  He  always  carried  a  well  se- 
lected and  large  line  of  goods  and  made  every 
effort  to  please  his  patrons.  His  business  meth- 
ods were  such  as  would  bear  the  closest  investiga- 
tion and  scrutiny  and  his  commercial  integrity 


and  honor  were  unassailable.  As  the  years  passed 
by  he  prospered  and  in  the  evening  of  life  he 
retired  to  enjoy  throughout  his  remaining  days  a 
well-earned  rest. 

Mr.  Hills  was  married  in  1849  to  Miss  Eliza- 
beth F.  Owens,  of  Geneva,  New  York,  and  for 
many  years  they  traveled  life's  journey  together, 
but  were  separated  through  the  death  of  the  wife 
in  1883.  Mr.  Hills  is  a  republican  in  his  politi- 
cal views,  having  supported  the  party  since  its 
organization.  For  one  term  he  served  as  alder- 
man of  the  third  ward  in  Henry.  He  has  pre- 
ferred that  his  public  service,  however,  should  be 
done  as  a  private  citizen  rather  than  an  office 
holder,  and  he  has  withheld  his  support  from  no 
plan  or  purpose  for  the  general  good.  He  favors 
the  Presbyterian  church,  and  a  life  of  business 
integrity  and  his  probity  in  public  and  private 
affairs  have  gained  for  him  a  foremost  place  as 
a  representative  and  honored  resident  of  Henry. 


BEENAED  YAEGEE. 

Bernard  Yaeger,  who  is  now  living  retired  in 
Henry,  was  born  in  what  is  now  Alsace,  Germany, 
January  16,  1831,  a  son  of  France  Antone  and 
Katherine  Yaeger,  who  were  likewise  natives  of 
Alsace  and  were  members  of  the  Catholic  church. 
The  father  followed  the  occupation  of  farming. 
In  the  family  were  six  children,  of  whom  Ber- 
nard Yaeger  is  the  youngest.  He  was  educated  in 
the  schools  of  his  native  place  and  there  mastered 
both  the  French  and  German  languages,  after 
which  he  learned  the  trade  of  shoemaking.  A 
consideration  of  the  business  outlook  of  that  coun- 
try led  him  to  the  determination  to  try  his  for- 
tune in  America,  and  in  April,  1853,  he  came  to 
the  United  States  and  settled  in  Chicago,  whore 
he  remained  until  1854,  conducting  a  shoe  shop 
there.  There  was  an  epidemic  of  cholera  in  that 
year  and  he  removed  to  Henry,  where  he  worked 
at  his  trade  for  two  years.  On  the  expiration  of 
that  period  he  established  a  saloon,  which  he  con- 
ducted until  1867,  when  he  opened  a  shoe  store, 
which  he  carried  on  for  two  years.  He  then  sold 
his  store  and  in  1884  he  retired,  turning  over  his 
saloon  to  his  son,  since  which  time  he  has  lived  in 
the  enjoyment  of  a  well  earned  rest.  In  1904  he 
bought  out  the  Steam  Soda  Water  Bottling  Works 
and  placed  his  .son  in  charge. 

In  1857  Mr.  Yaeger  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Katherine  Schick,  who  was  born  in  Bavaria, 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


287 


Germany,  in  1836  and  came  to  the  United  States 
in  1856  with  her  parents,  Frederick  and  Kather- 
ine  Schick,  who  were  pioneer  farming  people  of 
Putnam  county.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Yaeger  were 
born  two  children :  Henry,  who  is  now  conducting 
the.  bottling  works ;  and  Ella,  the  wife  of  Joseph 
A.  Schafer,  who  is  a  job  printer  of  Peoria.  The 
parents  are  members  of  St.  Mary's  Catholic 
church  and  Mr.  Yeager  is  a  stalwart  democrat, 
inflexible  in  his  support  of  the  party.  He  has 
served  as  a  member  of  the  city  council  and  also 
as  highway  commissioner  and  he  is  a  director  of 
the  Henry  bridge  board.  He  is  numbered  among 
the  successful  and  enterprising  business  men  of 
Henry  and  is  now  living  on  a  competence  in  hon- 
orable retirement  from  further  business  cares.  He 
made  no  mistake  in  his  determination  to  try  his 
fortimes  in  America,  for  in  this  country  he  has 
prospered  and  as  the  years  have  gone  by  has  accu- 
mulated a  goodly  sum  for  the  evening  of  life. 


EDWARD  TANQUARY. 

Edward  Tanquary,  carrying  on  general  farming 
on  section  8,  Steuben  township,  was  born  in  1870 
in  the  township  which  is  still  his  place  of  resi- 
dence. His  father,  Cornelius  Tanquary,  was  born 
in  Pickaway  county,  Ohio,  December  12,  1832, 
and  died  September  2,  1904.  He  came  to  Illinois 
in  1835  when  this  portion  of  the  state  was  a  fron- 
tier district,  its  wild,  uncultivated  lands  being  still 
covered  with  the  native  prairie  grasses,  while  few 
roads  had  been  made  across  the  country  to  indi- 
cate that  civilization  was  moving  westward.  He 
located  two  mlies  north  of  Sparland,  where  he 
engaged  in  farming,  and  he  was  also  well  known 
all  over  the  county  as  an  auctioneer.  In  public 
affairs  he  bore  his  part,  serving  as  assessor  for 
two  years  and  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  su- 
pervisors for  a  number  of  terms.  He  held  other 
responsible  local  positions,  the  duties  of  which  he 
discharged  with  promptness  and  fidelity.  He  re- 
mained a  resident  of  Marshall  county  until  his 
death.  In  early  manhood  he  wedded  Sarah  Huff 
and  they  removed  to  a  farm  near  his  parents' 
home.  He  always  took  an  active  interest  in  the 
old  settlers'  picnics,  finding  much  pleasure  in  re- 
newing the  acquaintances  of  earlier  years  and  in 
recalling  the  scenes  and  events  of  pioneer  times. 
He  was  also  one  of  the  singing  masters  of  the 
early  days  and  frequently  conducted  as  many  as 
three  singing  classes  at  a  time  in  different  locali- 


ties. He  was  termed  one  of  the  "most  honorable 
and  respected  citizens  of  Steuben  township."  He 
was  a  regular  attendant  at  the  services  of  Bethel 
church,  in  Steuben  township,  and  there  the  funeral 
was  held,  on  which  occasion  was  assembled  one 
of  the  largest  gatherings  of  people  in  the  county, 
showing  the  high  esteem  in  which  he  was  held. 
He  had  resided  in  Marshall  county  for  sixty- 
seven  years  and  by  all  who  knew  him,  both  young 
and  old,  rich  and  poor,  he  was  esteemed  and  hon- 
ored. His  wife,  who  was  born  in  Ross  county, 
Ohio,  April  9,  1839,  died  February  16,  1904.  They 
were  members  of  the  Methodist  church.  In  their 
family  were  the  following  named :  Ada,  who  lives 
about  twenty  miles  from  Wichita,  Kansas ;  Martha, 
residing  at  Whitefield  Corners,  in  this  county ; 
Eva,  deceased;  Olive,  at  Whitefield  Corners;  Eliz- 
abeth, who  has  passed  away;  Harriet,  also  at 
Whitefield  Corners ;  Edward,  of  Sparland ;  Bertha, 
a  resident  of  Lincoln,  Nebraska ;  and  Charles,  who 
is  living  in  Los  Angeles,  California. 

Edward  Tanquary  spent  his  boyhood  days  on 
the  home  farm  near  Sparland  and  attended  the 
Drake  school.  Through  the  summer  months  he 
aided  in  the  work  of  the  fields  and  thus  became 
familiar  with  all  of  the  duties  that  fall  to  the  lot 
of  the  agriculturist.  He  started  out  in  life  on 
his  own  account  in  1892,  renting  a  farm  in  White- 
field  township  from  C.  C.  Smith.  He  lived  upon 
the  place  for  two  years  and  afterward  spent  a 
year  upon  the  Henry  Suft  farm,  in  Steuben  town- 
ship. He  then  removed  to  the  Ellis  Thompson 
place,  in  Steuben  township,  where  he  lived  for  a 
year,  and  for  ten  years  has  resided  upon  the 
Thomas  Doran  farm,  which  he  is  carefully  culti- 
vating, annually  harvesting  therefrom  rich  crops. 

Mr.  Tanquary  was  married  on  the  13th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1892,  in  Bethel  Methodist  Episcopal  church, 
to  Miss  Delia  T.  Thompson,  who  was  born  Octo- 
ber 15,  1870,  and  spent  her  girlhood  days  near 
Sparland,  during  which  time  she  was  a  student 
in  the  Bethel  school.  Her  father,  Thornton 
Thompson,  was  born  near  Sparland,  September  10, 
1839,  and  was  a  representative  of  one  of  the 
pioneer  families  of  the  county.  He  followed  farm- 
ing for  many  years  in  Steuben  township  and  died 
February  27,  1889.  At  the  time  of  the  Civil  war 
he  became  a  member  of  Company  E,  Eighty-sixth 
regiment  of  Illinois  volunteers,  and  participated 
in  several  important  battles.  He  lived  a  quiet,  re- 
tired life,  but  was  respected  by  all  who  knew  him. 


288 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


His  political  support  was  given  the  republican 
party.  His  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden  name  of 
Amelia  Callen,  was  born  near  Loda,  Illinois,  Oc- 
tober 7,  1843,  and  they  were  married  in  the  Spar- 
land  Methodist  church  April  11,  1867.  Mrs. 
Thompson  passed  away  November  12,  1884.  Their 
children  were :  Effa,  now  living  in  Chillicothe, 
Illinois;  Delia,  of  Sparland;  Alice,  deceased;  Le- 
ona,  of  San  Diego,  California;  Leslie,  at  Los  An- 
geles, California ;  William,  of  Osceola,  Wisconsin ; 
and  Elsie,  deceased. 

The  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tanquary  has  been 
blessed  by  one  daughter,  Rena  May,  thirteen  years 
of  age.  The  parents  belong  to  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal church  and  he  gives  his  political  allegiance 
to  the  republican  party.  He  has  been  assessor  for 
one  year  and  also  school  director  and  is  a  worthy 
man  of  good  business  ability,  wide  awake,  alert 
and  enterprising,  who  in  public  affairs  and  pri- 
vate life  accomplishes  what  he  undertakes  and 
brings  about  desired  results. 


ENOCH  GEORGE  GREEN. 

Enoch  George  Green,  who  for  many  years  was 
connected  with  agricultural  pursuits  in  Whitefield 
township  and  was  one  of  the  prominent  and  re- 
spected residents  of  the  county,  was  born  in  Sara- 
toga county,  New  York,  September  17,  1827.  His 
parents  were  Philip  and  Nancy  (Addington) 
Green,  whose  family  numbered  twelve  children. 
In  1837  they  removed  with  their  family  to  Illi- 
nois, settling  in  Peoria  county,  where  Enoch 
George  Green  remained  until  1849.  He  was  edu- 
cated in  the  public  schools  of  New  York  and  Illi- 
nois, arriving  in  the  latter  state  when  a  youth 
of  ten  years.  On  leaving  Peoria  county  in  1849 
he  removed  to  a  farm  in  Henry  township,  Mar- 
shall county,  where  he  resided  for  several  years 
and  then  took  up  his  residence  in  the  city  of 
Henry,  being  engaged  in  the  lumber  business  at 
that  place  for  some  time.  He  afterward  removed 
to  a  farm  in  Whitefield  township,  where  he  owned 
two  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  land,  and  success- 
fully carried  on  general  agricultural  pursuits, 
placing  his  land  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation, 
so  that  it  became  very  productive  and  profitable. 

On  the  20th  of  November,  1849,  was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  Mr.  Green  and  Miss  Harriet  M. 
Coykendall,  who  was  born  at  Bakers  Bridge  in  Alle- 
gany  county,  New  York,  November  20, 1832.  She 
is  a  daughter  of  J.  B.  Coykendall,  who  was  born  in 


New  Jersey  and  was  a  blacksmith  by  trade.  He 
came  to  Illinois  in  1836  and  settled  six  miles 
north  of  Canton,  where  he  owned  a  large  farm 
and  in  connection  with  its  cultivation  conducted 
a  blacksmith  shop  upon  his  place.  Later,  how- 
ever, he  concentrated  his  energies  upon  his  agri- 
cultural interests.  His  political  allegiance  was 
given  to  the  democracy,  of  which  he  was  a  stanch 
advocate.  He  married  Miss  Rhoda  Roberts,  a 
native  of  Rhode  Island.  The  Coykendall  family 
arrived  here  a  year  before  the  removal  of  the 
Greens  from  New  York  and  settled  on  a  farm 
about  two  miles  from  the  Green  home. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Coykendall  were  born  nine 
children,  five  sons  and  four  daughters,  of  whom 
one  daughter  died  in  infancy.  Five  of  the  eight 
children  who  reached  maturity  became  school 
teachers  and  two  were  quite  prominent.  Eliza- 
beth died  at  the  age  of  thirty-eight  years.  Mrs. 
Mary  Catherine  Grayson,  who  engaged  in  teaching 
for  twenty-five  years,  lives  at  Russell,  Iowa.  She 
and  her  husband  own  a  large  farm  and  also  good 
town  property  and  are  now  living  retired.  D.  B. 
and  A.  J.  Coykendall  followed  the  blacksmith's 
trade  and  died  near  Canton,  Illinois.  Jonathan 
Coykendall  learned  harnessmaking  and  saddlery 
in  his  youth  and  went  to  St.  Louis  and  New  York 
to  perfect  his  trade.  In  1849,  during  the  gold 
excitement  on  the  Pacific  slope,  he  paid  one  hun- 
dred dollars  to  join  a  company  and  drove  an  ox 
team  across  the  plains  and  at  length  arrived  at 
Hangtown.  For  some  time  he  engaged  in  mining 
in  the  vicinity  of  Diamond  Springs  and  from  there 
to  Alamath  and  Salmon  river,  where  he  met  with 
an  accident,  his  leg  being  broken  twice  by  the 
caving  in  of  dirt.  As  there  was  no  physician  in 
the  locality  he  and  his  partner  had  to  set  it,  but  as 
he  said  that  not  being  in  their  line  of  business 
they  did  not  do  a  very  good  job.  Returning  east 
he  established  a  store  at  Farmington,  Illinois, 
where  he  dealt  in  clothing,  boots  and  shoes  and 
took  out  a  patent  for  a  dirt  excluder  shoe,  which 
proved  a  success.  He  could  not,  however,  forget 
sunny  California  and  finally  returned  to  that  state, 
locating  in  San  Jose,  where  he  purchased  a  mar- 
ket and  engaged  in  the  wholesale  meat  business, 
dealing  in  hams,  bacon  and  lard.  At  first  he  had 
to  go  to  Chicago  for  his  meats.  Later  he  erected 
a  magnificent  brick  market,  which  was  mostly  de- 
stroyed by  the  recent  earthquake.  Besides  his  city 
property  he  owned  a  fine  fruit  ranch  and  was  al- 


EXOCH  G.   (iRKKX. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


ways  proud  of  the  fact  that  he  a  "forty-niner." 
Being  thrown  from  his  carriage  he  had  the  same 
leg  broken  again  and  never  recovered  from  the 
injury,  dying  ten  weeks  later.  His  funeral  was 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Pioneer  Society  and  the 
Masons  and  his  body  was  cremated  and  interred  in 
Cypress  Lawn  cemetery,  San  Francisco.  John  R. 
and  Horatio  G.  Coykendall  were  born  and  reared 
on  the  home  farm  in  this  state  and  attended  the 
neighboring  schools.  When  the  Civil  war  broke 
out  they  enlisted  in  the  First  Illinois  Cavalry  and 
were  captured  by  the  Confederates.  John  R.  was 
made  captain  of  Company  G  in  the  regiment  com- 
manded by  Colonel  Robert  Ingersoll  and  remained 
in  the  service  until  the  close  of  the  war.  He  now 
lives  in  Piedmont,  Oklahoma.  Horatio  G.  also 
won  a  captaincy  for  meritorious  service  in  many 
a  hard  fought  battle.  After  the  war  he  engaged  in 
railroad  building  on  an  extensive  scale,  building 
more  miles  of  railroad  than  any  man  living  at 
that  time.  His  home  life  was  exemplary.  He 
possessed  a  kind  and  sympathetic  nature  and  was 
a  consistent  Christian  and  worthy  citizen.  He  was 
a  man  of  iron  will  and  great  energy — a  typical 
man  of  the  northwest,  his  home  being  at  Merriam 
Park,  St.  Paul,  Minnesota.  He  died  from  the 
effects  of  an  operation  for  gallstones  at  Rochester, 
that  state.  Socially  he  was  a  member  of  Minne- 
sota Commandery  of  the  Military  Order  of  the 
Loyal  Legion  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Green  became  the  parents  of  eight 
children,  but  only  two  are  now  living,  namely : 
Charles  A.,  who  lives  with  his  mother  in  White- 
field  township;  and  Minnie  Hortense,  the  wife  of 
C.  C.  Smith,  of  Henry.  Those  deceased  are  Liz- 
zie, who  died  at  the  age  of  ten  years ;  and  Lula, 
Lillie,  Dolly,  Phoebe  and  Ernest,  who  all  died  in 
infancy.  After  a  useful  and  well  spent  life  Mr. 
Green  passed  away  on  the  3d  of  June,  1895,  when 
he  was  sixty-eight  years  of  age.  He  held  a  num- 
ber of  different  offices  and  was  very  prominent 
and  influential  in  local  affairs.  His  service  as 
justice  of  the  peace  won  him  the  title  of  squire, 
by  which  he  was  sometimes  known.  He  gave  his 
political  allegiance  to  the  republican  party  and 
bore  a  conspicuous  and  helpful  part  in  matters 
relating  to  the  general  welfare.  He  ever  bore  a 
high  reputation  for -ability,  loyalty  and  integrity 
and  wherever  known  he  commanded  the  respect 
and  confidence  of  his  fellow  citizens  and  of  all 
with  whom  he  had  business  or  social  relations. 


Coming  to  Illinois  at  an  early  period  in  its  devel- 
opment, he  was  an  interested  witness  of  its  growth 
and  progress  for  many  years  and  was  entirely 
familiar  with  pioneer  experiences  and  the  history 
of  this  portion  of  the  state  at  an  early  day. 


CHARLES  BURGESS,  SR. 

Charles  Burgess,  Sr.,  secretary  of  the  American 
Shire  Horse  Association  and  at  one  time  a  most 
prominent  stockman  of  this  portion  of  Illinois,  is 
now  practically  living  retired,  save  for  the  super- 
vision wihch  he  gives  to  his  large  landed  interests, 
tive  of  Devonshire,  England,  he  was  born 
27,  1854.  His  parents  were  William 
and  Jane  (Ellicott)  Burgess,  both  natives  of  Eng- 
land. The  father  was  a  farmer  and  the  old  home 
farm  is  still  in  possession  of  the  family.  Charles 
Burgess  of  this  review  was  educated  in  that  coun- 
try. He  was  reared  to  farm  life  and  left  the  old 
homestead  on  the  15th  of  April,  1873,  when  eigh- 
teen years  of  age,  having  determined  to  seek  his 
fortune  in  the  new  world.  Accordingly  he  bade 
adieu  to  home  and  friends  and  sailed  on  the  steam- 
ship City  of  Paris  from  Liverpool  on  the  17th  of 
April.  He  landed  at  New  York  city  after  a  voyage 
of  eleven  days  and  at  once  made  his  way  to  Ot- 
tawa, Illinois,  whither  his  brother,  Robert,  had 
preceded  him  about  one  year.  He  remained  in 
Ottawa  for  about  three  years,  working  in  a  paper 
factory  and  thus  made  his  start  in  the  business 
world.  He  then  removed  to  Lostant,  La  Salle 
county,  in  1876,  and  joined  his  brother  Robert  in 
business,  dealing  in  horses  on  a  small  scale.  Even- 
tually they  removed  to  Wenona  in  1880  and  en- 
larged the  scope  of  their  activities,  becoming  ex- 
tensive dealers  in  horses.  They  also  began  im- 
porting in  July,  1882,  and  were  associated  in  busi- 
ness under  the  firm  style  of  Burgess  Brothers  until 
1897,  when  they  dissolved  partnership,  both  intend- 
ing to  give  up  the  business  entirely.  They  dealt  in 
English,  Scotch  and  other  horses.  They  imported 
largely  and  became  well  known  as  breeders  and 
dealers  in  some  of  the  finest  stock  that  has  been 
brought  to  America  or  has  been  raised  in  this 
country.  Since  1897  Mr.  Burgess  has  lived  prac- 
tically retired  save  that  he  looks  after  his  large 
landed  interests.  He  owns  five  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  of  land  in  the  vicinity  of  Wenona  and  also 
eight  hundred  acres  of  fine  land  in  Emmet  county, 
Iowa. 


292 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MAESHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Mr.  Burgess  was  elected  secretary  of  the  Amer- 
ican Shire  Horse  Association  at  its  first' meeting 
held  at  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel  in  Chicago,  April 
28,  1885,  and  has  been  elected  at  each  biennial 
election  since  that  time  and  only  twice  has  he  had 
any  opposition  for  the  office.  This  is  the  only 
association  of  the  kind  in  the  United  States  and 
was  organized  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the 
interests  of  the  breeders  of  shire  horses. 

On  the  8th  of  February,  1883,  was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  Mr.  Burgess  and  Miss  Kate  Eich. 
They  have  lost  two  children,  one  of  whom  died 
in  infancy  and  Carrie,  who  died  at  the  age  of 
nine  months,  and  have  two  yet  living,  Lucy  E. 
and  Amy  Julia:  Mr.  Burgess  is  prominent  in  the 
ranks  of  the  republican  party  in  his  city  and 
county  and  has  filled  the  office  of  city  ^erk  of 
Wenona  for  four  years.  He  also  served  for  one 
term  as  mayor  and  his  official  record  is  most  com- 
mendable, having  been  characterized  by  a  business- 
like dispatch  of  the  duties  of  the  office.  The  wel- 
fare of  both  city  and  county  have  been  promoted 
by  him  in  his  co-operation  in  many  movements  for 
the  general  good.  He  has  a  beautiful  home  just 
outside  the  city  limits  of  Wenona,  where  he  now 
resides.  The  years  have  witnessed  his  steady  prog- 
ress from  the  time  when  he  came  to  the  United 
States.  He  has  never  had  occasion  to  regret  his 
determination  to  seek  a  home  in  the  new  world, 
for  here  he  has  prospered  as  the  result  of  close 
application,  keen  business  discrimination  and  ju- 
dicious investment  and  those  who  know  him  yield 
their  tribute  of  admiration  and  respect  for  what 
he  has  accomplished. 


SAMPSON  T.  EOWE. 

One  of  Ihe  most  prominent  representatives  of 
the  agricultural  interests  of  Marshall  county  is 
Sampson  T.  Eowe,  whose  landholdings  are  very 
extensive,  embracing  about  one  thousand  acres. 
He  has  displayed  in  an  active  business  life  excel- 
lent executive  force  and  unfaltering  enterprise, 
together  with  keen  discernment  and  a  ready  recog- 
nition of  opportunities,  and  thus  he  has  made 
rapid  and  substantial  advancement  in  his  busi- 
ness career,  which  will  bear  close  investigation 
and  scrutiny,  for  his  interests  have  been  conducted 
along  most  honorable  lines. 

He  is  one  of  the  county's  native  sons,  having 
been  born  in  Whitefield  township  on  the  15th 
of  April,  1837.  His  father,  William  Howe,  was 


a  native  of  Cornwall,  England,  and  in  that  coun- 
try was  reared  and  educated.  He  was  also  mar- 
ried there  to  Miss  Harriet  Peters-,  likewise  a  na- 
tive of  that  country,  and  in  the  year  1834  they 
crossed  the  Atlantic  to  the  new  world.  On  ar- 
riving at  New  York  William  Eowe  with  his 
family  proceeded  directly  to  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
A  younger  brother  of  his  had  some  time  previous- 
ly emigrated  to  America  and,  visiting  Illinois 
with  a  view  of  locating,  was  well  pleased  with 
the  country  and  therefore  advised  William  Eowe 
not  to  tarry  in  Ohio  but  to  proceed  directly  to 
the  Prairie  state.  Therefore,  procuring  teams  at 
Cincinnati,  the  brothers  at  once  started  for  Illi- 
nois  and  while  en  route  they  met  Charles  Knock, 
who  was  also  on  his  way  to  Marshall  county  and 
in  company  they  completed  the  journey.  Only 
two  years  before  had  the  Black  Hawk  war  been 
fought  and  some  Indians  still  lingered  in  the 
neighborhood,  while  many  evidences  of  pioneer 
life  were  to  be  seen  in  the  wild  unbroken  prairies 
and  the  uncut  timber.  Only  here  and  there  had 
a  settler  built  his  cabin  and  begun  the  work  of 
developing  a  farm.  Following  his  arrival  William 
Eowe  made  selection  of  a  tract  of  government  land 
on  section  13,  Whitefield  township,  but  not  being 
accessible  to  market  he  "squatted"  on  a  claim 
near  the  present  village  of  Henry.  Mr.  Knock 
settled  two  miles  below  Henry  on  the  present 
line  of  the  railroad,  while  the  brother,  Sampson 
Eowe,  first  located  where  the  village  of  Henry 
is  now  situated,  but  subsequently  removed  to 
Sugar  Grove  in  Whitefield  township.  For  twenty 
years  he  lived  on  that  farm  and  then,  selling  his 
property,  removed  to  Missouri,  where  he  remained 
until  after  the  war,  when  he  again  returned  to 
Marshall  county,  where  he  died  some  years  ago. 

When  William  Rowe  reached  Illinois  his  finan- 
cial possessions  were  quite  limited,  but  he  made 
the  journey  with  the  hope  that  he  might  better 
his  condition  in  a  free  land  where  opportunities 
were  greater  and  results  were  more  quickly  at- 
tained. He  lived  a  life  of  industry,  diligence  and 
frugality,  was  economical  in  his  habits  and  pos- 
sessed a  steadfast  determination  to  succeed.  The 
years  came  and  went  and  he  prospered,  adding  to 
his  landed  possessions  as  his  financial  resources  in- 
creased until  he  was  the  owner  of  one  thousand 
and  forty-five  acres  at  the  time  of  his  death.  In 
early  days  timber  land  was  thought  to  be  more 
valuable  than  the  open  prairie  and  he  accordingly 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


invested  in  such.  His  first  home  in  Illinois  was 
a  little  log  cabin  such  as  was  typical  of  the  pio- 
neer period  and  in  that  frontier  home  most  of 
his  children  were  born.  Later  this  place  gave 
way  to  a  brick  residence  which  still  stands  upon 
the  farm  and  in  which  William  Rowe  spent  his 
last  days.  The  house  was  built  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  '40s  but  is  still  in  a  good  state  of  preser- 
vation. Mr.  Rowe  not  only  assisted  in  the  ma- 
terial upbuilding  and  improvement  of  the  county 
through  the  development  of  his  agricultural  in- 
terests but  was  also  well  known  as  a  leader  in 
local  political  circles  and  was  a  stanch  champion 
of  the  republican  party  from  the  time  of  its  or- 
ganization. He  served  in  various  local  offices,  the 
duties  of  which  were  discharged  with  promptness 
and  fidelity.  In  all  life's  relations  he  commanded 
the  confidence  and  respect  of  those  with  whom 
he  came  in  contact  and  the  community  deeply 
mourned  his  loss  when  in  August,  1863,  he  passed 
away  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  fifty-four 
years.  His  wife  survived  him  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  and  passed  away  in  1885  at  the 
home  of  one  of  her  daughters  in  Iowa,  with  whom 
she  had  lived  for  several  years. 

In  the  family  of  William  and  Harriet  Rowe 
were  ten  children,  of  whom  six  are  yet  living: 
Sampson  T.,  of  this  review;  Mary  Ann,  the  wife 
of  William  Manchester,  of  Clinton  county,  Iowa; 
Ella  Maria,  the  wife  of  Robert  Ward,  of  Lamar, 
Buchanan  county,  Iowa;  John  P.,  who  follows 
farming  in  Kansas;  William  A.,  who  is  living  in 
Henry;  and  Roger  T.,  also  a  resident  of  Henry. 
Those  who  have  passed  away  are:  Carolina,  the 
deceased  wife  of  WTilliam  Payne,  of  Lucas  coun- 
ty, Iowa ;  Emma  Harriet,  who  married  George 
Harris  and  died  in  Henry;  Elizabeth  Rebecca, 
who  married  Jacob  Manchester  and  removed  to 
Clinton  county,  Iowa,  where  she  passed  away; 
and  Joseph  Henry,  who  died  at  the  age  of  nine 
years. 

Sampson  T.  Rowe  has  spent  his  entire  life  in 
Marshall  county.  He  was  reared  amid  pioneer 
scenes  and  environments  and  shared  with  the 
family  in  the  hardships  and  privations  of  life 
on  the  frontier,  also  enjoying  its  pleasures  and 
its  opportunities.  His  memory  forms  a  connect- 
ing link  between  the  primitive  past  and  the  pro- 
gressive present  and  he  justly  deserves  mention 
among  the  leading  early  settlers  of  this  part  of 
the  state.  His  education  was  acquired  in  the 


district  schools,  which  he  attended  through  the 
winter  months,  while  in  the  summer  seasons  he 
worked  upon  the  farm.  He  early  became  familiar 
with  farm  work  in  every  department  and  assisted 
in  the  cultivation  of  the  old  homestead  until  the 
death  of  his  father,  when  he  took  entire  charge 
and  for  ten  years  operated  the  farm.  The  young- 
est of  the  heirs  having  then  attained  majority, 
the  property  was  divided  and  Sampson  Rowe  re- 
moved to  his  present  residence,  which  is  an  ex- 
cellent farm  of  three  hundred  and  ninety  acres 
on  section  24,  Whitefield  township.  This  was  a 
part  of  the  old  homestead  which  he  inherited  and 
also  the  portion  of  a  younger  brother  from  whom 
he  purchased  it.  As  the  years  passed  by  and  he 
saw  opportunity  for  judicious  investment  he 
extended  the  boundaries  of  his  farm  until  it 
now  comprises  over  five  hundred  acres.  He  owns 
altogether  one  thousand  acres  of  land  in  Marshall 
county  and  is  therefore  one  of  its  most  extensive 
realty  holders.  For  some  years  he  gave  much 
attention  to  feeding  cattle  and  hogs  and  has  like- 
wise been  a  breeder  of  horses.  He  is  also  en- 
gaged in  raising  sheep  and  at  all  times  fine  grades 
of  stock  have  been  found  upon  his  place,  while 
his  fields  have  been  carefully  tilled  and  have 
brought  forth  rich  crops.  He  has  lived  a  life 
of  industry  and  enterprise  and  has  displayed  keen 
biisiness  discernment  in  the  management  of  his 
property  and  the  further  purchase  of  land. 

Mr.  Rowe  was  married  on  the  20th  of  March, 
1872,  to  Miss  Ellen  S.  Tidmarsh,  who  was  born 
in  Wiltshire,  England,  and  was  brought  to  Amer- 
ica when  but  six  years  of  age  by  her  parents, 
Abel  and  Elizabeth  (Wilts)  Tidmarsh,  who  locat- 
ed in  the  neighborhood  of  Rowes,  Illinois,  but 
subsequently  took  \ip  their  abode  near  Varna  in 
Roberts  township,  Marshall  county.  Unto  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Rowe  have  been  born  seven  children : 
William  A.,  who  married  Bertha  Leona  Green 
and  follows  farming  on  section  16,  Whitefield 
township;  Edward  Marshall,  who  married  Aman- 
da Miller,  of  Henry,  and  also  follows  farming 
in  the  same  neighborhood;  Mrs.  Ann  Elizabeth 
Coker,  a  resident  of  Henry,  Illinois;  Henry 
Sampson,  who  follows  farming  on  a  place  adjoin- 
ing his  father's  home;  Charles  Garfield,  who  is 
connected  with  business  interests  in  Henry ;  Fran- 
cis Taylor  and  Eugene  Lloyd,  who  are  at  home 
with  their  father  and  assist  him  in  the  work  of 
the  farm.  There  are  now  several  grandchildren, 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


William  having  six  children,  Edward  three,  Mrs. 
Coker  one  and  Henry  two  children. 

Mr.  Rowe  saw  the  beginnings  of  the  republican 
party,  became  an  endorser  of  its  principles  and 
since  attaining  his  majority  has  given  to  it  his 
strong  and  stalwart  support  but  has  never  been  a 
politician  in  the  sense  of  office  seeking.  He  holds 
membership  in  the  Grange,  and  the  family  are 
members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  at 
Henry.  From  a  very  early  period  in  the  history 
of  this  county  the  name  of  Rowe  has  been  an 
honored  one  here  and  the  life  of  Sampson  T. 
Rowe  has  added  new  luster  to  the  record,  because 
in  all  life's  relations  he  has  been  upright  and 
honorable  and  in  business  affairs  has  been 
straightforward  and  trustworthy,  never  taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  necessities  of  his  fellowmen  in 
any  trade  transaction  but  depending  for  his  pros- 
perity upon  unfaltering  perseverance,  unabating 
energy  and  careful  investment. 


EDGAR  ALLEN  HALL,  M.  D. 

Dr.  Edgar  Allen  Hall,  engaged  in  the  practice 
of  medicine  in  Henry  with  comprehensive  knowl- 
edge concerning  the  most  modern  methods  known 
to  the  members  of  the  profession,  has  gained  a 
liberal  and  constantly  growing  patronage.  He 
was  born  in  Winchester,  Montgomery  county,  In- 
diana, September  11,  1867.  His  father,  Dr.  John 
Thomas  Hall,  was  a  native  of  the  same  state  and 
was  also  a  physician  and  surgeon,  practicing  med- 
icine in  Indiana  for  several  years.  He  died,  how- 
ever, at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  thirty-one 
years,  passing  away  in  1872.  He  had  married 
Jennie  Britts,  likewise  a  native  of  Indiana.  She 
is  now  living  in  Colorado  Springs,  Colorado,  and 
is  the  widow  of  J.  K.  Belch.  By  her  first  mar- 
riage she  had  a  daughter,  Minnie  De  Lacy,  now 
the  wife  of  J.  Snyder,  of  Berrien  Springs,  Michi- 
gan. Dr.  Hall  also  has  a  half-sister,  Mrs.  Henry 
Eichel. 

In  the  common  schools  of  his  native  county 
Dr.  Hall  began  his  education,  which  was  con- 
tinued as  a  student  in  the  high  school  of  Win- 
chester. Subsequently  he  attended  the  Kansas 
State  Normal  at  Emporia,  from  which  he  was 
graduated  in  the  class  of  1888.  With  broad  lite- 
rary knowledge  to  serve  as  the  foundation  upon 
which  to  rear  the  superstructure  of  professional 
learning  he  took  up  the  study  of  medicine  and 
was  graduated  from  the  Gross  Medical  College  of 


Denver  with  the  class  of  1898.  In  August  of  the 
same  year  he  came  to  Henry,  where  he  opened  an 
office  and  has  since  continued  in  practice,  having 
now  a  patronage  which  is  indicative  of  the  confi- 
dence reposed  in  him  by  the  public  and  his  skill 
and  ability  as  manifest  in  the  treatment  of  im- 
portant and  difficult  cases.  He  is  a  member  of 
the  American  Medical  Association,  the  State  Med- 
ical Society,  and  the  Marshall  County  Medical 
Society,  and  in  this  manner,  as  well  as  through 
reading  and  investigation,  he  keeps  in  touch  with 
the  trend  of  modern  thought  in  his  chosen  calling. 
In  1899  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Dr. 
Hall  and  Miss  Anna  Culter  of  Henry,  a  daughter 
of  Hardin  Culter,  a  steamboat  man  and  a  pioneer 
of  the  middle  wast.  The  Doctor  is  a  valued  and 
popular  member  of  Henry  lodge,  No.  119,  A.  F. 
&  A.  M.,  and  also  of  the  Modern  Woodmen  camp. 
He  votes  with  the  democracy  where  state  and  na- 
tional questions  are  involved,  but  at  local  elections 
casts  an  independent  ballot.  He  has  never  had 
time  nor  desire  for  political  office,  but  concen- 
trates his  energies  upon  his  professional  duties, 
which  he  performs  with  a  sense  of  conscientious 
obligation  and  an  ability  that  leaves  no  room  for 
criticism.  He  has  the  high  regard  of  his  brethren 
of  the  medical  fraternity  by  reason  of  his  close 
conformity  to  a  high  standard  of  professional 
ethics  and  he  has  the  trust  and  confidence  of  the 
general  public  as  well. 


CLARK  SWIFT. 

Clark  Swift  has  for  twelve  years  resided  upon 
his  farm  on  section  5,  Whitefield  township,  where 
he  now  owns  and  operates  eighty  acres.  It  is  a 
well  tilled  and  well  equipped  place  and  in  its 
thrifty  appearance  gives  evidence  of  the  care  and 
supervision  of  a  practical  yet  progressive  owner. 
Mr.  Swift  is  a  native  of  the  Empire  state,'  his 
birth  having  occurred  in  Angelica,  New  York,  on 
the  llth  of  May,  1841.  His  father.  Philander 
Swift,  was  born  in  Rochester,  New  York,  in  1800, 
and  came  to  Illinois  at  an.  early  period  in  the 
history  of  this  state,  making  the  journey  by  wagon 
before  his  son  Clark  was  two  years  of  age.  Reach- 
ing Marshall  county  he  settled  upon  a  farm  in 
Whitefield  township.  He  had  carried  on  mer- 
chandising in  the  east  but  following  his  removal 
to  the  west  gave  his  attention  to  general  agricul- 
tural pursuits  and  spent  seven  years  upon  his 
farm  in  Marshall  county,  after  which  he  was 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND    1'VTNAM   COUNTIES. 


297 


called  to  his  final  rest  in  1865  at  the  age  of 
sixty-five  years.  His  political  support  was  given 
to  the  whig  party.  His  wife,  who  Ibore  the 
maiden  name  of  Arzilla  Egbert,  was  also  a  native 
of  New  York.  In  their  family  were  eleven  chil- 
dren, of  whom  four  are  yet  living,  the  others,  in 
addition  to  our  subject,  being  Mrs.  Sarah  At- 
wood,  a  resident  of  Nebraska;  William,  a  retired 
farmer  residing  in  Livingston  county,  Illinois; 
and  N.  I.  Swift,  of  Chicago,  who  was  formerly 
engaged  in  merchandising  but  has  also  retired. 

In  taking  up  the  personal  history  of  Clark  Swift 
we  present  to  our  readers  the  life  record  of  one 
who  is  widely  and  favorably  known  in  this  part 
of  the  state,  having  lived  here  from  early  pioneer 
times.  He  acquired  his  education  in  the  district 
schools  of  Whitefield  township  and  remained  upon 
the  home  farm  through  the  period  of  his  boyhood 
and  youth.  He  was,  however,  only  nine  years  of 
age  at  the  time  of  his  father's  death.  After  reach- 
ing his  majority  he  purchased  the  old  home  place 
and  lived  there  for  a  considerable  period  but 
about  twelve  years  ago  he  bought  eighty  acres, 
which  is  his  present  farm  on  section  5,  Whitefield 
township.  To  this  he  has  since  added  until  he 
now  lias  two  hundred  acres  constituting  a  model 
farm  property  of  his  locality.  The  soil  is  rich 
and  productive  and  he  makes  of  it  the  best  pos- 
sible use,  so  that  good  crops  are  annually  gath- 
ered. He  uses  the  latest  improved  machinery  in 
the  care  of  his  fields  and  he  has  good  buildings 
upon  his  place. 

Mr.  Swift  was  married  at  the  age  of  twenty-six 
years  to  Miss  Electa  Fasdick,  a  daughter  of  Joel 
Fosdick,  of  New  York,  who  followed  the  occupa- 
tion of  farming.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Swift  have 
been  born  two  children :  Bertha,  who  is  engaged 
in  teaching  and  resides  at  home ;  and  Merton, 
who  is  living  on  the  old  home  farm  and  who  mar- 
ried Jennie  Wheeler  of  Putnam  county,  Illinois, 
by  whom  he  has  two  children,  Percy  and  Clare. 

Mrs.  Clark  Swift  is  a  member  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church,  in  the  work  of  which  she  takes 
an  active  and  helpful  interest,  while  to  its  sup- 
port they  are  liberal  contributors.  Mr.  Swift  votes 
with  the  republican  party  and  has  served  as  school 
director  for  many  years.  A  residence  of  more 
than  six  decades  in  Marshall  county  has  made  him 
very  familiar  with  its  history  and  he  is  conver- 
sant with  many  of  the  early  experiences  and  events 
which  have  left  their  impress  upon  the  annals  of 


this  part  of 'the  state.  He  can  remember  the  time 
when  much  of  the  land  was  wild  and  uncultivated 
and  the  homes  of  the  settlers  were  widely  scat- 
tered, but  as  the  years  have  passed  by  he  has  seen 
a  marked  change  wrought  by  the  labors  of  the 
enterprising  residents  who  have  come  to  the 
middle  west  and  he  has  borne  his  full  share  in 
the  work  of  development,  especially  along  agri- 
cultural lines. 


EGBERT  BURGESS. 

Robert  Burgess,  of  Wenona,  the  most  extensive 
importer  of  registered  draft  horses  in  America, 
his  name  well  known  throughout  the  country  in 
this  connection,  is  a  native  of  Devonshire,  Eng- 
land, born  June  9,  1852.  His  parents,  William 
and  Jane  (Ellicott)  Burgess,  were  farming  people 
of  that  country.  The  parents  both  died  when 
Robert  was  in  his  youth.  He  was  reared  to  farm 
life  and  received  but  limited  educational  privi- 
leges. He  worked  at  farm  labor  in  his  native 
country  imtil  he  was  eighteen  years  of  age.  He 
was  about  to  be  bound  out  to  a  blacksmith  but 
thinking  that  he  would  not  like  that  pursuit  he 
entered  upon  an  apprenticeship  to  the  tailor's 
trade.  He  did  not  find  it  congenial  either  so  he 
asked  for  the  fifty  dollars  which  was  the  sum  of 
his  inheritance  from  his  father  and  with  that 
limited  capital  started  for  America.  He  sailed 
from  Liverpool  in  1870  and  landed  in  New  York 
city,  after  which  he  proceeded  on  an  emigration 
train  with  about  twelve  hundred  emigrants  from 
New  York  to  Chicago.  He  did  not  like  the 
companionship,  however,  and  wishing  to  get  rid 
of  the  party  he  was  with,  he  looked  upon  the 
map  and  there  saw  the  town  of  Ottawa,  to  which 
place  he  proceeded.  He  then  at  once  began  the 
search  for  employment  and  in  the  vicinity  of 
Ottawa  worked  at  farm  labor  for  two  years  and 
was  afterward  in  a  paper  factory  in  the  city  for 
about  eighteen  months.  During  that  time  he 
saved  up  a  few  hundred  dollars  and  with  this 
capital  he  purchased  a  half  interest  in  a  half 
bred  stallion  sired  by  old  Louis  Napoleon,  for 
which  he  paid  four  hundred  dollars.  This  was 
his  start  as  a  breeder  of  horses,  a  business  in 
which  he  has  continued  with  splendid  success, 
until  he  today  stands  foremost  as  an  importer  of 
registered  draft  horses  in  America.  The  Farmers' 
Mail  and  Breeze  of  Topeka,  Kansas,  has  said: 
"The  great  Wenona  Stud  has  not  only  led  in  num- 


898 


PAST  AND  PRESENT  OF  MARSHALL  AXD  PUTNAM  COUNT  IKS. 


bers  but  in  addition  has  carried  off  the  highest 
honors-  at  the  great  fairs  and  shows  in  competition 
with  the  best  horses  in  America.  The  Wenona 
Stud  since  1900  has  won  the  following  champion- 
ships at  the  International  Livestock  Show  which 
is  held  at  Chicago  each  year  and  is  considered 
the  greatest  horse  and  cattle  show  in  America. 
For  four  years  since  1900  they  have  shown  the 
champion  stallion,  each  year  winning  on  a  dif- 
ferent horse.  In  1900  Jim  Corbett  4898,  was 
champion.  In  1902  Southgate  Marmion  6524 
(15859)  was  champion.  In  1904  Childwell  Chor- 
ister 7550  (20348)  was  champion,  and  took  the 
gold  medal  as  the  best  imported  stallion,  and  in 
1905  the  magnificent  young  stallion,  Rolleston 
Wonder  7931  (22730)  carried  off  the  champion- 
ship. Burgess'  victory  was  complete  when  in 
1905  he  not  only  showed  the  champion  but  carried 
off  the  first  prize  on  groiip  of  five  stallions,  win- 
ning with  Burston  Pride,  Magnum  Bonum  IV, 
Rolleston  Wonder,  Bank  Jack  Tar  and  Conger. 
Cottered  Prince  7549  (19516)  was  the  champion 
Shire  at  the  World's  Fair,  1904  ;  and  at  the  Lewis 
and  Clark  Exposition  1905,  Redlynch  Conquerer 
6521  was  champion  Shire.  Robert  Burgess  &  Son 
were  also  the  only  exhibitors  that  won  three  cham- 
pions and  three  grand  champions  on  stallions  at 
the  St.  T^n's  "Fair.  The  success  of  the  Wenona 


Stud  has  not  been  accidental.  It  is  the  result  of 
a  lifetime  of  work  and  careful  study,  close  appli- 
cation to  strict,  safe  business  methods  and  know- 
ing what  breed  and  type  of  horse  was  most  suited 
to  the  needs  of  a  great,  new  and  undeveloped 
country.  For  upward  of  thirty  years  Robert  Bur- 
gess has  devoted  his  entire  time  to  building  up 
at  Wenona  the  great  business  of  which  this  article 
treats.  He  has  been  a  tireless  worker,  spending 
months  of  each  year,  winter  and  summer,  in 
France,  Belgium  and  England.  Mr.  Burgess  puts 
the  value  of  his  show  herd  at  about  eighty-five 
thousand  dollars,  which  is  certainly  a  very  con- 
servative estimate." 

When  Mr.  Burgess  landed  in  New  York  he  had 
but  fifteen  dollars  in  his  pocket.  He  embarked 
in  his  present  business  connection  with  his  brother 
Charles-,  with  whom  he  was  associated  for  twenty 
years.  The  partnership  was  dissolved  about  twelve 
years  ago  and  seven  years  ago  Robert  Burgess  ad- 
mitted his-  only  son  Charles  into  a  partnership 
under  the  firm  style  of  Robert  Burgess  &  Son. 
Mr.  Burgess  probably  owns  the  finest  farm  in  the 


state  of  Illinois.  It  isYknown  as  the  Meadow 
Lawn  farm  and  adjoins  Galesburg.  He  also  has 
other  extensive  real-estate  \interests  in  Illinois, 
Iowa,  Indiana  and  Minnesota. 

On  the  2d  of  May,  1872, \Mr.  Burgess  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Ewalyn  Wilcox,  a 
native  of  Massachusetts,  and  theyXhave  three  chil- 
dren: Charles,  Bertie  and  Mabel.  \  The  son  wed- 
ded Anna  McEachem,  of  Marshall  ccWty,  Illinois, 
and  they  have  two  children,  Robert  And  Charles. 

During  his  many  trips  abroad  Mr.  Burgess  has 
won  many  friends,  not  a  few  among  the  royalty. 
He  is  an  interesting  and  entertaining  gentleman, 
having  greatly  broadened  his  knowledge  through 
travel  and  the  experiences-  which  it  brings.  \Com- 
faft  in  America  practically  a  penniless  boy,  luTis^ 
nnw  §  ipillionaire  and  his  success  stands  as  an 
illustration  of  what  may  be  accomplished  by  en- 
ergy, close  application  and  strength  of  character. 
He  has  ever  been  watchful  of  opportunities  and 
has  utilized  the  means  at  hand.  Moreover  he  has 
conducted  his  affairs  along  such  strictly  honorable 
business  principles  that  his  name  stands  as  a  syn- 
onym for  business  probity  to  all  acquainted  with 
his  history.  Fortune  has  certainly  dealt  kindly 
with  him,  for  all  the  blessings  that  fall  to  man  on 
earth  seem  to  be  his.  Yet  he  is  a  self-made  man 
in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  oft  misused  term,  his 
prosperity  resulting  from  his  industry  and  integ- 
rity. It  is  to  such  men  that  the  west  owes  its 
prosperity,  its  rapid  growth  and  its  advancement. 
In  everything  pertaining  to  the  upbuilding  of  his 
adopted  county  he  takes  an  active  part  and  is  a 
liberal  contributor  to  the  enterprises  that  insure 
its  progress. 


EDWARD  B.  SMITH. 

Edward  B.  Smith,  filling  the  office  of  supervisor 
of  Henry  township,  is  recognized  as  one  of  the 
most  prominent  representatives  of  the  republican 
party  in  Marshall  county.  He  is  well  fitted  for 
leadership  and  has  exercised  considerable  influ- 
ence over  public  thought  and  opinion,  while  his 
progressive  spirit  and  well  known  devotion  to  the 
general  good  have  made  him  well  worthy  of  the 
political  honors  which  have  been  conferred  upon 
him.  He  is  one  of  Henry  township's  native  sons, 
his  birth  having  occurred  about  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  the  city  of  Henry  on  the  19th  of  November, 
I860.  His  father  was  a  native  of  New  York  city, 
born  November  16,  1824,  and  became  one  of  the 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OP   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


early  residents  of  Illinois,  arriving  in  this  part 
of  the  state  about  1836  or  1838.  There  were 
many  evidences  of  pioneer  life  here  and  he  shared 
in  the  hardships  and  privations  incident  to  the 
establishment  of  a  home  on  the  frontier.  He  was 
a  farmer  by  occupation  and  became  the  owner  of 
a  large  tract  of  land.  Of  this  he  cultivated  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  on  his  home  farm  deriv- 
ing therefrom  a  substantial  income,  and  he  owned 
considerable  land  elsewhere.  He  married  Miss 
Roby  A.  Taber,  who  was  born  in  1818  and  who 
died  May  8,  1896,  at  the  age  of  seventy-eight 
years.  Mr.  Smith  is  also  deceased.  In  their  fam- 
ily were  three  children:  Amer  A.,  who  follows 
farming  on  Western  avenue  near  Henry;  Mrs. 
Emma  J.  Forbes,  of  Nebraska;  and  Edward  B., 
of  this  review. 

On  the  old  homestead  farm  Mr.  Smith,  whose 
name  introduces  this  record,  spent  the  days  of 
his  boyhood  and  youth  and  early  became  familiar 
with  the  work  of  the  fields.  He  now  owns  the 
home  farm  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  where 
he  carries  on  general  agricultural  pursuits.  His 
preliminary  education  was*  acquired  in  the  district 
schools  and  he  afterward  attended  Henry  Semi- 
nary. From  early  manhood  he  has  been  deeply 
interested  in  the  political  questions  and  issues 
and  has  taken  a  very  active  and  helpful  part  in 
the  work  of  the  republican  party.  He  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  office  of  supervisor  as  the  successor 
of  H.  J.  Gregory  and  four  years  ago  was  elected 
by  the  largest  majority  ever  given  to  any  candi- 
date for  that  position.  For  ten  years  he  lias  been 
a  member  and  chairman  of  the  town  central  com- 
mittee and  for  six  years  has  been  a  member  of 
the  county  central  committee.  He  filled  the  office 
of  road  commissioner  for  six  years  and  his  duties 
have  ever  been  promptly  and  faithfully  performed, 
lie  i>  well  qualified  for  political  leadership,  being 
able  to  marshal  his  forces  with  almost  military 
precision,  while  his  executive  ability  and  persona! 
popularity  enable  him  to  get  out  the  full  party 
strength.  In  addition  to  his  activity  and  interests 
ulong  other  lines  he  has  served  for  seven  years  as 
a  director  of  the  Henry  Cemetery. 

On  March  C,  1897,  Mr.  Smith  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Miss  Grace  M.  Thompson,  of  Henry, 
a  daughter  of  M.  A.  and  Marguerite  R.  (Sharp) 
Thompson,  the  former  of  Henry,  Illinois,  and  the 
latter  of  Indiana.  The  father  is  now  deceased 
but  the  mother  is  still  living.  He  was  for  many 


years  a  farmer  and  hotel  proprietor  and  was 
widely  known  in  Marshall  county.  Both  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Smith  hold  membership  in  the  Presbyterian 
church,  in  which  he  is  serving  as  trustee  and  in 
the  work  of  which  he  takes  an  active  and  helpful 
interest.  Indeed  activity  is  one  of  his  marked 
and  sterling  characteristics.  It  is  manifest  in 
everything  that  he  undertakes.  Whatever  claims 
his  attention  receives  from  him  his  best  service 
and  he  is  a  man  who  accomplishes  results. 


PATRICK  POWERS. 

Patrick  Powers,  engaged  in  farming  on  section 
5,  Saratoga  township  and  also  finding  stock  rais- 
ing a  profitable  source  of  income,  was  born  in 
Peoria  county,  Illinois,  near  the  city  of  Peoria, 
on  the  3d  of  November,  18.">8.  His  parents, 
Thomas  and  Mary  (Phalen)  Powers,  were  both 
natives  of  Ireland  and  the  former  died  in  the 
year  1895.  The  mother  is  still  living  and  is  a 
devout  member  of  the  Catholic  church.  In  the 
family  were  the  following  named :  Mrs.  Maggie 
Driscoll,  who  is  living  upon  a  farm  in  Bureau 
county,  Illinois;  James,  Hannah,  Alice,  Ellen, 
Mary  Ann  and  Julia,  all  now  deceased;  and  Pat- 
rick of  this  review. 

In  taking  up  the  personal  history  of  Patrick 
Powers  we  present  to  our  readers  the  life  record 
of  one  who  is  widely  and  favorably  known  in  this 
part  of  the  state.  The  removal  of  his  parents  to 
Marshall  county  enabled  him  to  become  a  student 
in  what  is  known  as  the  Wilson  school  in  Saratoga 
township,  and  there  he  mastered  the  branches  of 
learning  which  well  qualified  him  for  life's  prac- 
tical and  responsible  duties.  At  the  age  of  thirty 
years  he  began  farming  for  himself  on  the  old 
homestead,  comprising  three  hundred  and  twenty 
acres  of  good  land,  and  he  now  has  a  splendidly 
developed  property  with  rich  and  productive  fields-, 
from  which  are  annually  garnered  large  harvests. 
He  also  feeds  cattle  and  hogs  and  his  live  stock 
interests  are  an  important  branch  of  his  business. 

In  1890  Mr.  Powers  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Nellie  Mahoney.  who  was  born  in  Stark  coun- 
ty, Illinois,  and  their  union  has  been  blessed  with 
two  sons  and  two  daughters:  James  L.,  born  in 
1891;  Mary  Eva,  in  1896;  Nora  B.,  in  1899; 
and  Patrick  Francis,  August  17,  1906.  Mr.  Pow- 
ers votes  independently.  He  is  not  an  aspirant 
for  office,  preferring  to  give  his  time  and  energies 
to  his  business  affairs.  In  his  religious  faith  he 


:ioo 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


is  a  Catholic,  having  always  adhered  to  the  church 
in  which  he  was  reared.  Almost  his  entire  life 
has  been  passed  in  Marshall  county  and  the  years 
have  brought  him  a  wide  acquaintance,  while  his 
sterling  traits  of  character  have  gained  for  him 
the  warm  regard  of  many  friends. 


JAMES  M.  WINSHIP. 

The  life  record  of  Mr.  Winship  is  interesting 
because  of  its  varied  experience  and  by  reason  of 
the  fact  that  his  was  a  most  honorable  and  upright 
career.  He  came  to  this  section  of  Illinois  in  early 
pioneer  times,  and  he  was  one  of  those  who  sought 
a  fortune  in  California  during  the  early  days  of 
the  mining  excitement  there.  Born  in  Lewis 
county,  New  York,  on  the  2d  of  October,  1825,  he 
was  a  son  of  Ralph  and  Lucetta  (Cooley)  Winship, 
who  went  to  Bureau  county,  Illinois,  in  1832.  The 
family  trace  their  ancestry  in  America  back  to 
Timothy  Winship,  who  was  born  in  Westminster, 
England,  May  31,  1713,  and  who  emigrated  to  the 
United  States  in  early  life.  In  1731  he  married 
Margaret  Merret,  who  was  born  in  Charlestown, 
Massachusetts,  in  1708. 

James  M.  Winship  was  a  youth  of  only  seven 
years  when  brought  by  his  parents  to  Illinois,  and 
upon  the  home  farm  in  Bureau  county,  amid 
pioneer  conditions  and  environments,  he  was 
reared.  He  acquired  only  a  common-school  edu- 
cation, but  after  he  had  attained  manhood  he  al- 
ways read  broadly  and  became  a  well  informed 
man,  keeping  in  touch  with  current  events  and 
with  the  trend  of  modern  thought.  In  1850  he 
was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Mary  Ann  Read, 
who  was  born  in  Herkimer  county,  New  York,. 
June  24,  1831,  and  was  a  daughter  of  Phillip  and 
Tryphena  (Davis)  Read.  The  father's  birth  oc- 
curred in  Dartmouth,  Massachusetts,  while  the 
mother  was  a  native  of  Fall  River,  Massachusetts. 
Both  passed  away  in  Putnam  county,  the  former 
in  1843,  while  the  mother  long  survived  and  de- 
parted this  life  June  30,  1889.  They  came  with 
teams  from  Massachusetts  to  Illinois  in  1836,  lo- 
cating first  in  Hennepin  township,  while  later  they 
established  their  home  in  Senachwine  township. 
The  log  house  built  by  Phillip  Read  is  still  stand- 
ing, and  is  one  of  the  oldest  landmarks  of  the 
vicinity,  being  a  mute  reminder  of  the  changes 
that  have  occurred  and  the  progress  that  has  been 
made  from  pioneer  times  down  to  the  present.  In 
the  family  were  seven  children,  but  only  three  are 


now  living:  Mrs.  J.  M.  Winship;  Mrs.  William 
Wheeler;  and  Rosalia  Read,  who  resides  in  the 
village  of  Putnam. 

In  1852  James  M.  Winship  made  a  trip  to  Cali- 
fornia, crossing  the  plains  with  ox  teams.  He 
traveled  over  the  long  stretches  of  hot  sand  and 
through  the  mountain  passes  until  at  length  he 
reached  the  mining  regions  of  the  Golden  state. 
He  remained  for  about  a  year,  returning  in  1853, 
and  in  the  meantime  his  wife  resided  with  her 
mother.  After  his  return  they  began  housekeeping 
again  and  in  1868  removed  to  Senachwine  town- 
ship, where  Mr.  Winship  purchased  the  farm  upon 
which  he  resided  continuously  until  his  death.  He 
passed  away  May  9,  1903,  leaving  an  estate  of 
over  three  hundred  acres  of  very  rich  and  valuable 
land.  All  of  the  improvements  upon  the  prop- 
erty had  been  made  by  him  and  he  well  deserved 
classification  with  the  representative  agriculturists 
of  the  community,  for  his  place  was  kept  in  ex- 
cellent condition.  In  1876  he  made  an  extended 
trip  east,  visiting  the  Centennial  Exposition  at 
Philadelphia,  also  New  York  city,  Washington 
and  Mount  Vernon,  after  which  he  visited  old 
friends  in  Oneida  county,  New  York.  Later  he 
and  his  wife  also  visited  relatives  and  friends  in 
the  east.  He  thus  traveled  from  ocean  to  ocean 
and  gained  quite  intimate  knowledge  of  the  coun- 
try. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Winship  were  born  six 
children,  of  whom  four  are  now  living:  J.  0., 
who  resides  in  Senachwine  township  and  is  men- 
tioned elsewhere  in  this  volume ;  Cora  Eva,  the 
wife  of  Martin  L.  Condit,  who  resides  upon  a 
farm  in  Senachwine  township;  0.  W.,  who  is  liv- 
ing in  Tiskilwa,  Illinois ;  Walter  E.,  who  married 
Etta  White,  and  was  a  resident  farmer  of  Senach- 
wine township  until  his  death ;  Jessie  M.,  the  wife 
of  Charles  A.  Prutsman,  living  in  Princeton;  and 
Buena  Elspeth,  who  died  in  childhood. 

For  many  years  Mr.  Winship  was  a  devoted  and 
faithful  member  of  the  Christian  church,  exem- 
plifying in  his  life  its  teachings  and  principles. 
He  was  a  man  of  thorough  reliability  and  trust- 
worthiness and  his  word  was  as  good  as  any  bond 
ever  solemnized  by  signature  or  seal.  He  was 
greatly  interested  in  the  sciences  of  astronomy  and 
geology,  which  he  studied  after  reaching  manhood, 
becoming  well  versed  in  those  branches  of  knowl- 
edge. His  political  allegiance  was  given  to  the  re- 
publican party  and  he  served  as  supervisor  for  two 


MRS.  JAMES  M.  WIXSHIP. 


JAMES  M.  WINSH1P. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


305 


terms,  while  for  twenty  years  he  was  a  school  di- 
rector. The  cause  of  education  found  in  him  a 
stalwart  friend,  and  he  did  everything  in  his 
power  to  advance  the  interests  of  public  instruc- 
tion. To  his  family  he  was  a  devoted  husband  and 
father,  and  his  memory  is  cherished  by  all  who 
knew  him.  For  many  years  he  was  an  active 
farmer,  representative  citizen  and  honored  man  of 
Putnam  county,  and  the  example  which  he  left  is 
one  well  worthy  of  emulation.  Mrs.  Winship  still 
resides  upon  the  home  farm  and  is  in  remarkably 
good  health  for  one  of  her  years.  She  is  one  of 
the  oldest  residents  of  the  township,  having  for 
seventy-four  years  lived  in  this  county,  so  that  she 
has  witnessed  its  growth  from  the  earliest  period 
of  its  development  down  to  this  day  of  modern 
progress. 


JAMES  PARRETT. 

James  Parrett,  conducting  a  successful  business 
as  a  photographer  at  Wenona,  where  he  has  a 
well  equipped  art  gallery,  was  born  in  Magnolia, 
Putnam  county,  Illinois,  on  the  7th  of  May,  1857. 
He  is  a  son  of  William  E.  and  Emily  J.  (Dent) 
Parrett,  natives  of  Virginia.  The  mother  in  writ- 
ing of  early  reminiscences  said  in  part:  "My 
grandfather  was  Captain  John  Dent,  a  captain 
in  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  his  father  was  John 
Dent  of  England,  who,  with  his  brother  Frederick, 
came  from  Yorkshire,  England,  to  Maryland,  in 
the  early  days  of  the  colony.  My  mother's  father 
was  William  Berkshire.  My  mother  was  born  at 
Cumberland,  on  the  Potomac,  and  moved  to  West 
Virginia  when  quite  young,  living  then  near  the 
Dent  home.  Both  of  my  grandfathers  owned 
beautiful  homes  and  large  plantations  in  West 
Virginia,  where  the  family  lived  in  the  customary 
style  of  the  prosperous  planter.  It  was  on  the 
morning  of  October  5,  1834,  that  we  (Mrs.  Par- 
rett, her  parents,  brothers  and  sisters)  started 
overland  from  West  Virginia  to  Illinois  with  one 
large  covered  wagon  called  a  prairie  schooner, 
drawn  by  four  fine  horses."  The  party  traveled 
after  the  primitive  manner  of  the  times,  stopping 
at  night  at  some  tavern  in  a  town  or  engaging 
lodgings  from  a  farmer.  The  mother  prepared  all 
the  meals  while  en  route,  the  family  enjoying  a 
hot  meal  in  the  morning  and  evening,  while  din- 
ing off  of  cold  victuals  at  noon.  Prior  to  this 
time  John  and  Enoch  Dent,  the  father's  brothers, 
had  come  to  Illinois  and  eventually  the  party  of 


travelers  reached  the  home  of  Enoch  Dent  on  the 
8th  of  November,  1834.  The  family  lived  in  true 
pioneer  style  in  a  log  cabin.  They  had  two  chairs 
which  they  brought  with  them  and  the  father 
made  three  three-legged  stools.  It  was  a  life  of 
privation  and  hardships  in  many  ways,  but  after 
all  a  happy  life,  and  thus  the  Dent  family  was 
established  in  Illinois,  becoming  pioneer  residents 
and  taking  their  part  in  the  development  of  their 
portion  of  the  state. 

William  E.  Parrett,  father  of  our  subject,  was 
also  an  early  resident  of  this  state  and  made  the 
first  reaper  in  Illinois.  He  had  a  shop  at  Mag- 
nolia and  his  old  sign,  bearing  date  1848,  is  still 
hanging  above  the  shop.  He  likewise  established 
a  foundry  at  Pontiac,  Illinois,  which  he  conducted 
for  some  time  and  subsequently  settled  in  Wenona, 
where  he  was  engaged  in  the  agricultural  imple- 
ment business.  He  thus  figured  in  the  industrial 
and  commercial  interests  of  central  Illinois  and 
was  also  prominent  in  public  affairs,  serving  at 
one  time  as  county  judge  of  Putnam  county.  In 
the  family  were  eight  children,  of  whom  one  died 
in  infancy,  while  seven  are  still  living,  namely: 
Orange,  who  resides  at  Priscilla,  Illinois ;  Mrs. 
Belle  Gray,  of  Rutland,  this  state;  WiUiam,  a 
locomotive  engineer;  Emma,  the  wife  of  Frank 
Mitchell,  of  Michigan  City,  Indiana;  Mary,  the 
wife  of  Charles  A.  Whitney,  of  Lostant,  Illinois; 
James;  and  Hattie,  the  wife  of  T.  L.  Taylor,  of 
Streator,  Illinois. 

James  Parrett  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
and  accompanied  his  parents  on  their  various  re- 
movals, arriving  with  them  in  Wenona  in  1867 
when  he  was  ten  years  of  age.  He  learned  pho- 
tography in  Streator  and  on  the  1st  of  December, 
1884,  established  himself  in  business  in  Wenona, 
where  he  has  since  conducted  a  gallery.  His  stu- 
dio is  well  arranged  and  well  equipped  for  the 
successful  conduct  of  the  business  and  he  does 
most  artistic  and  satisfactory  work,  keeping  in 
touch  with  the  advanced  ideas  and  most  modern 
inventions  known  to  the  representatives  of  the  art. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  state  and  national  associa- 
tion of  photographers  and  thus  keeps  in  touch 
with  what  is  being  done  by  the  profession  through- 
out the  country. 

On  the  31st  of  December,  1885,  Mr.  Parrett 
was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  May  Stoner,  of 
Wenona,  and  they  have  two  sons,  Dent  and  Henry 
Tullis.  The  mother  is  a  member  of  the  Presby- 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


terian  church.  Mr.  Parrett  belongs  to  the  Wood- 
men camp  and  the  Yeomen  Society.  He  has  been 
a  member  of  the  school  board  for  several  years 
and  also  its  secretary  for  a  considerable  time,  and 
he  served  for  one  term  as  city  alderman.  He  is 
interested  in  municipal  affairs  to  the  extent  of 
giving  hearty  aid  to  many  movements  for  the 
general  good.  At  the  same  time  he  carefully 
conducts  his  business  interests  and  is  a  leading 
photographer  of  this  part  of  Illinois. 


JOHN  E.   BARRY. 

John  E.  Barry,  who  carries  on  general  agricul- 
tural pursuits  in  Henry  township,  is  a  native  of 
St.  Louis,  Missouri,  born  on  the  17th  of  April, 
1861.  He  was  one  of  the  five  children  whose  par- 
ents are  Michael  and  Marguerite  Barry.  The 
father  is  a  native  of  Ireland  and  came  to  the 
United  States  in  early  life.  He  was  for  many 
years  a  resident  farmer  of  Whitefield  township, 
Marshall  county,  but  is  now  living  retired  in  Hen- 
ry, having  gained  through  his  close  attention  and 
unuremitting  diligence  in  his  agricultural  inter- 
ests the  competence  that  now  enables  him  to  live 
retired.  Unto  him  and  his  wife  have  been  born 
five  children :  James  H.,  a  resident  farmer  of  Sara- 
toga township ;  Anna,  at  home ;  Ella,  the  wife  of 
James  Wallace,  a  farmer  of  Whitefield  township ; 
John  E.,  of  this  review;  and  Charles,  a  mechan- 
ical engineer  living  in  Chicago. 

John  E.  Barry  was  a  little  lad  when  his  par- 
ents removed  from  St.  Louis  to  Whitefield  town- 
ship and  there  under  the  parental  roof  he  spent 
his  boyhood  and  youth,  while  in  the  district  schools 
near  his  father's  home  he  acquired  his  education. 
Early  becoming  familiar  with  the  duties  and  la- 
bors that  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  agriculturist,  he  has 
always  carried  on  farming  as  a  life  work  and  is 
now  renting  from  Mrs.  Guyer  a  farm  of  one  thou- 
sand acres,  of  which  he  operates  five  hundred  and 
sixty  acres.  He  is  thus  conducting  his  farming 
interests  on  an  extensive  scale  and  has  his  fields 
under  a  very  high  state  of  cultivation,  so  that 
he  annually  harvests  rich  crops.  In  his  work  he 
manifests  the  most  progressive  methods  and  a 
thorough  understanding  of  his  business  in  every 
detail,  and  thus  he  is  meeting  with  well  merited 
success. 

Mr.  Barry  was  married  in  1884  to  Miss  Eliza- 
beth Longman,  a  native  of  Canada,  and  unto  them 


were  born  four  children:  Ida,  who  is  twenty 
years  of  age  and  was  graduated  from  the  high 
school  of  Henry  in  the  class  of  1905 ;  Ivan,  seven- 
teen years  of  age;  Alvin,  fourteen  years  of  age; 
and  Maud,  who  is  now  thirteen  years  old.  The 
three  younger  children  are  all  in  school.  Mr. 
Barry  is  connected  with  the  Modern  Woodmen 
of  America,  His  political  allegiance  is  given  to 
the  democracy  and  he  has  served  as  a  member  of 
the  school  board  in  his  district.  His  religious 
faith  is  indicated  by  his  connection  with  the  Cath- 
olic church.  Almost  his  entire  life  has  been  spent 
in  this  county  and  those  who  have  known  him 
from  his  boyhood  days  are  numbered  among  his 
stanchest  friends.  He  is  accounted  one  of  the 
representative  agriculturists  of  Henry  township, 
where  he  is  now  extensively  and  successfully  car- 
rying on  general  farming. 


ROBERT  BRUCE  FOUNTAIN. 
The  name  of  Fountain  has  long  been  closely 
and  honorably  associated  with  agricultural  inter- 
ests in  Marshall  county  and  central  Illinois.  The 
paternal  grandparents  of  our  subject  were  William 
and  Jane  (McGinnis)  Fountain,  who  were  early 
settlers  of  Peoria  county.  The  former  was  born 
in  New  Jersey  and  the  latter  in  Ohio  and  their 
marriage  was  celebrated  in  the  Buckeye  state,  but 
soon  afterward  they  came  westward  to  Illinois 
and  made  their  home  in  the  vicinity  of  Yates 
City,  in  Peoria  county.  About  1851  they  removed 
to  Marshall  county,  settling  in  the  northwestern 
part  of  Whitefield  township,  where  they  spent  their 
remaining  days,  being  worthy  and  respected  repre- 
sentatives of  the  farming  interests  of  the  locality. 
The  grandfather  died  November  3,  1891,  at  the 
age  of  eighty-three  years,  while  his  wife's  death 
occurred  December  17,  1891,  when  she  was  seven- 
ty-nine years  of  age.  His  home  farm,  consisting 
of  four  hundred  and  eighty  acres,  was  kept  under 
a  high  state  of  cultivation  and  many  modern  equip- 
ments were  added  to  the  place.  He  also  invested 
in  lands  in  Dakota  and  in  Kansas  and  at  his 
death  was  enabled  to  leave  a  goodly  patrimony  to 
each  of  his  children.  His  political  allegiance  was 
given  to  the  republican  party  from  its  organiza- 
tion until  he  passed  from  the  scene  of  earthly  ac- 
tivities. He  practically  lived  retired  from  1876 
and  during  his  last  years  was  an  intense  sufferer. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


301 


In  their  family  were  seven  children,  which  num- 
ber included  Edward  Walter  Fountain. 

He  was  horn  near  Yates  City,  Peoria  county, 
Illinois,  November  7,  1849,  and  was  therefore  less 
than  two  years  of  age  when  brought  by  his  parents 
to  Marshall  county,  where  he  resided  until  his 
death.  The  lessons  of  industry  and  enterprise 
which  were  instilled  into  his  mind  in  his  early 
youth  bore  rich  fruit  in  later  years  and  he  succeed- 
ed in  acquiring  a  handsome  property. 

Edward  Walter  Fountain  was  reared  to  farm 
life  and  was  married  January  #1,  1869,  to  Miss 
Elizabeth  Shurts,  a  native  of  Hunterdon  county, 
New  Jersey,  who  at  the  age  of  eighteen  months 
was  brought  by  her  parents,  Peter  and  Effie 
(Tiger)  Shurts,  to  Bureau  county,  Illinois.  They 
made  a  settlement  about  a  mile  northwest  of 
Whitefield,  where  they  continued  to  reside  until 
death,  the  mother  passing  away  February  6,  1881, 
and  the  father  November  29,  1888.  On  the  9th 
of  March,  1869,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fountain  settled 
on  what  became  the  homestead  farm  and  there 
he  carried  on  agricultural  pursuits  until  his  death 
on  the  8th  day  of  May,  1890.  He  was  greatly  es- 
teemed by  all  who  knew  him  and  had  many  warm 
friends.  In  politics  he  was  a  stanch  republican 
and  served  as  road  commissioner  and  as  school 
director,  yet  was  never  a  politician  in  the  sense 
of  office  seeking.  He  belonged  to  the  Modern 
Woodmen  of  America  and  to  Telegraph  Grange. 
Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Edward  W.  Fountain  were 
born  seven  children :  William,  Georgie,  Florence, 
Fannie,  Robert  Bruce,  Harry  and  Orlando.  Fan- 
nie is  now  the  wife  of  Jasper  Newton  Young.  The 
mother  and  nearly  all  of  the  children  are  mem- 
bers of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 

Robert  Bruce  Fountain  acquired  his  education 
in  the  district  school  at  Whitefield  Corners  and 
in  his  youth  worked  as  a  farm  hand  for  others. 
He  also  spent  much  time  in  aiding  in  the  further 
development  and  improvement  of  the  old  home- 
stead farm,  where  he  now  resides.  The  place  com- 
prises ninety-two  and  a  half  acres  which  he  has 
cultivated  and  the  land  is  under  a  high  state  of 
development,  owing  to  the  care  and  labor  which  he 
bestows  upon  it.  He  is  practical  in  all  that  he 
does  and  in  his  business  is  meeting  with  excellent 


pie  of  this  county.  There  has  been  two  sons  born 
of  this  union,  Cecil,  whose  birth  occurred  Febru- 
ary 1,  1902,  and  a  son,  who  was  born  May  15, 
1906,  and  died  June  6,  1906.  The  young  couple 
have  the  warm  regard  of  many  friends  and  are 
highly  esteemed  throughout  the  community.  Mr. 
Fountain  is  a  member  of  Whitefield  camp,  No. 
1652,  M.  W.  A.,  and  he  holds  membership  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church.  In  his  political  views 
he  is  a  stalwart  republican,  having  supported  the 
party  since  age  conferred  upon  him  the  right  of 
franchise.  He  has  always  lived  in  Whitefield 
township  and  is  known  as  one  of  its  representa- 
tive young  farmers. 


In  1900  Mr.  Fountain  was  married  to  Miss 
Mary  Jennings,  a  native  of  Indiana  and  a  daugh- 
ter of  Thomas  and  Martha  Jennings,  farming  peo- 


HON.  HARRISON  T.  IRELAND. 

Hon.  Harrison  T.  Ireland,  whose  position  in 
public  regard  and  whose  prominence  in  political 
circles  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  he  is  the 
present  representative  of  his  district  in  the 
state  legislature  of  Illinois,  is,  notwithstanding 
the  honors  that  have  been  conferred  upon  him,  a 
man  of  rather  diffident  nature  who  shuns  ostenta- 
tion and  display.  His  election,  therefore,  was 
even  a  greater  compliment  to  his  personal  worth 
and  his  fidelity  in  citizenship.  He  is  perhaps 
equally  well  known  because  of  his  extensive  agri- 
cultural interests  in  Marshall  county,  where  he 
owns  seven  hundred  acres  of  fine  farming  land' 
and  is  engaged  extensively  in  raising,  buying  and 
shipping  live  stock.  His  home  is  on  section  35, 
Richland  township,  and  he  is  a  native  son  of  the 
middle  west,  his  birth  having  occurred  in  La  Porte 
county,  Indiana,  October  2,  1848. 

His  paternal  grandfather,  James  Ireland,  was 
for  some  years  a  resident  of  Ohio,  but  spent  his 
last  days  in  Indiana.  His  son,  Pleasant  Ireland, 
was  born  in  Preble  county,  Ohio,  January  23, 
1813,  and  was  reared  upon  the  home  farm  in  that 
state,  while  his  educational  advantages  were  such 
as  were  afforded  by  the  pioneer  schools  of  the  lo- 
cality. He  accompanied  his  parents  on  their  re- 
moval to  Indiana  and  was  there  married  to  Miss 
Matilda  B.  Newell,  who  was  born  in  Kentucky, 
December  11,  1811,  and  was  a  daughter  of  John 
Newell,  who  after  some  years'  residence  in  the 
Hoosier  state  removed  to  Lacon,  Illinois,  about 
1856,  but  subsequently  returned  to  La  Porte,  In- 
diana, where  he  died.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pleasant 
Ireland  began  their  domestic  life  in  La  Porte 
county,  where  he  devoted  his  energies  to  farming 


308 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


until  1855,  when  he  came  to  Marshall  county 
and  for  two  years  was  a  resident  of  Lacon.  He 
then  took  up  his  abode  on  a  farm  on  section  35, 
Richland  township,  where  he  continued  to  engage 
actively  in  agricultural  pursuits  until  he  put 
aside  the  more  arduous  duties  of  a  business  ca- 
reer. He  retained  his  residence  in  Richland 
township,  however,  up  to  the  time  of  his  demise, 
which  occurred  September  1,  1892,  when  he  was 
seventy-nine  years  of  age.  He  had  for  almost  two 
years  survived  his  wife,  who  died  in  1890,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-nine  years.  They  were  the  parents 
of  five  children,  of  whom  two  died  in  infancy,  the 
others  being  Frank  N.,  a  banker  and  farmer  of 
Washburn,  Illinois ;  Harriet,  the  wife  of  Isaac 
Wikoff,  a  retired  druggist  living  at  Winfield,  Kan- 
sas; and  Harrison  T.  The  elder  son  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Seventynseventh  Illinois  .Volunteer  In- 
fantry during  the  Civil  war.  The  parents  were 
members  of  the  Christian  church,  with  which  they 
united  at  an  early  day.  Mr.  Pleasant  Ireland 
was  a  very  close  student  of  the  bible  and  was  al- 
ways able  to  uphold  his  side  of  an  argument  con- 
cerning religious  questions.  For  some  years  he 
served  as  deacon  in  his  church  and  his  political 
support  was  unfalteringly  given  to  the  republican 
party,  for  he  believed  that  its  principles  best  con- 
served good  government. 

Harrison  T.  Ireland  spent  the  first  seven  years 
of  his  life  in  the  state  of  his  nativity,  after  which 
he  accompanied  his  parents  on  their  removal  to 
Marshall  county.  He  was  a  student  at  different 
times  in  the  public  schools  of  Lacon  and  of  Wash- 
burn  and  in  the  district  schools  near  his  father's 
farm.  When  not  occupied  with  his  text-books  his 
time  and  energies  were  largely  given  to  the  work 
of  the  farm,  so  that  he  became  thoroughly  familiar 
with  the  best  methods  of  tilling  the  soil.  He  has 
never  sought  to  change  his  vocation,  but  has  con- 
tinued actively  in  farm  work,  adding  to  his  prop- 
erty as  opportunity  has  offered,  until  his  landed 
possessions  are  now  extensive,  comprising  seven 
hundred  acres  in  Marshall  county.  He  raises  the 
crops  best  adapted  to  climatic  conditions  and  to 
the  soil  and  is  also  extensively  engaged  in  raising, 
buying  and  shipping  live  stock. 

On  the  28th  of  October,  1869,  Mr.  Ireland  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Elizabeth  M.  Owen,  a 
native  of  Richland  township,  Marshall  county, 
and  a  daughter  of  Walter  Owen,  one  of  the  early 
settlers  of  this  locality.  They  became  the  par- 


ents of  four  children,  three  of  whom  are  now 
living.  Dr.  Frank  B.  Ireland,  the  elder  son,  is 
successfully  engaged  in  the  practice  of  medicine 
at  Washburn,  Illinois.  He  married  a  Miss  Stu- 
bert  and  they  have  one  son,  Harrison  B.,  now  six 
years  of  age.  Walter  0.,  who  married  Miss  Anna 
Lutz,  is  a  traveling  salesman  with  headquarters  at 
Washburn.  Ludell  is  a  graduate  of  the  Washburn 
high  school  and  is  at  home. 

Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ireland  hold  membership 
in  the  Christian  church,  in  the  work  of  which 
they  take  an  active  part,  while  contributing  gen- 
erously to  its  support.  Mr.  Ireland  also  belongs 
to  Washburn  lodge,  No.  421,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  and 
to  Lacon  chapter,  R.  A.  M.  His  position  is  never 
an  equivocal  one  upon  any  question.  He  stands 
firm  in  support  of  his  honest  convictions  and  over 
his  private  life  and  public  career  there  falls  no 
shadow  of  wrong  or  suspicion  of  evil.  Recognized 
as  one  of  the  leaders  in  the  ranks  of  the  republican 
party  in  Marshall  county,  he  has  filled  various 
local  offices,  acting  as  school  treasurer  for  eighteen 
years,  as  supervisor  of  Richland  township  for  four 
years,  and  as  chairman  of  the  board  for  two  years. 
In  1904  he  was  the  choice  of  the  republican  party 
for  the  state  legislature  and  received  the  en- 
dorsement of  the  public  at  the  polls.  On  Novem- 
ber, 1906,  he  was  re-elected  as  a  member  of  the 
Forty-fifth  general  assembly,  so  that  he  is  now 
representing  his  district  in  the  state  legislature, 
where  he  has  made  such  a  creditable  record.  Fault- 
less in  honor,  fearless  in  conduct  and  stainless  in 
reputation,  Mr.  Ireland  commands  the  respect  of 
his  political  adherents  and  opponents  alike,  while 
personally  he  is  popular,  winning  friends  wher- 
ever he  goes.  His  life  has  been  actuated  by  high 
and  honorable  principles  and  characterized  by  the 
utmost  integrity  as  well  as  activity  in  his  business 
affairs. 


EDSON  LUTES. 

Edson  Lutes,  who  since  1894  has  resided  in 
Marshall  county  and  is  now  engaged  in  general 
farming  on  section  8,  Whitefield  township,  was 
born  in  Henderson  county,  New  Jersey,  May  7, 
1870.  His  parents  are  Jacob  and  Malissa  (Sut- 
ton)  Lutes,  also  natives  of  New  Jersey,  in  which 
state  they  yet  reside.  The  father  has  followed 
various  business  pursuits,  including  farming  and 
carpentering  and  he  now  resides  in  Fairmount, 
New  Jersey.  In  the  family  were  the  following 


PAST   AND   PEESENT   OF   MAESHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


named:  S.  B.,  who  carries  on  farming  in  Mis- 
souri; George,  who  is  a  farmer  in  Illinois;  Wil- 
lard  P.,  who  is  living  retired  in  Mexico ;  Edson,  of 
this  review;  Mrs.  Anna  Jaquish,  whose  husband 
is  a  farmer  of  New  Jersey;  I.  H.,  who  carries  on 
agricultural  pursuits  in  Oklahoma ;  Albert  E.,  a 
mason  of  New  Jersey;  Johnson,  who  is  with  his 
brother  in  Whitefield  township;  and  Stewart  K., 
also  a  farmer. 

Edson  Lutes  is  indebted  to  the  public-school 
system  of  his  native  state  for  the  educational 
privileges  he  enjoyed.  He  was  reared  to  farm 
life,  being  early  instructed  by  his  father  in  the 
best  methods  of  tilling  the  soil  and  caring  for 
stock,  so  that  when  he  began  farming  on  his  own 
account  he  had  practical  knowledge  to  assist  him 
in  his  work.  He  came  to  Illinois  in  1894  when 
a  young  man  of  twenty-four  years  and  took  up 
his  abode  in  Marshall  county.  He  is  now  oper- 
ating the  Thomas  Monier  farm,  comprising  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  and  in  its  control  displays 
good  business  ability,  so  that  he  annually  gathers 
good  crops.  He  is  quite  prominent  in  fraternal 
circles,  belonging  to  Eialto  lodge,  No.  116,  I.  0.  0. 
F.,  at  High  Bridge,  New  Jersey,  the  Masonic 
lodge  at  Henry,  Illinois,  the  Knights  of  the  Golden 
Eagles  at  Califon,  New  Jersey,  and  the  Order  of 
Junior  American  Mechanics  at  the  same  place. 
He  votes  with  the  republican  party  and  is  con- 
nected with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  in 
the  faith  of  which  he  was  reared.  He  has  become 
widely  known  during  the  years  of  his  residence  in 
Marshall  county  and  has  many  warm  friends  in 
this  part  of  the  state. 


WILLIAM  H.  GEEMAN.. 
William  H.  German  is  a  retired  farmer,  who 
since  1899  has  made  his  home  in  Henry.  He  was 
born  in  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  March  12.,  1840, 
and  is  one  of  the  eight  children  of  John  and 
Cassandra  (Smith)  German.  The  father  was 
born  in  Pennsylvania  and  was  of  German  descent. 
He  came  to  Illinois  in  1832 — the  year  of  the  Black 
Hawk  war — and  located  near  Magnolia.  An  uncle 
entered  for  him  a  tract  of  land  and  he  devoted 
his  remaining  years  to  farming,  meeting  the 
usual  experiences,  privations,  pleasures  and  op- 
portunities of  pioneer  life  in  the  early  days  and 
subsequently  enjoying  the  advantages  which  came 
through  an  advanced  civilization.  He  held  mem- 
bership in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  took 


an  active  interest  in  its  work  and  served  as  class 
leader.  His  political  allegiance  was  given  to  the 
democracy.  He  died  in  1863  at  the  age  of  sixty- 
six  years,  while  his  wife,  who  was  a  native  of  Ohio, 
passed  away  in  1840.  She,  too,  was  a  devoted 
member  of  the  Methodist  church.  Of  their  eight 
children  Samuel  is  now  deceased;  Moses  died  in 
1902  at  the  age  of  eighty  years;  Maria  has  also 
passed  away ;  Eachel  is  the  wife  of  Calvin  Shields 
of  Putnam  county,  Illinois ;  Susan  H.  is  the  widow 
of  Henry  Hannum;  Elizabeth  is  the  widow  of 
Young  Glenn,  who  is-in  Oxbow,  Putnam  county; 
Malinda  was  the  wife  of  Dan  Harney  and  both 
are  now  deceased. 

William  H.  German,  the  youngest  member  of 
the  family,  was  reared  to  farm  life  and  has  always 
carried  on  general  agricultural  pursuits.  He  pros- 
pered in  his  undertakings  and  is  now  the  owner 
of  a  valuable  property  of  three  hundred  and  twen- 
ty acres  lying  in  Hopewell  township.  There  he 
engaged  in  tilling  of  the  soil  for  a  number  of 
years  and  improved  an  excellent  property,  add- 
ing many  modern  equipments  to  his  farm,  where- 
on he  resided  until  1899,  when  he  retired  from 
active  business  cares  and  took  up  his  abode  in 
Henry.  The  only  interruption  to  his  business  ea- 
re'er  had  been  his  service  in  the  Civil  war,  for  he 
had  enlisted  in  defense  of  the  Union  cause,  be- 
coming a  member  of  Company  B,  Seventy-seventh 
Illinois  Infantry,  with  which  he  remained  for  al- 
most two  years,  when  he  was  honorably  discharged 
on  account  of  disability.  He  then  returned  to 
his  farm  and  continuously  carried  on  agricultural 
pursuits  until  his  labors  had  brought  to  him  a 
handsome  competence  sufficient  to  supply  him  with 
the  comforts-  and  many  of  the  luxuries  of  life 
throughout  his  remaining  days. 

Mr.  German  was  married  November  12,  1863, 
to  Miss  Ada  E.  Stewart,  who  was  born  in  Hen- 
nepin,  Illinois,  January  15,  1844,  a  daughter  of 
John  E.  and  Sophia  Stewart.  Her  father  was 
a  farmer  by  occupation  and  on  coming  to  Illinois 
settled  in  Putnam  county  in  1835.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  German  have  had  eight  children :  Cassandra 
S.,  John  H.,  Nancy  E.,  Gillie  M.  and  William 
C.,  all  now  deceased;  Charles  S.,  an  optician  and 
jeweler ;  Moses  S.,  who  follows  farming ;  and  Ed- 
win S.,  of  Henry,  Illinois. 

Mr.  German  is  a  member  of  Henry  post,  G.  A. 
R.,  and  thus  maintains  pleasant  relations  with 
his  old  army  comrades.  He  has  been  as  loyal  to 


310 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OP   MAESHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


his  country  in  days  of  peace  as  when  he  wore  the 
blue  uniform  of  the  nation  and  followed  the  old 
flag  upon  southern  battlefields.  He  is  a  public 
spirited  man  and  local  advancement  and  national 
progress  are  both  causes  dear  to  his  heart.  In 
business  affairs  he  has  a  most  creditable  record  as 
one  who  is  ever  straightforward  and  honorable  in 
his  dealings,  his  succesful  accomplishment  re- 
sulting from  his  diligence  and  enterprise.  Mrs. 
German  is  a  member  of  the  Women's  Relief  Corps. 


PATRICK  DORE. 

Patrick  Dore,  deceased,  was  for  many  years  a 
prominent  business  man  of  Putnam  county,  iden- 
tified with  both  its  commercial  and  agricultural 
interests,  and  his  life  record  demonstrated  what 
can  be  accomplished  through  firm  and  determined 
purpose  and  unfaltering  energy.  A  native  of 
County  Kerry,  Ireland,  he  was  born  on  the  17th 
of  March,  1831,  and  acquired  his  education  in  the 
schools  of  the  Emerald  isle,  remaining  in  his 
native  land  until  the  fall  of  1850,  when  he  came 
to  the  United  States  to  try  his  fortune  in  the  new 
world,  having  heard  favorable  reports  of  the  op- 
portunities here  extended  to  ambitious,  energetic 
young  men.  He  had  no  capital,  but  he  possessed 
determination  and  enterprise,  and  upon  those  qual- 
ities as  a  foundation  he  builded  the  superstructure 
of  his  success.  For  a  short  period  he  was  em- 
ployed near  Chicago,  and  on  the  9th  of  December, 
1850,  arrived  at  Hennepin.  It  was  his  intention 
to  go  further  south,  but,  spending  the  night  at  a 
hotel  here,  he  entered  upon  arrangements  to  work 
for  the  landlord  of  the  hotel,  first  receiving  a  sal- 
ary of  only  eight  dollars  per  month,  but  later  the 
wage  was  increased  to  ten  dollars  and  subsequently 
to  thirteen  and  to  fifteen  dollars  per  month.  Ap- 
parently trivial  incidents  often  prove  decisive  fac- 
tors in  a  life  record,  and  such  was  the  case  of 
Mr.  Dore,  for,  stopping  for  the  night  at  Henne- 
pin, he  continued  to  make  his  home  here  through- 
out his  remaining  days. 

On  leaving  the  hotel  he  entered  the  employ  of 
the  firm  of  Minehan,  Simpson  &  Company,  dealers 
in  lumber  and  grain,  being  employed  in  their 
warehouse,  yards  and  office.  The  firm  conducted 
an  extensive  business,  making  shipments  to  St. 
Louis  and  Chicago.  Mr.  Dore  had  a  friend  in 
St.  Louis,  a  grain  dealer,  who  often  came  to  Hen- 
nepin, and  finally  an  arrangement  was  made 
whereby  Mr.  Dore  bought  and  shipped  grain  for 


this  friend,  Thomas  Ryan.  After  working  for 
some  years  in  this  way  his  friend,  who  was  also  a 
wholesale  grocer,  proposed  that  he  should  go  into 
the  grocery  business,  and  furnished  him  with  a 
stock  of  goods  on  long  time.  His  trade  gradually 
increased  and  became  very  profitable,  and  he  re- 
mained a  merchant  of  Hennepin  up  to  the  time 
of  his  death.  A  man  of  resourceful  business  abil- 
ity, he  also  extended  his  efforts  into  other  fields 
of  activity  by  purchasing  grain  and  hogs,  which 
he  shipped  to  Mr.  Ryan,  partially  in  payment  for 
goods.  His  business  increasing,  in  a  few  years  he 
was  enabled  to  pay  cash  for  such  goods  as  he  pur- 
chased. All  days  were  not  equally  bright.  At 
times  the  storm  clouds  gathered  and  threatened 
disaster  to  the  young  merchant,  but  he  perse- 
vered and  turned  seeming  defeats  into  victories. 
At  one  time  he  lost  heavily  in  the  sinking  of  a 
steamer  on  which  he  had  seven  thousand  bushels 
of  potatoes,  which  were  then  worth  seventy-five 
cents  per  bushel.  This  was  a  total  loss,  as  he  had 
no  insurance  on  it.  About  five  years  ago,  in  com- 
pany with  a  nephew,  he  established  a  store  at 
Spring  Valley,  in  which  he  lost  three  thousand 
dollars.  He  then  put  his  son,  Michael  Dore,  in 
charge,  and  the  business  from  that  time  proved 
profitable. 

As  soon  as  he  was  enabled  to  do  so  Mr.  Dore 
invested  means  in  Iowa  land,  buying  at  three  dol- 
lars and  a  half  per  acre  at  first  and  afterward 
paying  as  high  as  ten  dollars  per  acre.  As  his 
financial  resources  increased  he  began  purchasing 
land  in  Putnam  county  and  other  places,  and 
eventually  had  extensive  holdings  in  this  state,  in 
Iowa,  Colorado,  Omaha,  Nebraska,  and  South  Da- 
kota. He .  gave  his  personal  supervision  to  his 
Putnam  county  farms  and  thereon  raised  and  fed 
horses  and  cattle  quite  extensively.  For  some  years 
he  bred  many  Norman  horses,  owning  a  fine  stal- 
lion. He  was  also  interested  in  race  horses,  and 
has  been  the  owner  of  some  fine  specimens  of  the 
noble  steed  that  have  made  excellent  records  on 
the  track.  In  his  cattle  raising  interests  he  made 
a  specialty  of  the  Herefords,  and  won  success  in 
this  branch  of  his  business. 

In  1856  Mr.  Dore  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Margaret  Rooney,  of  Hennepin,  and  unto 
them  were  born  six  children:  John,  who  is  now 
manager  of  his  father's  estate  and  lives  in  Henne- 
pin :  James,  who  died  at  the  age  of  nineteen  years ; 
William,  who  died  in  infancy;  Thomas,  who 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


313 


is  living  retired  in  Hennepin  and  who  married 
Jennie  Simington,  by  whom  he  has  three  children 
— Margery,  John  and  Thomas;  Michael,  who  is 
manager  of  the  store  in  Spring  Valley  and  who 
wedded  Edith  Smith,  of  Hennepin,  by  whom  he 
has  three  children;  and  Cora  Ellen,  the  wife  of 
James  G.  Fay.  They  reside  in  a  beautiful  home 
in  Hennepin,  which  was  built  a  few  years  ago, 
and  they  have  one  daughter,  Margaret,  who  was 
nine  years  of  age  on  the  27th  of  June,  1906.  They 
also  lost  a  daughter,  Eileen,  at  the  age  of  eleven 
months.  Mr.  Fay  is  employed  in  the  Patrick  Dore 
store  in  Hennepin.  The  death  of  the  father  oc- 
curred in  1901,  and  the  mother,  who  had  been  an 
invalid  for  many  years,  passed  away  at  the  old 
home  in  Hennepin  in  April,  1905. 

Mr.  Dore  gave  his  political  allegiance  to  the  de- 
mocracy where  national  questions  were  involved, 
but  at  local  elections  cast  an  independent  ballot. 
He  did  not  seek  or  desire  office,  preferring  to  de- 
vote bis  entire  time  and  attention  to  his  business 
affairs.  He  was  an  honest,  upright  man  and  a 
public-spirited  citizen,  dealing  fairly  in  his  busi- 
ness relations  and  supporting  many  progressive 
measures  that  proved  of  benefit  to  his  community. 
He  had  but  twenty-five  cents  when  he  reached 
Chicago  on  his  way  from  Ireland.  His  educational 
privileges  were  limited,  but  he  was  quick  to  learn, 
and  he  had  more  than  ordinary  ability  as  a  busi- 
ness man.  Gradually  he  worked  his  way  upward, 
utilizing  the  means  at  hand  to  the  best  possible 
advantage,  and  his  energy  and  enterprise  proved 
the  strong  elements  in  a  successful  business  career 
which  was  well  worthy  of  emulation.  Since  his 
death  his  widow  and  children  have  built  a  new 
Catholic  church  in  his  honor,  which  is  called  St. 
Patrick's  church,  and  thus  is  perpetuated  the  mem- 
ory of  one  of  Putnam  county's  prominent  and 
prosperous  business  men. 


WILLIAM  HUFNAGEL. 

William  Hufnagel  is  the  owner  of  a  valuable 
farming  property  comprising  a  tract  of  one  hun- 
dred and  nine  acres  and  another  of  one  hundred 
and  nineteen  acres  in  Whitefield  township,  Mar- 
shall county,  while  in  Bureau  county  he  owns  one 
hundred  and  five  acres.  He  is  a  progressive  and 
energetic  business  man  and  is  now  very  pleasant- 
ly located  on  section  6,  Whitefield  township.  He 
was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  January 
29,  1854,  his  parents  being  John  and  Mary 


(Draubert)  Hufnagel,  both  of  whom  were  na- 
tives of  Germany.  The  father  was  born  in  Wur- 
temberg  and  on  leaving  the  land  of  his  nativity 
and  crossing  the  Atlantic  to  the  new  world  in  his 
boyhood  days  he  became  a  resident  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. There  he  was  reared  and  in  Philadelphia 
he  wedded  Miss  Mary  Draubert.  While  in  the 
east  he  followed  the  carpenter's  trade  and  also 
engaged  in  merchandising,  conducting  a  store  for 
the  purchase  and  sale  of  butter,  eggs  and  other 
commodities.  Hoping  to  enjoy  still  better  oppor- 
tunities in  the  middle  west,  however,  and  think- 
ing that  he  would  here  obtain  superior  advantages 
whereby  to  provide  for  his  family,  he  came  to  Illi- 
nois in  1860  and  turned  his  attention  to  farming, 
settling  upon  a  tract  of  land  in  Whitefield  town- 
ship. For  long  years  thereafter  he  was  actively 
and  successfully  connected  with  farming  pursuits, 
but  is  now  living  retired  in  Bradford.  His  wife 
has  passed  away.  In  their  family  were  five  chil- 
dren :  Aaron,  who  is  a  farmer  living  in  Stark 
county,  Illinois,  not  far  from  Bradford;  Charles, 
who  is  engaged  in  farming  and  gardening  in  Bu- 
reau county,  Illinois ;  William,  of  this  review ; 
Joseph,  who  is  raising  farm  and  garden  produce  in 
Bureau  county;  and  Daniel,  who  is  engaged  in 
carpentering  in  Bradford. 

In  the  days  of  his  boyhood  and  youth  William 
Hufnagel  was  a  pupil  in  the  district  school  at 
Whitefield  Corners  and  when  not  busy  with  his 
text-books  he  was  occupied  with  the  labors  of  the 
field,  working  on  the  home  farm  from  early  boy- 
hood days.  He  was  a  lad  of  only  six  years  when 
he  accompanied  his  parents  to  Illinois  and  he  was 
therefore  reared  upon  the  old  family  homestead 
in  Whitefield  township.  He  has  never  sought  to 
change  his  occupation,  being  content  to  devote 
his  time  and  energies  to  agricultural  pursuits, 
finding  therein  ample  opportunity  for  the  exercise 
of  his  native  talents  and  for  the  acquirement  of 
success.  His  holdings  now  comprise  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty-three  acres  of  rich  and  productive 
land,  of  which  one  hundred  and  five  acres  is  sit- 
uated in  Bureau  county  and  the  remainder  in 
Whitefield  township,  Marshall  county,  although  it 
is  divided  into  two  tracts.  The  home  place  is  on 
section  6  and  is  a  well  improved  farm,  lacking  in 
none  of  the  accessories  and  conveniences  of  a 
model  farm  property  of  the  twentieth  century. 

In  1880  Mr.  Hufnagel  was  married  to  Miss 
Louisa  Kopp,  of  Henry  county,  Illinois,  whose 


314: 


PAST  AND   PRESENT    OP   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


father,  Christopher  Kopp,  was  a  merchant  there. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hufnagel  now  have  four  children : 
Albert,  who  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years  is  en- 
gaged in  farming;  Annie,  seventeen  years  of  age; 
Henry,  fifteen  years  of  age,  now  assisting  in  the 
work  of  the  home  farm ;  and  Laura,  a  little  maiden 
of  four  summers. 

Mr.  Hufnagel  votes  with  the  democracy,  but 
does  not  consider  himself  bound  by  party  ties 
and  at  local  elections  frequently  casts  an  inde- 
pendent ballot.  He  has  served  as  path  master, 
but  is  not  a  politician  in  the  sense  of  office  seek- 
ing, as  he  prefers  to  give  undivided  attention  to 
his  business  affairs,  which  have  been  carefully 
conducted,  so  that  in  the  long  years  of  his  resi- 
dence in  this  county  he  has  gained  .the  confidence 
and  good  will  of  his  fellowmen  and  won  many 
friendships  in  the  circle  of  his  acquaintance. 


ELLISON  G.  WOOD. 

Ellison  G.  Wood,  proprietor  of  the  Maple 
Lawn  farm,  situated  on  section  36,  Whitefield 
township,  is  one  of  the  progressive  and  represent- 
ative agriculturists  of  Marshall  county.  He  was 
born  in  Fulton  county,  Illinois,  on  the  7th  of 
March,  1850.  His  father,  Thomas  Wood,  was  a 
native  of  Virginia  and  became  one  of  the  pioneer 
settlers  of  this  state,  journeying  westward  to  Illi- 
nois with  an  ox  team  in  1830.  He  settled  upon  a 
farm  in  Fulton  county,  casting  in  his  lot  with 
the  early  residents  of  that  portion  of  the  state  and 
aiding  in  reclaiming  it  from  the  domain  of  the 
red  man  and  converting  it  into  the  uses  of  civiliza- 
tion. He  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life  to 
farming  in  that  locality  and  died  at  the  age  of 
forty-eight  years.  His  wife,  Rachel  Flowers 
Wood,  passed  away  about  twenty-six  years  ago.  In 
their  family  were  thirteen  children,  but  only  four 
are  now  living,  namely:  F.  B.,  a  resident  farmer 
of  Fulton  county,  Illinois ;  Laura  V.,  who  is  the 
widow  of  George  W.  Emerick  and  resides  in  Hen- 
ry ;  Casper,  who  is  living  a  retired  life  in  Henry ; 
and  Ellison  G. 

In  the  district  schools  of  the  county  of  his  na- 
tivity Ellison  G.  Wood  mastered  the  common 
branches  of  English  learning  and  through  the 
summer  months  he  worked  upon  the  home  farm, 
early  becoming  thoroughly  conversant  with  the 
best  methods  of  tilling  the  soil  and  raising  the 
crops  adapted  to  the  climate.  After  leaving  the 


old  home  farm  he  removed  to  Chillicothe,  Illinois, 
where  he  established  and  conducted  a  livery  busi- 
ness for  nine  years.  On  the  expiration  of  that 
period  he  removed  to  a  farm  in  Whitefield  town- 
ship, where  he  lived  for  four  years,  and  six  years 
ago  he  came  to  his  present  place  on  section  36, 
Whitefield  township,  known  as  the  Maple  Lawn 
farm.  Here  he  is  carefully  conducting  general 
agricultural  pursuits  and  he  has  eighty-four  acres 
of  rich  and  productive  land,  which  is  now  well 
cultivated  and  brings  forth  good  crops.  There 
are  many  modern  equipments  and  improvements 
upon  the  farm  and  the  neat  and  thrifty  appear- 
ance of  the  place  is  indicative  of  the  careful  su- 
pervision of  the  owner. 

In  1884  Mr.  Wood  was  married  to  Miss  Belle 
Maxwell,  a  native  of  Fulton  county,  Illinois,  born 
near  Canton.  Her  father  was  George  Maxwell,  a 
farmer  of  that  locality.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wood  have 
become  the  parents  of  a  son  and  two  daughters : 
Grace,  who  is  now  nineteen  years  of  age,  and  will 
graduate  in  1907;  Clyde,  eighteen  years  of  age, 
who  assists  in  the  operation  of  the  home  farm ; 
and  Hazel,  thirteen  years  of  age,  now  attending 
school.  Mr.  Wood  is  an  advocate  of  the  principles 
of  democracy,  but  at  local  elections  where  no  is- 
sue is  involved  he  regards  only  the  capability  of 
the  candidate  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  the 
business  of  town  or  county  and  casts  an  independ- 
ent ballot.  He  belongs  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  and  is  a  man  well  worthy  the  esteem 
which  is  uniformly  tendered  him.  He  also  merits 
the  success  which  has  come  to  him,  for  it  is  the 
direct  reward  of  his  earnest  labor  guided  by  sound 
judgment  and  characterized  by  unswerving  busi- 
ness integrity. 


JAMES  H.  TAGGART. 
James  H.  Taggart,  who  has  been  a  prominent 
factor  in  agricultural  and  commercial  circles  in 
central  Illinois,  has  resided  in  Wenona  since  the 
spring  of  1895  and  was  formerly  connected  with 
the  grain  trade.  He  was  born  in  St.  Clairsville, 
Belmont  county,  Ohio,  September  9,  1839,  his 
parents  being  John  and  Nancy  (Roberts)  Taggart, 
the  former  also  a  native  of  Belmont  county,  while 
the  latter  was  born  in  Canada  and  was  reared  in 
the  faith  of  the  Society  of  Friends  or  Quakers. 
The  paternal  grandfather,  James  Taggart,  was  a 
soldier  of  the  Revolutionary  war  and  the  family 


PAST    AM)    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


315 


was  established  in  Ohio  at  an  early  day.  The  an- 
cestors in  America  came  originally  from  Ireland. 
The  great-grandfather,  John  Taggart,  was  born  in 
the  north  of  Ireland  and  became  the  founder  of 
the  family  in  the  new  world.  Eev.  William  Tag- 
gart was  a  minister  of  the  United  Presbyterian 
church  and  for  sixty-two  years  engaged  in  preach- 
ing the  gospel.  He  attended  a  theological  semi- 
nary in  New  York,  journeying  from  St.  Clairs- 
ville,  Ohio,  to  the  Empire  state  on  horseback  in 
order  to  pursue  his  studies  there.  He  was  a  most 
highly  educated  man  for  his  day,  a  deep  thinker, 
logical  reasoner,  and  he  lived  to  be  eighty-four 
years  of  age.  He  was  one  of  a  family  of  four 
brothers,  the  others  being  James,  Joseph  and  Isaac 
Taggart,  all  of  whom  followed  the  occupation  of 
farming. 

In  the  maternal  line  Mr.  Taggart  of  this  re- 
view is  descended  from  Welch  ancestry,  tracing 
the  line  back  to  Ezekiel  Roberts,  who  was  born 
in  Wales  and  came  to  this  country  when  a  boy. 
He  was  a  farmer  by  occupation  and  for  a  few  years 
lived  in  Canada,  but  afterward  settled  in  Ohio, 
and  his  son  John  came  to  Henry  about  1847. 

John  Taggart,  father  of  our  subject,  was  a 
farmer  by  occupation  and  spent  his  entire  life  in 
Belmont  county,  Ohio,  where  his  wife  also  lived 
from  the  time  of  the  emigration  from  Canada 
until  her  demise.  They  were  the  parents  of  four 
sons  and  three  daughters,  namely :  Joseph  R., 
who  for  forty-five  years  was  a  resident  of  Mar- 
shall county,  but  now  lives  in  Petersburg,  Florida ; 
Atwell  M.,  deceased;  James  H.,  of  this  review; 
Mary  A.,  the  wife  of  Hugh  Morrison,  of  St.  Clairs- 
ville,  Ohio;  Lydia  A.,  the  wife  of  James  Darrow, 
of  Bellaire,  Ohio ;  Wilson  S.,  who  resides  at  Long 
Beach,  California;  and  Agnes  D.,  who  died  in 
Minneapolis,  Minnesota. 

In  taking  up  the  personal  history  of  James  H. 
Taggart  we  present  to  our  readers  the  life  record 
of  one  who  is  widely  and  favorably  known  in  this 
portion  of  Illinois.  He  was  reared  in  Belmont 
county,  Ohio,  and  was  educated  in  the  district 
schools.  In  January,  1864,  accompanied  by  his 
wife,  he  journeyed  westward,  thinking  to  enjoy 
better  business  opportunities  in  this  portion  of 
the  country,  and  located  in  Lacon,  Illinois,  where 
he  conducted  a  woodyard  until  the  fall  of  1868. 
He  then  settled  on  a  farm  three  miles  west  of  We- 
nona,  where  he  remained  for  three  years,  and  on 
the  expiration  of  that  period  he  removed  to  Put- 


nam county,  Illinois,  where  he  engaged  in  farm- 
ing until  1882.  He  then  became  a  resident  of 
Long  Point,  Livingston  county,  Illinois,  where  he 
engaged  in  the  grain,  lumber  and  live  stock  busi- 
ness, continuing  therein  until  1893.  During  the 
two  succeeding  years  he  was  not  connected  with 
any  business  enterprise,  but  in  the  spring  of  1895 
again  engaged  in  the  grain  trade,  this  time  at 
Wenona,  where  he  has  since  resided.  He  rebuilt 
the  elevator  which  is  now  owned  by  his  son,  H. 
M.  Taggart,  and  is  equipped  with  all  modern  con- 
veniences. Mr.  Taggart  owns  a  half  section  of 
land  two.  miles  from  Wenona  and  his  has  been  a 
most  active  business  life,  in  which  his  close  appli- 
cation and  keen  discernment  have  been  salient 
features. 

On  the  3d  of  December,  1863,  was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  James  H.  Taggart  and  Miss  Jose- 
phine L.  Murdaugh,  a  native  of  Ohio,  by  whom 
he  has  four  children:  Luella,  the  wife  of  T.  C. 
Colehour,  a  resident  of  Toluca,  Illinois ;  Maud  R., 
the  wife  of  Oscar  Wheeler,  who  resides  at  Long 
Point,  Illinois ;  Harry  M. ;  and  Fred  L.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Taggart  are  members  of  the  Presbyterian 
church  and  he  has  been  active  in  the  upbuilding  of 
this  section  of  the  country,  endorsing  and  co-oper- 
ating in  many  measures  which  have  had  direct 
bearing  upon  the  welfare  and  improvement  of 
this  part  of  the  state.  Moreover,  his  business 
interests  have  largely  been  of  a  character  that 
have  contributed  to  general  progress  and  he  be- 
longs to  that  class  of  representative  American 
men  who,  while  advancing  individual  interests, 
also  promote  the  public  prosperity.  Wherever 
known  his  name  is  a  synonym  for  business  probity 
and  energy  and  for  progressive  citizenship. 


ANTON  GRESSER. 

Anton  Gresser,  deceased,  who  at  different  times 
was  connected  with  agricultural  and  commercial 
interests  in  Marshall  county  and  in  Henry,  was 
born  in  Bavaria,  Germany,  on  the  10th  of  March, 
1835,  and  died  January  31,  1901.  He  came  to 
the  United  States  in  1855,  when  a  young  man  of 
twenty  years  and  located  near  Mount  Palatine, 
Illinois,  where  he  began  working  as  a  farm  hand 
by  the  month.  Subsequently  he  returned  to  his 
native  country,  where  he  spent  the  succeeding 
year,  and  then  again  came  to  America,  taking  up 
his  abode  in  Henry.  Here  he  was  engaged  in  busi- 
ness until  about  fifteen  years  prior  to  his  death 


PAST    AM)    I'HKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    PUTNAM    COTNTIKS. 


a  was  an  enterprising,  energetic  man.     He  was 
also   tlie   owner  of  a  farm  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five   acres   near   the  corporation   line   of 
^-    Henry  and  this  returned  to  him  a  good  annual 

income. 

/  On  January  3,  1864,  Mr.  Gresser  was  married 

to  Apolona  Umbs,  who  was  born  in  Prussia,  June 
'  22,  1847.  When  she  was  only  nine  weeks  old 
her  parents,  Nicholas  and  Margaret  Umbs,  emi- 
grated to  the  United  States  and  settled  upon  a 
farm  in  Wisconsin,  where  they  spent  their  remain- 
ing days,  the  father  becoming  a  well-to-do  citizen 
of  that  locality.  In  their  family  were  four  chil- 
dren :  Louis,  who  now  resides  in  Wisconsin ;  John, 
who  is  a  resident  of  Idaho;  Agnes,  the  wife  of 
John  Wisner,  also  of  Wisconsin;  and  Apolona, 
who  became  the  wife  of  our  subject.  Unto  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Gresser  were  born  four  children :  Katie, 
now  the  wife  of  John  Peterman,  who  is  living  re- 
tired in  Henry;  Abbie,  who  died  at  the  age  of 
three  and  a  half  years;  Henry,  who  is  also  living 
in  the  city  of  Henry;  and  Joseph,  who  makes  his 
home  there. 

Mr.  Gresser  was  a  member  of  St.  Mary's  Cath- 
olic church  and  his  political  allegiance  was  given 
to  the  democracy,  but  he  never  sought  or  desired 
public  office,  preferring  to  concentrate  his  ener- 
gies upon  his  business  affairs,  which,  being  capa- 
bly conducted,  brought  to  him  a  goodly  measure 
of  success  and  enabled  him  to  leave  his  family  in 
comfortable  financial  circumstances  when  he  was 
called  to  his  final  rest.  He  never  had  occasion^ 
to  regret  his  determination  to  seek  a  home  in 
America,  for  here  he  found  favorable  business 
conditions,  which  he  improved,  and  he  also  gained 
many  warm  friends  in  the  locality  where  he  re- 
sided. He  passed  away  when  about  sixty-six  years 
of  age.  Since  that  time  Mrs.  Gresser  has  sold 
the  farm  which  he  owned  and  she  makes  her 
home  in  Henry.  She,  too,  is  a  member  of  the 
Catholic  church. 


ARTHUR  L.  TURNER. 

Arthur  L.  Turner  is  serving  for  the  second  term 
as  president  of  the  school  board.  Activity  and 
enterprise  in  former  years  have  enabled  him  to 
live  retired  now  from  active  business  cares  and  his 
time  and  energies  are  largely  given  to  the  public 
service,  the  community  recognizing  in  him  a  val- 
ued citizen.  He  was  born  in  Hopetown,  La  Salle 
county,  Illinois,  March  22,  1856,  and  is  a  son  of 


Benjamin  P.  and  Hannah  L.  (Miller)  Turner. 
The  former  was  born  on  the  24th  of  July,  1826, 
near  Zanesville,  Muskingum  county,  Ohio,  and  his 
parents  were  Clem  and  Dorcas  (Snyder)  Turner, 
the  former  a  native  of  Delaware  and  the  latter  of 
West  Virginia.  They  were  among  the  early  set- 
tlers of  Muskingum  county,  where  the  father  en- 
gaged in  farming  and  there  both  died. 

In  his  early  boyhood  days  Benjamin  F.  Turner 
lost  his  mother  and  was  reared  in  the  family  of 
Judge  Thomas  Ijms,  a  prominent  man  of  his 
time  and  judge  of  the  county  court  of  Muskingum 
county.  In  the  district  schools  of  Ohio  Mr. 
Turner  secured  his  education  and  was  reared  to 
farm  work.  He  came  to  Illinois  in  1845,  arriving 
in  Magnolia  township,  Putnam  county,  on  the 
4th  of  March,  accompanying  the  late  George  Dent, 
and  was  there  employed  at  farm  labor  until  1850. 
In  that  year  he  married  Miss  Hannah  L.  Miller, 
who  was  born  at  Steubenville,  Ohio,  January  16, 
1830,  and  was  a  daughter  of  Abram  and  Jane 
(Porter)  Miller,  who  in  1846  located  on  a  farm 
two  miles  east  of  Magnolia.  There  they  made 
their  home  for  ten  years,  when  they  removed  to 
Wcnona,  where  they  were  numbered  among  the 
first  settlers,  and  there  spent  their  remaining  days. 
Her  father,  who  was  a  carpenter  by  trade,  helped 
to  erect  many  of  the  buildings  in  the  village. 

Six  children  came  to  bless  the  union  of  B.  F. 
Turner  and  his  worthy  wife,  namely:  William 
E.,  born  September  1,  1851 ;  Martin  M.,  December 
8,  1853 ;  Arthur  L.,  March  22,  1856 ;  Charles  M., 
October  37,  1860;  Hulda  J.,  July  6,  1863;  and 
Estella  M.,  May  17,  1870.  William  Emery,  who 
died  December  15,  1881,  had  married  Nellie  Moon 
and  they  had  two  children,  Guy  Franklin,  who 
graduated  at  the  Abilene  (Kansas)  high  school  in 
1895;  and  Harry.  Abraham  Martin  married  Ida 
Snider,  by  whom  he  has  two  children :  Nellie  and 
Cecil.  Arthur  Lee,  who  lives  in  Evans  township, 
Marshall  township,  wedded  Mary  Work,  of  Weno- 
na,  by  whom  he  has  three  children :  Benjamin  F., 
Mary  Maurine  and  Arthur  Lynn  Turner.  He  is 
now  serving  as  supervisor  of  Evans  township. 
Charles  Marion,  also  of  Evans  township,  married 
Lou  Carrithers,  and  they  have  five  children.  Jen- 
nie is  the  wife  of  Clarence  Axline,  of  Evans 
township,  by  whom  she  has  seven  children.  Es- 
tella May,  who  completes  the  family,  died  April 
14,  1883. 

After  his  marriage  Mr.  Turner  rented  land  in 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


317 


Putnam  county  for  six  years,  but  in  1857  removed 
to  a  farm  which  he  purchased  on  section  21, 
Evans  township,  three  miles  west  of  Wenona,  and 
as  it  was  all  raw  prairie  land  he  at  once  began  its 
improvement  and  development.  He  there  con- 
tinued to  make  his  home  until  1884,  when  he  laid 
aside  active  business  cares  and  removed  to  Wenona, 
where  his  wife  died  on  the  13th  of  November, 
1892,  and  her  remains  were  interred  in  the 
Wenona  cemetery.  She  was  a  consistent  member 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  and  took  an 
active  part  in  church  work.  On  the  18th  of 
March,  1896,  Mr.  Turner  married  Mrs.  Hannah 
E.  Seebree,  nee  Hendricks,  of  Bloomington.  Mr. 
Turner  was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  and  had  served  as  trustee  and  steward  of 
the  same.  His  death  occurred  September  24, 1901. 
For  many  years  he  was  an  active  member  of  the 
Good  Templars  society,  and  took  a  prominent  part 
in  promoting  the  temperance  cause.  He  was  an 
influential  member  of  the  republican  party,  and 
frequently  served  as  delegate  to  its'  conventions, 
and  was  called  upon  by  his  fellow  citizens  to  serve 
in  several  official  positions  of  honor  and  trust. 
He  was  road  commissioner  in  Evans  township,  was 
a  member  of  the  city  council  of  Wenona  from  the 
third  ward  and  served  for  many  years  as  justice 
of  the  peace. 

Arthur  L.  Turner,  whose  name  introduces  this 
record,  was  brought  to  Marshall  county  when  only 
a  year  old  and  was  reared  on  the  old  homestead 
farm  on  section  21,  Evans  township.  When  he 
had  mastered  the  branches  of  learning  taught  in 
the  district  schools  he  continued  his  studies  in 
the  high  school  at  Wenona  and  was  afterward  a 
student  in  Eureka  college,  where  he  completed  his 
literary  training  in '1877.  Subsequently  he  en- 
gaged in  teaching  for  eight  years  and  then,  de- 
voting his  entire  time  and  attention  to  farming, 
he  successfully  carried  on  agricultural  pursuits  for 
about  two  decades.  It  was  in  1883  that  he  located 
upon  a  farm  on  section  22,  Evans  township,  com- 
prising one  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  valuable 
land.  He  added  many  substantial  improvements 
to  the  place  and  brought  his  fields  under  a  high 
state  of  cultivation,  so  that  he  annually  harvested 
good  crops.  As  the  years  have  passed  by  he  has 
also  added  to  his  property  until  he  now  owns  a 
half  section  of  fine  land  pleasantly  and  conven- 
iently located  about  two  and  a  half  miles  from 
Wenona.  He  remained  upon  the  farm  until  Sep- 


tember, 1902,  when  he  removed  to  Wenona,  where 
he  now  resides. 

On  the  26th  of  December,  1882,  Mr.  Turner 
was  joined  in  wedlock  to  Miss  Mary  T.  Work,  who 
was  born  in  Osage  township,  La  Salle  county, 
April  7,  1856,  and  is  a  daughter  of  James  B.  and 
Sarah  A.  (Miller)  Work,  both  natives  of  Penn- 
sylvania, but  who  were  married  in  Whiteside 
county,  Illinois.  Her  father  came  to  Marshall 
county  in  1836,  which  was  his  home  until  the  fall 
of  1855,  when  he  moved  to  Osage  township,  La 
Salle  county,  locating  upon  a  farm  which  he 
greatly  improved.  He  had  previously  been  mar- 
ried, having  by  the  first  union  three  sons :  Albert, 
deceased;  William,  of  the  state  of  Washington; 
and  James,  of  Colorado  Springs,  Colorado.  Al- 
bert and  William  aided  their  country  in  the 
preservation  of  the  Union  during  the  Civil  war. 
The  father,  who  was  a  life-long  member  of  the 
Presbyterian  church,  in  which  he  served  as  elder 
for  twenty-five  years,  died  on  the  7th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1880.  He  was  deeply  imbued  with  the  doc- 
trines of  abolitionism ;  his  home  became  a  station 
on  the  underground  railroad,  and  was  one  of 
three  who  formed  the  republican  party  in  the 
locality  where  he  made  his  home.  He  was  quite 
an  unassuming  man,  but  took  a  very  active  part 
in  matters  pertaining  to  his  party,  and  served  as 
census  enumerator  in  his  township. 

Mrs.  Turner  is  the  oldest  in  the  family  of  six 
children,  the  others  being  Grace  G.,  Maggie,  Liz- 
zie, Edward  and  Hattie  P.  She  was  educated  in 
the  Wenoiia  high  school  and  is  a  cultured,  refined 
lady,  who  extends  a  hearty  hospitality  to  their 
many  friends.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Turner  were 
born  two  sons  and  a  daughter:  Benjamin  F., 
Mary  Maurine  and  Arthur  Lynn,  but  their  eldest 
son  was  drowned  on  the  5th  of  June,  1905. 

In  politics  Mr.  Turner  is  a  stalwart  republican, 
who  has  taken  an  active  interest  in  the  work  of 
the  party  and  has  frequently  served  as  a  delegate 
to  the  county,  senatorial,  congressional  and  state 
conventions.  He  has  served  as  a  member  of  the 
county  central  committee,  has  filled  the  office  of 
township  supervisor  for  fourteen  years  and  has 
been  chairman  of  the  board.  H'e  is  now  serving 
for  the  second  term  as  president  of  the  Wenona 
school  board  and  is  a  stalwart  champion  of  the 
caiise  of  public  education,  while  his  efforts  in  its 
behalf  are  of  a  practical  and  far-reaching  nature. 
He  is  the  secretary  of  the  Farmers'  Insurance 


318 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Company,  which  office  he  has  filled  for  twenty- 
three  years  and  he  is  identified  with  several  fra- 
ternal organizations.  He  has  been  counsel  of  the 
Modern  Woodmen  camp  at  Wenona  for  several 
years  and  is  president  of  the  Yeomen.  He  takes 
an  active  interest  in  the  growth  and  progress  of 
the  city  and  is  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal church,  in  which  he  is  serving  as  steward. 
His  wife  is  an  earnest  worker  in  the  Presbyterian 
church  and  they  are  prominent  socially,  occupy- 
ing an  enviable  position  in  the  circles  where  true 
worth  and  intelligence  are  received  as  the  pass- 
ports into  good  society. 


WILLIAM  H.  CASSON. 
William  H.  Casson  at  one  time  an  active  and 
leading  member  of  the  Putnam  county  bar  but 
now  living  retired  in  Hennepin,  was  born  in 
Brownsville,  Pennsylvania,  February  28,  1838,  a 
son  of  Henry  and  Mary  (Cock)  Casson,  both  of 
whom  were  natives  of  England,  the  former  born  in 
1807  and  the  latter  in  1806.  The  father  was  a 
tailor  by  trade  and  after  coming  to  the  United 
States  first  located  in  Albany,  New  York.  Sub- 
sequently, however,  he  removed  to  Pennsylvania 
and  in  1848,  when  his  son,  William,  was  a  youth 
of  ten  years,  came  to  Hennepin,  making  the  jour- 
ney in  accord  with  the  slow  stages  of  water  travel. 
They  sailed  down  the  Monongahela  river  to  Pitts- 
burg  and  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Illinois,  proceeding  then  up  stream 
to  Hennepin.  Henry  Casson  worked  at  his  trade 
here  for  a  few  years,  after  which  he  became  post- 
master, acting  in  that  capacity  for  a  long  period. 
About  thirty  years  prior  to  his  death,  however,  he 
retired  from  active  life  and  made  his  home  with 
his  son,  William,  until  he  passed  away  at  the  ven- 
erable age  of  ninety-one  years.  His  wife  died  in 
Hennepin  in  1872.  They  were  members  of  the 
Episcopalian  church  and  Mr.  Casson  in  ante  bel- 
lum  days  was  a  stanch  advocate  of  abolition  prin- 
ciples, so  that  when  the  republican  party  was 
formed  to  prevent  the  further  extension  of  slavery 
lie  joined  its  ranks  and  remained  one  of  its  stal- 
wart champions  until  his  demise.  His  educa- 
tional privileges-  in  youth  were  limited  to  those  of 
the  common  schools,  but  he  became  a  well  in- 
formed man,  reading  broadly  and  thinking  deeply. 
He  was  once  a  candidate  for  the  state  legislature. 
His  family  numbered  eight  children,  but  William 
and  his  brother,  Henry,  are  the  only  ones  now  liv- 


ing. One  child,  who  was  born  in  England,  died 
soon  after  coming  to  America.  John  R.,  deceased, 
was  at  one  time  circuit  clerk  of  Vernon  county, 
Wisconsin.  Elizabeth  B.  became  the  wife  of  Wil- 
liam Eddy  and  lived  in  Hennepin.  Both  are  now 
deceased.  Henry  Casson,  the  surviving  brother, 
is  now  sergeant-at-arms  of  the  lower  house  of  con- 
gress. His  home  was  in  Madison,  Wisconsin, 
where  he  served  as  secretary  to  several  governors 
and  was  recognized  as  a  prominent  factor  in  polit- 
ical circles. 

William  H.  U'.sson  acquired  a  comiuon-scliool 
education  in  Brownsville,  Pennsylvania,  and  in 
Hennepin,  Illinois,  subsequent  to  the  removal  of 
the  family  to  i,Ms  state  when  he  was  a  youth  of 
ten  years.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  years  he  be- 
gan working  as  a  farm  hand  and  a  year  later 
secured  employment  in  a  store,  where  he  remained 
for  a  few  years.  He  became  an  influential  factor 
in  local  politics  and  at  the  age  of  twenty-four 
years  was  elected  circuit  clerk  of  the  county,  act- 
ing in  that  capacity  for  eight  years,  his  duties 
being  discharged  with  marked  promptness  and 
fidelity.  While  iu  that  office  hj  took  up  the  study 
of  law  under  the  late  Judge  T.  M.  Shaw  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1868.  For  many  years  he 
was  one  of  the  prominent  representatives  of  the 
legal  fraternity  in  Putnam  county  and  served 
for  sixteen  years  in  the  office  of  state's  attorney. 
In  1867  he  was  chosen  master  in  chancery  and 
continued  to  fill  that  position  until  about  a  year 
ago.  He  is  now  living  retired,  his  investments 
being  sufficient  to  bring  to  him  a  good  income. 

In  18C3  Mr.  Casson  was  married  to  Miss  Mary 
McMahon,  who  was  born  in  Putnam  county  in 
1842  and  died  February  19,  1904.  She  was  a 
daughter  of  Owen  and  Margaret  (Smith)  Mc- 
Mahon, the  former  a  native  of  Ireland  and  the 
latter  of  England.  In  the  '30s  they  came  to  this 
country  and  for  some  years  resided  in  Putnam 
county,  Illinois.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Casson  were 
born  three  children,  but  the  youngest  died  in  in- 
fancy. The  daughter,  Margaret  Louise,  is  now 
the  wife  of  Bmjamin  Robinson,  professor  of  bo- 
tany in  Harvard  University,  and  the  son,  Robert 
Owen,  is  engaged  in  the  poultry  business  at  Alexis, 
Illinois. 

Mr.  Casson  is-  a  stalwart  republican  and  for 
many  years  has  been  prominent  in  politics  in  this 
county,  wielding  a  wide  influence  in  the  councils 
of  his  party,  his  opinions  often  proving  a  decisive 


MR.  AXD  MRS.  \V.  H.  CASSOX. 


PAST  AND  PEESENT  OF  M  AH  SHALL  AND  PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


321 


factor  in  the  settlement  of  some  contested  ques- 
tion. His  residence  in  Hennepin  compasses  the 
period  of  early  pioneer  development  and  of  later 
progress.  He  can  remember  when  people  thought 
Chicago  was  so  close  to  Hennepin  that  it  would 
never  amount  to  anything.  Time  and  man  have 
wrought  many  changes  in  the  county  and  state 
during  the  six  decades  in  which  he  has  lived  in 
Hennepin  and  Mr.  Casson  has  performed  his  full 
share  in  the  work  of  development  and  improve- 
ment. He  was  gifted  by  nature  with  strong  men- 
tality and  keen  discrimination,  and  the  develop- 
ment of  these  latent  powers  and  energies  gained 
him  place  among  the  brilliant  and  able  members 
of  the  bar  of  this  part  of  the  state.  Now,  how- 
ever, he  is  living  retired,  owning  and  occupying 
one  of  the  best  homes  in  the  city  of  Hennepin, 
while  his  realty  possessions  also  include  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty' acres  of  good  farming  land  in  Put- 
nam county,  from  which  he  derives  a  substantial 
annual  income. 


EDMUND  WEIS. 

Edmund  Weis  was  an  enterprising  farmer  who 
resided  on  section  36,  Whitefield  township,  where 
he  was  extensively  engaged  in  general  agricultural 
pursuits  and  stock-raising.  In  his  death  the 
community  lost  a  worthy  and  prominent  repre- 
sentative of  its  farming  interests.  He  was  born 
in  Bavaria,  Germany,  in  1828,  spent  the  days  of 
his  boyhood  and  youth  in  the  land  of  his  nativity 
and  when  twenty-two  years  of  age  came  to  the 
United  States  to  test  the  truth  of  the  favorable 
reports  which  he  had  heard  concerning  oppor- 
tunities and  advantages  in  the  new  world.  He 
joined  an  uncle  in  Marshall  county  and  worked  for 
him  on  a  farm  in  Whitefield  township  for  some 
time,  after  which  he  took  charge  of  a  farm  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  which  had  been  purchased 
by  his  father.  He  made  good  use  of  his  oppor- 
tunities and  as  the  years  passed  was  enabled  to 
make  investment  in  land  for  himself  and  eventu- 
ally became  the  owner  of  four  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  acres,  constituting  a  very  valuable  property. 
He  was  thus  extensively  engaged  in  general  farm- 
ing and  he  also  made  a  specialty  of  the  raising  of 
cattle,  which  branch  of  his  business  likewise 
proved  profitable. 

Mr.  Weis  was  married  on  April  5,  1861,  to  Miss 
Johanna  Lindsey,  of  Prussia,  Germany,  and  unto 
them  were  born  eight  children,  of  whom  six  are 


now  living :  Michael,  a  resident  farmer  of  Wood- 
ford  county,  Illinois ;  Alexander,  at  home ;  Ida, 
the  wife  of  Otto  Noll,  a  farmer  residing  east  of 
Chillicothe,  in  Woodf ord  county ;  Conrad,  at  home ; 
Edmund,  who  also  follows  farming  in  Woodford 
county ;  and  Emma,  who  completes  the  family. 
Alexander  and  Conrad  still  reside  on  the  old  home- 
stead and  carry  on  the  business  of  the  farm,  giving 
their  time  and  energies  to  the  further  development 
and  improvement  of  the  place  of  four  hundred 
and  eighty-five  acres.  They  are  well  known  cattle 
raisers,  always  keeping  a  good  grade  of  stock,  and 
in  the  control  of  their  interests  they  display 
marked  enterprise  and  keen  business  ability  and 
discernment.  The  family  are  communicants  of 
the  Catholic  church  and  the  sons  are  supporters 
of  the  democratic  party.  Conrad  has  served'  as 
tax  collector  for  a  number  of  terms,  but  their 
attention  is  largely  concentrated  upon  their  busi- 
ness interests,  in  which  they  are  now  meeting  with 
signal  success.  The  father,  Edmund  Weis,  contin- 
ued actively  in  farm  work  until  his  death,  which 
pccurred  when  he  was  fifty-six  years  of  age.  His 
was  a  notable  and  exemplary  record.  He  came  to 
the  United  States  without  capital  and  without 
acquaintance  with  the  English  language,  but  he 
soon  mastered  the  latter  and  gained  a  goodly  por- 
tion of  the  former.  He  worked  diligently  and 
persistently  year  after  year  and  it  was  his  earnest 
toil  that  gained  him  a  start  in  life  and  brought  him 
gratifying  success  in  later  years.  All  who  knew 
him  respected  and  admired  him  for  what  he  ac- 
complished and  for  the  methods  of  his  business 
life.  '  , , 

HENRY   EUGENE  WHITMAN. 

The  farming  interests  of  Henry  township  find 
a  worthy  representative  in  Henry  Eugene  Whit- 
man, who  is  successfully  engaged  in  the  tilling  of 
the  soil,  raising  the  cereals  best  adapted  to  soil 
and  climate.  He  is  a  native  son  of  Illinois,  his  birth 
having  occurred  in  Bureau  county,  September 
15,  1869.  His  paternal  grandfather  was  George 
Whitman,  a  Methodist  minister,  who  devoted 
many  years  of  his  life  to  gospel  work  and  became 
a  pioneer  preacher  of  Illinois,  where  he  aided 
largely  in  planting  the  seeds  of  moral  develop- 
ment at  an  early  day.  His  son,  George  Henry 
Whitman,  was  born  in  the  state  of  New  York. 
He  is  a  carpenter  by  trade  and  in  connection  with 
building  operations  he  has  followed  the  occupation 
of  farming  and  is  now  engaged  in  the  implement 


322 


.PAST    AM.)    PKKSK.NT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    IM'TXA.M    COUNTIES. 


business  at  Cherryvale,  Kansas.  He  wedded  Mary 
Jane  Pettitt  and  unto  them  have  been  born  seven 
children  who  are  yet  living  and  one  deceased, 
namely :  Mrs.  Eudora  Uletha  Blue,  a  resident  of 
Kansas;  Clarissa  Lucina,  now  Mrs.  Grady,  of 
Whitefield  Corners,  whose  husband  is  a  painter; 
Ira,  deceased ;  Henry,  of  this  review ;  Frances 
Emily,  at  home;  Clinton  Addington,  who  is  en- 
gaged in  the  implement  business  in  Kansas ;  New- 
ton Ernest,  who  is  in  partnership  with  his  father 
at  Cherryvale;  Luther  Eads,  who  is  a  commercial 
traveler. 

Henry  E.  Whitman  accompanied  his  parents  on 
their  removal  from  Illinois  to  Kansas  and  largely 
acquired  his  education  in  the  schools  of  Independ- 
ence. He  returned  to  Illinois  and  became  a  resi- 
dent of  Henry  township.  He  is  now  engaged  in 
farming  and  is  raising  excellent  crops,  having 
fifty  acres  planted  to  corn  and  thirty-eight  acres 
to  oats.  He  is  a  very  practical  man  and  carries 
forward  to  successful  completion  whatever  he 
undertakes.  His  work  therefore  is  proving  a 
source  of  good  income  to  him  and  he  is  now  ac- 
counted one  of  the  representative  farmers  of  his 
community. 

In  October,  1902,  was  celebrated  the  marriage 
of  Mr.  Whitman  and  Miss  Harriet  Ketcham,  a 
daughter  of  Daniel  Ketcham.  This  union  has 
been  blessed  with  one  son,  Harry  Daniel,  now 
three  years  old.  Mr.  Whitman  belongs  to  White- 
field  Gem  lodge,  No.  572,  I.  0.  0.  P.,  in  which 
he  has  passed  all  of  the  chairs,  and  he  is  like- 
wise connected  with  the  Fraternal  Eeserves.  He 
also  holds  membership  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  and  he  gives  his  political  support  to  the 
republican  party,  but  is  without  aspiration  for 
office,  preferring  to  devote  his  time  and  energies 
to  his  business  affairs  which  he  is  now  capably 
conducting. 


WILLIAM  NELSON  OSBOENE. 
William  Nelson  Osborne,  who  carries  on  gen- 
eral farming  on  section  36,  Whitefield  township, 
was  born  in  Armstrong  county,  Pennsylvania,  on 
the  5th  of  May,  1845,  and  is  a  son  of  Milton  and 
Margaret  (Hamilton)  Osborne.  They,  too,  were 
natives  of  the  Keystone  state.  The  father  became 
a  carpenter  and  builder  and  continued  his  resi- 
dence in  the  east  until  1854,  when  he  came  to 
Illinois,  settling  at  Sparland,  Marshall  county. 


For  some  time  thereafter  he  was  employed  by  the 
Chicago,  Eock  Island  &  Pacific  Eailroad  at  Spar- 
land  and  subsequently  at  Lacon.  He  then 
turned  his  attention  to  general  agricultural  pur- 
suits, which  he  followed  in  Whitefield  township, 
Marshall  county,  and  in  Livingston  county.  He 
was  a  man  of  enterprise  and  perseverance  and 
worked  diligently  to  achieve  the  measure  of  suc- 
cess which  he  enjoyed.  He  died  about  sixteen 
years  ago,  while  his  wife  passed  away  twelve  years 
ago.  In  their  family  of  six'  children  two  are 
now  living,  the  brother  of  our  subject  being  Scott 
Osborne,  who  resides  at  Lacon. 

William  Nelson  Osborne  began  his  education 
in  the  public  schools  of  Pennsylvania  and  contin- 
ued his  studies  after  the  removal  of  the  family 
to  Illinois,  which  event  occurred  when  he  was 
about  nine  years  of  age.  He  was  then  a  student 
in  Livingston  county  until  he  permanently  put 
aside  his  text-books  and  gave  his  father  the  benefit 
of  his  services  in  the  operation  of  the  home  farm. 
He  afterward  worked  at  farm  labor  for  others 
and  throughout  his  entire  life  he  has  carried  on 
general  agricultural  pursuits.  He  came  to  his 
present  place  of  residence  about  seven  years  ago 
and  here  has  two  hundred  and  ten  acres  of  land 
which  he  rents  and  which  he  is  now  tilling.  His 
fields  indicate  thorough  care  and  his  farm  is  per- 
vaded by  an  air  of  neatness  and  thrift  that  is 
indicative  of  the  business  characteristics  of  Mr. 
Osborne. 

Few  men  of  Mr.  Osborne's  years  can  claim  a 
military  record  of  service  in  the  Civil  war.  In 
his  sixteenth  year  he  enlisted  in  the  Twentieth 
Illinois  Infantry  and  he  served  for  three  months 
in  the  One  Hundred  and  Thirty-eighth  Eegiment 
of  Illinois  Infantry,  being  too  young  to  enter 
the  army  prior  to  that  time.  His  years,  however, 
were  no  bar  to  his  valor  and  loyalty,  which  were 
equal  to  that  of  many  a  man  of  twice  his  age. 

On  the  6th  of  July,  1873,  Mr.  Osborne  was 
married  to  Miss  Clara  Bonham,  a  daughter  of 
William  and  Amanda  Bonham,,  both  now  de- 
ceased. Her  parents  were  early  settlers  of  this 
part  of  the  state  and  her  father  was  a  farmer 
and  merchant  of  Sparland.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Osborne  have  been  born  five  children :  Edna,  the 
wife  of  John  Eiddell,  of  Sparland ;  Louis,  also  of 
Sparland ;  Scott,  at  home ;  Mary,  who  is  engaged 
in  teaching  school  in  Sparland ;  and  Flora,  who  is 
yet  under  the  parental  roof. 


PAST   AND   PEESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


323 


Mr.  Osborne  is  an  Odd  Fellow,  belonging  to 
Sparland  lodge,  No.  212,  in  which  he  has  filled 
all  of  the  chairs.  He  exercises  his  right  of  fran- 
chise in  support  of  the  men  and  measures  of  the 
republican  party.  These  associations  indicate 
much  of  the  character  of  the  man,  who  is  true 
to  the  teachings  of  the  fraternity.  It  is  no  unus- 
ual thing  for  the  American  citizen  to  work  his 
way  upward  from  a  humble  financial  position  to 
one  of  affluence  but  the  record  is  none  the  less 
worthy,  for  it  indicates  a  force  of  character  that 
at  all  times  merits  admiration  and  respect.  Such 
has  been  the  history  of  William  Nelson  Osborne. 


FRANK  LAUF. 

Frank  Lauf,  engaged  in  the  insurance  business 
in  Wenona,  was  born  in  La  Salle  county,  Illi- 
nois, about  eight  miles  from  Wenona,  on  the  19th 
of  August,  1867,  his  parents  being  William  and 
Catharine  (Herkenreth)  Lauf,  both  of  whom 
were  natives  of  Coin,  Germany.  The  father  came 
to  this  country  when  fourteen  years  of  age  and 
the  mother  when  a  maiden  of  twelve  summers. 
They  met  and  were  married  in  Peru,  Illinois,  and 
Mr.  Lauf  was  an  insurance  man,  connected  with 
the  German  Insurance  Company  of  Freeport,  Illi- 
nois, for  thirty-seven  years.  He  entered  the  serv- 
ice of  that  company  when  they  employed  but  three 
men  and  advanced  with  the  growth  of  the  com- 
pany, which  is  now  a  very  large  concern  repre- 
sented by  large  policies  and  with  a  constantly  in- 
creasing business.  During  the  first  fourteen  years 
of  his  connection  with  the  insurance  company  of 
Freeport  he  did  not  have  a  loss  in  his  district. 
He  also  represented  the  North  German  Lloyd 
*tr;miship  Company  for  thirty-seven  years  and 
sold  more  passages  at  one  time  for  this  company 
than  all  other  companies  combined.  He  owned 
a  farm  in  Richland  township  and  nineteen  lots 
in  Peoria.  At  one  time  he  conducted  the  Clifton 
Hotel  at  Wenona,  removing  to  this  place  in  1887. 
He  thus  led  an  active  and  useful  life,  character- 
ized by  enterprise  and  successful  accomplishment. 
He  died  May  8,  1903,  while  the  mother  of  our 
subject  passed  away  twenty-six  years  before.  The 
father  was  afterward  again  married.  The  living 
children  of  his  first  marriage  are  Frank,  William, 
Lena,  Anna,  Charles  and  Belle.  By  his  second 
marriage  there  are  two  children,  Mamie  and  Le 
Roy.  He  served  as  supervisor  while  living  in 


Richland  township,  La  Salle  county,  for  a  period 
of  twenty-one  years-,  was  also  school  director, 
deputy  sheriff  and  constable.  He  held  other  offices 
and  in  these  various  positions  discharged  his 
duties  with  promptness  and  fidelity. 

Frank  Lauf  was  reared  upon  a  farm  and  edu- 
cated in  the  public  schools  of  what  was  known  as 
the  Swamp  college.  He  remained  on  the  farm 
until  he  came  with  his  father  to  Wenona  in  1887 
and  for  some  time  was  in  the  hotel  here.  How- 
ever, he  has  practically  been  in  the  insurance 
business  since  twelve  years  of  age,  having  been 
trained  in  the  detail  work  of  the  business  by  his 
father.  He  represents  the  German  Insurance 
Company  of  Freeport,  the  German  National  Com- 
pany of  Chicago,  the  Security  of  New  Haven, 
Connecticut,  the  American  of  Newark,  New  Jer- 
sey, the  Germania  of  New  York,  the  Concordia 
and  the  Connecticut  North  American  Accident  In- 
surance companies,  likewise  the  Phoenix  of  Hart- 
ford. He  also  represents  the  North  German  Lloyd 
Steamship  Company.  HLs  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  insurance  business  in  principle  and  detail 
and  his  energy  and  unflagging  industry  have  been 
the  leading  concomitants  in  his  success,  making 
him  one  of  the  most  prominent  representatives 
of  the  insurance  business  in  this  part  of  the  state. 

Mr.  Lauf  was  married  on  the  9th  of  January, 
1900,  to  Miss  Veronica  Eirich,  a  native  of  Mount 
Palatine,  Illinois.  They  are  members  of  the 
Catholic  church  and  Mr.  Lauf  holds  membership 
with  the  Knights  of  Columbus.  He  is  now  serv- 
ing his  second  term  as  alderman  of  the  city  and 
was  formerly  water  commissioner.  A  resident  of 
Wenona  for  almost  twenty  years,  he  is  deeply  in- 
terested in  local  progress  as  well  as  national  ad- 
vancement and  is  a  public  spirited  man,  who 
stands  for  all  matters  pertaining  to  general  im- 
provement and  who  is  the  champion  of  the  varied 
interests  of  civic  virtue  and  of  civic  pride. 


HIRAM  HUNTER. 

Hiram  Hunter,  prominent  among  the  energetic, 
far. seeing  and  successful  business  men  of  central 
Illinois,  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  His  life 
history  most  happily  illustrates  what  may  be  at- 
tained by  faithful  and  continued  effort  in  car- 
rying out  an  honest  purpose.  Integrity,  activity 
and  energy  have  been  the  crowning  points  of  his 
career  and  his  connection  with  business-  enterprises 


324 


PAST  AND   PRESENT    OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


has  been  of  decided  advantage  to  Henry  and  this 
part  of  the  state,  promoting  its  commercial  and 
material  welfare  in  no  uncertain  manner.  He 
is  the  senior  member  of  the  firm  of  H.  and  E.  F. 
Hunter,  dealers  in  lumber,  coal,  lime  and  build- 
ing materials.  The  firm  operates  extensively 
throughout  this  portion  of  Illinois,  maintaining 
business  houses  in  various  places  and  also  dealing 
in  farm  lands. 

Mr.  Hunter  is  a  native  of  the  state  of  New 
York,  born  in  1837.  The  family  is  of  Scotch 
lineage  and  was  established  in  America  at  an 
early  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  new  world.  The 
father,  Andrew  Hunter,  was  born  in  Vermont 
and  upon  his  removal  to  Illinois  in  1846  settled 
upon  a  farm  in  Bureau  county,  becoming  one  of 
the  prosperous  agriculturists  of  this  portion  of  the 
state.  There  he  remained  until  called  froom  this 
life  by  death.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Congre- 
gational church,  in  the  work  of  which  he  took  an 
active  and  helpful  interest,  and  in  politics  he  was 
an  old-line  whig  until  the  dissolution  of  the 
party,  when  he  joined  the  ranks  of  the  new  repub- 
lican party.  In  early  manhood  he  wedded  Hulda 
Haskins,  also  a  native  of  the  Green  Mountain 
state,  and  she  died  in  Milo,  Bureau  county,  in 
the  faith  of  the  Congregational  church,  of  which 
she  was  a  consistent  member.  Her  father  was  of 
Irish  lineage.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Andrew  Hunter 
became  the  parents  of  seven  children,  of  whom 
Hiram  is  the  youngest.  Three  of  the  number  are 
now  living.  His  sister  Mary  is  the  wife  of  H.  H. 
Allen,  a  retired  farmer  living  in  Henry,  while 
Robert  is  a  retired  farmer  of  Tiskilwa,  Illinois. 

Hiram  Hunter  was  reared  to  farm  life,  no 
event  of  special  importance  occurring  to  vary  the 
routine  of  such  work  for  him  in  his  boyhood 
days.  He  acquired  his  education  in  the  district 
schools  and  also  in  the  public  schools  of  Henry 
and  for  seven  years  following  his  marriage  he  en- 
gaged in  farming  in  Bureau  county.  It  was  in 
1858  that  he  was  joined  in  wedlock  to  Miss  Adelia 
C.  Stevens,  who  was  born  in  the  Empire  state 
in  1838,  a  daughter  of  S.  K.  and  Katherine  (Ma- 
ricle)  Stevens,  who  came  from  New  York. and 
located  on  a  farm  in  Bureau  county  in  1856. 
Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hunter  were  born  two  sons: 
Elmer  P.,  who  is-  a  member  of  the  lumber  firm  of 
H.  &  E.  F.  Hunter,  and  who  is  stationed  at  Chilli-' 
cothe,  having  charge  of  several  branches  of  the 
business;  and  Clarence,  who  died  in  infancy. 


For  his  second  wife  Mr.  Hunter  chose  Philenu 
Stevens,  who  was  born  in  Bureau  county  in  1862. 
This  marriage  was  blessed  with  five  children: 
Harold  S.;  Alden;  Lloyd  H.;  Newell,  who  died 
in  infancy;  and  Esther  L. 

After  carrying  on  general  farming  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  in  Bureau  county  Hiram  Hunter 
removed  from  his  farm  to  Wyanet,  Illinois,  where 
he  was  engaged  in  the  hardware  business  for  seven 
years  and  also  conducted  a  drug  store  there  for 
a  similar  period.  He  came  to  Henry  in  1881  and 
here  engaged  in  the  lumber  business  under  the 
firm  name  of  Hunter  &  Houghton,  his  partners 
being  E.  W.  and  E.  F.  Houghton  of  Wyanet. 
After  two  years  they  sold  out  the  business  and 
Mr.  Hunter  then  became  connected  with  the  Han- 
na  Wagon  Company  and  was  in  Peoria  for  two 
years.  On  the  expiration  of  that  period  he  again 
purchased  the  lumber  yard  and  admitted  his  son, 
Elmer  F.,  to  a  partnership  in  the  business  under 
the  firm  style  of  H.  &  E.  F.  Hunter.  From  time 
to  time  they  have  enlarged  and  extended  the  scope 
of  their  activities  and  are  now  owners  of  various 
lumber  yards  in  different  points  in  central  Illi- 
nois. Their  business  embraces  the  yards  at  Henry, 
Chillicothe,  Sparland,  Edelston,  Winchester,  La- 
con,  Chapin,  Bluffs,  Meredosia,  South  Wilming- 
ton, Chebanse,  La  Salle,  Varna,  Magnolia,  Ur- 
bana  and  Marseilles.  They  handle  lumber,  coal, 
lime,  cement,  sash,  doors,  blinds,  mouldings  and 
other  building  materials  and  the  firm  are  also 
interested  in  farm  lands  in  Scott  county.  Their 
business  has  thus  constantly  increased  in  volume 
and  importance  until  it  has  reached  considerable 
magnhVude,  making  the  firm  one  of  the  most  prom- 
inent in  commercial  circles  in  central  Illinois. 

Mr.  Hunter  holds  membership  in  the  Presby- 
terian church  and  is  one  of  its  trustees,  taking 
an  active  part  in  its  work,  contributing  generously 
to  its  support  and  doing  all  in  his  power  to  ad- 
vance its  interests.  He  is  likewise  an  exemplary 
member  of  the  Masonic  fraternity  and  his  polit- 
ical allegiance  is  given  to  the  republican  party. 
His  business  ability  has  been  by  no  means  limited 
to  one  line  of  undertaking  and  he  has  demon- 
strated his  powers  as  a  successful  financier  in  the 
enlargement  and  capable  management  of  the  en- 
terprise of  which  he  is  now  the  head.  He  has 
made  an  untarnished  record  and  unspotted  repu- 
tation as  a  business  man.  In  all  places  and  under 
all  circumstances  he  is  loyal  to  truth,  honor  and 


PAST    AND   PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AXD  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


325 


right,  justly  valuing  his  own  self  respect  as  in- 
finitely more  preferable  than  wealth,  fame  or  po- 
sition. In  those  finer  traits  of  character  which 
combine  to  form  that  which  we  term  friendship, 
\\-hic-h  endear  and  attach  man  to  man  in  bonds 
which  nothing  but  the  stain  of  dishonor  can 
sever,  which  triumph  and  shine  brightest  in  the 
hour  of  adversity — in  those  qualities  he  is  royally 
endowed. 

PETER  ZIMMERMAN. 

Peter  Zimmerman,,  a  prominent  representative 
of  business  interests  in  Wenona,  where  he  is  en- 
gaged in  merchandising  and  ako  deals  in  cattle, 
is  one  of  the  men  of  foreign  birth  who,  adapting 
themselves  to  altered  conditions  and  the  different 
customs  of  their  adopted  country,  have  made 
steady  and  substantial  advancement  in  the  world 
of  trade.  He  was  born  on  the  Rhine  in  Germany, 
October  4,  1852,  and  is  a  son  of  Henry  and  Eliza- 
beth (Altenhafen)  Zimmerman,  who  were  like- 
wise born  on  the  Rhine  in  Germany.  The  father 
was  a  cattle  dealer  and  butcher  and  died  in  the 
town  of  Essen.  His  wife  has  also  passed  away. 
In  their  family  were  nine  children,  of  whom  eight 
are  now  living:  Englebird,  Henry,  William,  Pe- 
ter, August,  John,  Marguerite  and  Louisa.  Mar- 
guerite resides  in  Bonn  on  the  Rhine  and  Louisa 
is  living  in  Chicago.  All  of  the  sons  excepting 
Peter  are  still  in  Germany  and  all  of  them  are 
living  on  the  Rhine  and  are  engaged  in  the  stock 
and  commission  business  in  the  same  town  in 
which  the  father  carried  on  business. 

Peter  Zimmerman  was  educated  in  the  public 
schools  and  early  became  familiar  with  the  cattle 
trade  through  the  assistance  which  he  rendered 
his  father.  In  1872,  at  the  age  of  nineteen  years, 
he  sailed  from  Antwerp  with  his  sister  Louisa 
and  landed  in  New  York  city,  whence  he  went 
to  Sterling,  Illinois,  where  he  engaged  in  the 
butchering  business.  He  followed  his  trade  in  a 
number  of  places  before  locating  in  Wenona,  tak- 
ing up  his  abode  here  in  1881,  since  which  time 
he  has  been  a  resident  of  this  city.  He  has  here 
engaged  •  extensively  in  dealing  in  cattle  and  in 
the  butchering  business  and  has  been  very  pros- 
perous in  his  undertaking.  On  the  1st  of  March, 
1905,  he  opened  a  mercantile  store  in  Tonica, 
where  he  has  done  an  excellent  business.  He 
was  engaged  in  merchandising  in  Wenona  for 
four  years  under  the  firm  name  of  Zimmerman 
&  Hoge  and  is  now  engaged  in  buying  and  selling 


cattle.  In  all  of  his  business  affairs  he  has  dis- 
played an  aptitude  for  successful  management 
combined  with  a  keen  discernment  and  unfalter- 
ing energy  whereby  he  has  attained  a  large  meas- 
ure of  success.  Whatever  he  undertakes  he  carries 
forward  to  completion  and  his  business  record  is 
most  creditable  and  commendable. 

Air.  Zimmerman  was  married  in  1886  to  Miss 
Anna  Wiesbach,  a  native  of  Germany,  who  came 
to  this  country  when  only  three  years  old.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Zimmerman  now  have  four  living  chil- 
dren:  John,  Arthur,  Esther  and  Peter  J.  Mr. 
Zimmerman  has  made  several  trips  back  to  his 
native  land,  finding  pleasure  in  revisiting  the 
scenes  of  his  youth  and  renewing  the  acquain- 
tances of  his  earlier  years,  but  while  he  has  a 
strong  love  for  his  native  country  he  has  a  still 
deeper  attachment  for  the  land  of  his  adoption. 
His  wife  is  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church 
and  they  are  highly  esteemed  residents  of  Wenona. 
where  their  circle  of  friends  is  large  and  con- 
stantly growing.  His  business  interests  too  have 
constantly  developed  during  his  residence  in  the 
new  world  and  he  has  worked  his  way  upward 
from  a  humble  position,  making  a  business  rec- 
ord which  any  man  might  be  proud  to 


ALLEN  A.  ROUSE. 

Allen  A.  Rouse  devotes  his  time  and  energies 
to  general  agricultural  pursuits  in  Henry  town- 
ship, where  he  rents  a  tract  of  land  of  two  hun- 
dred and  eighty-nine  acres,  of  which  he  is  culti- 
vating one  hundred  and  seventy-five  acres.  His, 
life  record  began  in  Stark  county,  Illinois,  on 
the  18th  of  December,  1860.  His  father,  William 
Rouse,  was  a  native  of  the  Empire  state  and  a 
farmer  by  occupation.  During  his  infancy,  how- 
ever, he  was  brought  from  New  York  to  Illinois 
by  his  father  and  a  settlement  was  made  by  the 
family  in  Valley  township,  Stark  county.  There 
he  was  reared  to  the  occupation  of  farming,  which 
he  made  his  life  work  after  attaining  his  majority, 
but  he  is  now  living  retired  from  active  business. 
He  married  Cynthia  Rate! iff,  a  native  of  Ohio, 
and  their  home  is  in  Stark  county,  Illinois.  In 
their  family  were  nine  children,  of  whom  five 
are  still  living. 

No  event  of  special  importance  occurred  to  vary 
for  Allen  A.  Rouse  the  routine  of  farm  life  when 
he  was  in  his  boyhood  davs.  He  attended  the  di?- 


326 


PAST    AND    PRKSLNT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    PI  TNAM    COl "NT IKS. 


trict  schools  in  the  winter  months  and  in  the 
summer  seasons  aided  in  the  labors  of  the  fields 
and  after  starting  out  in  life  on  his  own  account 
he  continued  in  the  agricultural  work  and  is  now 
renting  a  farm  from  Holmes  Morrison,  comprising 
two  hundred  and  eighty-nine  acres  of  very  rich 
and  productive  land,  of  which  he  has  one  hundred 
and  seventy-five  acres  planted  to  crops.  He  thus 
annually  gathers  good  harvests  and  his  energy 
and  business  ability  constitute  the  secret  of  his 
success. 

In  1882  Mr.  House  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Maggie  McMullen,  also  a  native  of  Stark 
county,  this  state.  They  now  have  four  daugh- 
ters: Mrs.  Ada  Cox,  who  is  living  in  Stark 
county;  Nora,  who  married  Frank  Curry,  and 
lives  in  Whitefield  township;  and  Maud  and 
Aura,  both  of  whom  are  attending  school  and 
still  make  their  home  with  their  parents.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Rouse  hold  membership  in  the  Methodist 
church  and  are  interested  in  its  work  and  growth. 
His  political  allegiance  is  given  to  the  republican 
party  and  he  keeps  well  informed  on  the  questions 
and  issues  of  the  day,  so  that  he  is  able  to  sup- 
port his  position  by  intelligent  argument,  yet 
the  honors  and  emoluments  of  public  office  have 
no  attraction  for  him.  He  prefers  to  depend  upon 
business  interests  for  an  income  and  is  accounted 
one  of  the  wide-awake,  alert  and  enterprising 
farmers  of  his  community. 


DES.  0.  F.  &  F.  C.  TAYLOE. 

The  firm  name  which  heads  this  article  is  one 
well  known  in  Granville  and  Putnam  county  and 
the  gentlemen  who  constitute  the  firm  are  widely 
recognized  as  leading  members  of  the  medical 
fraternity  in  this  part  of  the  state,  having  broad 
and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  principles  of 
the  medical  science,  while  in  the  application  of 
their  knowledge  they  are  correct  and  accurate, 
thus  securing  good  results  in  their  professional 
labors. 

0.  F.  Taylor,  born  in  Champaign  county,  Ohio, 
on  the  21st  of  May,  1843,  is  a  son  of  E.  0.  and 
Elizabeth  (Guerny)  Taylor,  also  natives  of  Ohio. 
The  father  was  born  in  Champaign  county  about 
1828  and  in  early  life  learned  the  mason's  trade, 
which  he  followed  during  the  greater  part  of  his 
business  career.  In  1849,  when  his  son,  Dr.  0. 
F.  Taylor,  was  but  six  years  of  age,  he  brought 


his  family  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  and  for 
three  years  lived  in  Hennepin,  where  he  worked 
at  the  mason's  trade.  He  afterward  spent  two 
years  in  Magnolia  and  subsequently  resided  at 
Paxton,  Ford  county,  Illinois,  About  twenty-two 
years  ago  he  and  his  wife  removed  to  California, 
where  the  mother  passed  away  about  1896,  the 
father  surviving  until  1900.  In  their  family  were 
five  children,  of  whom  three  are  now  living,  but 
Dr.  Taylor  is  the  only  one  in  Putnam  county,  the 
other  two  being  residents  of  the  Golden  state. 

Dr.  Taylor,  a  youth  of  but  six  years  when 
brought  to  Illinois,  largely  spent  the  days  of  his 
boyhood  and  youth  in  Putnam  and  Ford  counties. 
He  attended  the  common  schools  and  for  a  short 
time  was  a  student  in  a  preparatory  school  in 
Peoria.  He  was  thus  well  qualified  for  further 
prosecuting  his  studies  along  more  scientific  lines 
and  the  years  1867  and  1868  were  spent  as  a 
student  in  Eush  Medical  College  at  Chicago.  He 
received  his  diploma  from  that  institution  in  the 
class  of  1868  and  immediately  afterward  located 
for  practice  at  what  was  then  called  Pellsville,  in 
Vermilion  county,  where  he  practiced  for  seven- 
teen years.  On  the  expiration  of  that  period  he 
went  to  Omaha,  where  he  remained  but  a  short 
time,  after  which  he  returned  to  Putnam  county, 
Illinois,  and  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  practiced 
his  profession  in  Magnolia.  In  May,  1906,  he  lo- 
cated in  Granville,  where  he  is  now  associated 
with  his  son  in  the  active  practice  of  medicine. 

On  the  31st  of  December,  1867,  Dr.  0.  F.  Tay- 
lar  was  married  to  Miss  Nellie  Clark,  a  native  of 
Bennington,  Vermont,  and  a  daughter  of  Decius 
Clark,  who  at  the  time  of  her  marriage  lived  in 
Peoria.  There  were  two  children  born  of  this 

Fred  C.  Taylor,  the  only  surviving  child,  is  now 
his  father's  partner  in  business.  He  is  an  alum- 
nus of  the  State  Medical  College  of  Indiana  of  the 
class  of  1894  and  after  completing  his  collegiate 
course  engaged  in  practice  in  Granville  for  four 
years.  He  was  afterward  in  the  village  of  Florid 
for  some  time  and  subsequently  returned  to  Gran- 
ville, where  he  is  now  associated  with  his  father 
in  the  active  practice  of  medicine  and  surgery. 
They  are  practically  the  only  physicians  of  this 
place  and  have  an  excellent  patronage. 

Dr.  F.  C.  Taylor  was  married  to  Miss  Cora 
Bliss,  a  daughter  of  the  Eev.  Bliss,  who  is  now 
preaching  in  Peoria.  He  has  erected  a  very  at- 
tractive cottage  on  Hopkins  avenue  and  his  father 


DR.  F.  C.  TAYLOR. 


DR.  0.  F.  TAYLOR. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


331 


is  building  a  home  on  an  adjoining  lot.  On  the 
opposite  side  of  the  street  they  have  a  new  office 
building,  which  was  erected  in  the  spring  of  1906. 
Dr.  0.  F.  Taylor  has  a  creditable  military  rec- 
ord, having  been  a  soldier  of  the  Civil  war.  He 
enlisted  in  the  Fourth  Illinois  Cavalry  in  1863 
and  served  for  nearly  three  years,  being  on  ac- 
tive duty  on  a  hospital  boat.  He  was  also  engaged 
in  a  little  skirmish  at  Pittsburg  Landing,  but 
aside  from  that  was  in  no  field  service.  Being 
not  continuously  busy  while  at  the  front,  he  had 
a  chance  to  see  some  of  the  country  and  was  in 
New  Orleans,  Mobile  and  other  places  and  went 
as  far  as  Cuba.  Both  father  and  son  are  repub- 
licans in  political  views.  The  father  served  for 
six  years  as  president  of  the  village  board  of  Mag- 
nolia and  for  eight  years  has  been  county  coroner 
of  Putnam  county,  filling  the  position  ten  years 
when  his  present  term  expires.  The  son  has  also 
served  as  coroner  for  four  years.  They  are  both 
men  of  good  business  ability  and  in  the  line  of 
their  profession  have  attained  a  degree  of  profi- 
ciency which  is  indicated  by  the  liberal  patronage 
that  is  accorded  them,  while  their  comprehensive 
knowledge  is  attested  by  the  excellent  results  that 
have  attended  their  labors. 


RUDOLPH  BOURDETTE. 

Rudolph  Bourdette,  deceased,  at  one  time  ac- 
tively engaged  in  farming  in  Marshall  county, 
where  he  resided  throughout  his  entire  life,  was 
born  in  Henry,  Illinois,  April  22,  1853,  and  died 
on  the  19th  of  May,  1902.  He  was  one  of  a 
family  of  seven  children  and  his  educational  priv- 
ileges were  those  afforded  by  the  public  schools 
of  his  native  city.  Throughout  his  business  career 
he  engaged  in  farming  in  Whitefield  township  and 
brought  to  his  work  a  spirit  of  determination,  en- 
terprise and  laudable  ambition  that  enabled  him 
to  overcome  all  difficulties  and  obstacles  in  his 
path  and  make  steady  advancement  on  the  high- 
road to  success.  He  carefully  tilled  hie  fields, 
utilizing  the  most  practical  methods  in  his  work, 
and  as  the  years  went  by  his  annual  income  in- 
creased and  he  was  thus  enabled  to  leave  his  fam- 
ily in  comfortable  circumstances. 

On  the  19th  of  March,  1879,  Mr.  Bourdette  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Lura  Culver,  a  daugh- 
ter of  Orsemus  and  Adelia  (Chapman)  Culver, 
both  of  whom  are  now  deceased.  Her  father  was 
a  native  of  Vermont  and  on  emigrating  westward 


in  1836  settled  upon  a  farm  near  Henry,  casting 
in  his  lot  with  the  pioneer  residents  of  this  sec- 
tion of  the  state  who,  following  in  the  wake  of 
the  red  men,  reclaimed  the  region  for  the  purposes 
of  civilization  and  converted  the  wild  prairie  and 
timber  tracts  into  rich  and  productive  farms.  He 
led  a  life  of  industry  and  activity  and  his  many 
good  qualities  gained  for  him  the  respect  of  all 
with  whom  he  was  associated  either  in  business 
or  social  relations.  He  died  in.  1873.  His  politi- 
cal allegiance  was  given  to  the  republican  party, 
of  which  he  was  a  most  stalwart  champion.  His 
wife  was  a  daughter  of  Joseph  and  Electa  (Al- 
len) Chapman  and  both  parents  were  descended 
from  ancestors  who  served  in  the  Revolutionary 
war,  the  respective  families  having  been  estab- 
lished in  America  in  colonial  days.  In  the  fam- 
ily of  this  worthy  couple  were  seven  children,  of 
whom  two  are  living,  Gilbert  and  Mrs.  Bourdette. 
Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bourdette  were  born  three 
children,  Ella,  Charles  and  Edward.  Ella  is  now 
the  wife  of  Elmer  Davis  Higgins,  a  farmer  of 
Eagle  Grove,  Iowa,  and  they  have  one  daughter, 
who  was  born  July  3, 1906.  Charles,  twenty-three 
years  of  age,  is  on  the  home  farm  with  his 
mother  and  carries  on  the  work  of  the  fields. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Bourdette  was  a  re- 
publican, voting  for  presidential  candidates  of  the 
party  and  remaining  loyal  in  its  support  when 
state  and  national  questions  were  at  issue,  but  at 
local  elections  he  cast  an  independent  ballot.  He 
continued  actively  in  business  until  October,  1901, 
when  he  became  ill  and  his  health  remained  im- 
paired until  the  following  May,  when  he  was  called 
from  this  life,  his  remains  being  interred  in  Henry 
cemetery.  He  was  a  man  of  many  good  traits 
of  character,  was-  loyal  in  citizenship,  faithful 
in  friendship  and  devoted  to  the  welfare  and  hap- 
piness of  his  wife  and  children.  Mr.  Bourdette 
left  to  his  family  a  farm  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  of  land  which  is  now  carried  on  by  his  widow 
and  her  son  Charles.  The  fields  are  under  a  high 
state  of  cultivation  and  a  large  number  of  cattle 
are  raised  and  sold  annually.  Mrs.  Bourdette 
also  gives  considerable  attention  to  poultry,  hav- 
ing about  three  hundred  chickens,  and  she  sells 
eggs  and  butter.  A  most  earnest  worker  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church,  she  has  served  as 
organist,  has  been  a  teacher  in  the  Sunday-school 
and  for  three  years  has  been  president  of  the 
Ladies'  Aid  Society.  In  fact  she  is  one  of  the 


PAST    AM)    I'RKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    ITTXAM    COl'NTIKS. 


most  earnest  and  helpful  workers  in  the  church 
and  her  labors  are  far-reaching  and  beneficial. 
Her  son  Charles  is  secretary  of  the  Sunday-school, 
while  fraternally  he  is  connected  with  the  Henry 
lodge  of  Odd  Fellows.  The  family  is  one  of 
prominence  in  the  community,  well  meriting  men- 
tion among  the  representative  residents  of  the 
county. 


OWEX  W.  ALLEX. 

Owen  W.  Allen,  although  now  living  in  Henry, 
is  still  the  owner  of  valuable  farming  property 
comprising  three  hundred  and  ninety  acres  in 
Putnam  county.  He  was  born  in  Putnam  county, 
Illinois,  in  1851  and  is  a  son  of  James  and  Eo- 
sanna  (Cassell)  Allen,  both  of  whom  were  natives 
of  Pennsylvania.  The  father  was  of  Irish  lineage 
and  came  to  Illinois  about  1845,  settling  in  Put- 
nam county  upon  a  farm.  He  was  accompanied 
by  his  family,  consisting  of  wife  and  three  chil- 
dren, and  he  carried  on  general  agricultural  pur- 
suits, becoming  a  prosperous  farmer  and  stock- 
raiser  of  that  community.  An  earnest  Christian 
gentleman,  he  held  membership  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church,  was  one  of  its  officers  and  one 
of  its  most  active  and  influential  workers.  His 
political  views  were  in  accord  with  the  principles 
of  the  republican  party.  By  his  friends  and  neigh- 
bors he  was  usually  known  by  the  term  of  uncle, 
which  indicates  the  love  and  esteem  which  were 
entertained  for  him  by  all  who  knew  him.  He 
died  in  1886  at  the  age  of  seventy-one  years  and 
left  his  family  a  most  honored  name.  His  wife 
survived  him  until  1890  and  passed  away  at  the 
age  of  seventy-four  years.  She  was  of  German 
lineage  and  was  a  daughter  of  William  Cassell, 
one  of  the  heroes  of  the  Revolutionary  war.  Her 
Christian  faith  was  manifest  in  her  membership 
in  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  church.  She  became 
the  mother  of  eight  children.  Margaret,  who 
married  William  Eeynolds,  a  school  teacher  and 
grain  merchant,  died  in  1861.  William  has  also 
passed  away.  Jane  is  the  wife  of  Joseph  Umbar- 
ger,  a  retired  farmer  living  in  Melvin,  Ford 
county,  Illinois.  Eliza  is  the  wife  of  George 
Forney,  also  a  retired  ,  farmer  of  Ford  county. 
Angeline  is  deceased.  Owen  W.  is  the  next  of 
the  family.  Nellie  became  the  wife  of  Anthony 
Chance  and  has  passed  away.  Cora  married  Sam- 
uel Eberly,  a  music  teacher,  who  is  also  deceased. 

Owen  W.   Allen  was  reared  to  farm  life  and 


attended  the  district  schools,  supplementing  his 
early  educational  privileges  by  later  study  in  the 
schools  of  Hennepin.  Throughout  his  active  busi- 
ness career  he  was  always  a  farmer  and  he  is 
still  the  owner  of  a  valuable  tract  of  land  of 
three  hundred  and  ninety  acres  in  Magnolia  and 
Hennepin  townships  in  Putnam  county.  There 
he  was  engaged  extensively  in  raising  thorough- 
bred stock,  making  a  specialty  of  hogs  and 
cattle,  conducting  a  large  business  in  that  line, 
which  brought  to  him  a  goodly  measure  of  pros- 
perity and  at  length,  content  with  the  competence 
that  he  had  secured,  he  retired  from  the  farm, 
took  up  his  abode  in  Henry,  where  he  is  now 
living  in  a  beautiful  home,  enjoying  life  and  its 
comforts. 

In  1873  Mr.  Allen  was  married  to  Miss  Mary 
J.  Edwards,  who  was  born  in  Putnam  county, 
Illinois,  in  1853,  a  daughter  of  William  and  Mary 
Edwards  and  pioneer  settlers  of  Putnam  county, 
where  they  took  up  their  abode  about  the  time 
of  the  Black  Hawk  war,  entering  land  from  the 
government.  Mr.  Edwards  added  to  his  posses- 
sions from  time  to  time  until  he  owned  four  hun- 
dred acres  and  he  was  regarded  as  one  of  the 
men  of  affluence  of  his  day  and  stood  very  high 
in  the  esteem  of  his  friends  and  neighbors.  He 
was  of  a  Quaker  family  and  his  political  faith 
was  that  of  the  whig  party  until  its  dissolution, 
when  he  joined  the  ranks  of  the  new  republican 
party.  He  died  in  1872  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven 
years.  His  wife  was  Mary  Wiley  and  they  had 
seven  children,  of  whom  they  reared  six  to  adult 
age.  George,  born  in  Putnam  county,  April  22, 
1838,  removed  to  Tama  county,  Iowa,  in  1869 
and  served  there  as  clerk  of  the  district  court 
for  two  terms.  He  died  March  7,  1896.  Harri- 
son, a  resident  farmer  of  Putnam  county,  Illi- 
nois, is  highly  esteemed  by  all  who  know  him,  and 
deals  very  extensively  in  thoroughbred  hogs.  Jos- 
eph A.,  who  was  born  in  Putnam  county,  Sep- 
tember 1,  1845,  and  died  in  1898,  was  reared 
to  farm  life  and  in  1864  enlisted  in  the  Union 
army  as  a  member  of  Company  B,  One  Hundred 
and  Thirty-ninth  Illinois  Infantry,  with  which 
he  served  until  the  close  of.  the  war.  He  was 
graduated  from  the  law  department  of  the  Iowa 
State  University  in  1873  and  practiced  law  in 
Iowa  City,  Iowa,  being  very  successful  in  his  pro- 
fession. He  also  became  a  lecturer  in  the  law  de- 
partment of  his  alma  mater.  Prominent  in  po- 


PAST   AND   PBESENT    OP   .MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


333 


litical  circles,  lie  was  chairman  of  the  republican 
county  central  committee,  was  city  solicitor  and 
one  of  the  compilers  of  the  city  ordinances.  In 
1897  he  was  elected  to  the  upper  house  of  the 
Iowa  legislature  and  was  therefore  a  member  at 
the  time  of  his  demise.  Anna  Edwards,  the  fourth 
member  of  the  family,  married  Hiram  Dunbar 
and  they  had  two  daughters,  Mrs.  Mattie  Alle- 
man  of  Putnam  county,  and  Mrs.  Rena  Foster 
of  De  Pue,  Illinois.  Her  second  husband  is  Wil- 
liam Cassell,  of  Putnam  county,  and  they  have 
three  children — Peoria  Rowe,  Bessie  and  Harry 
Cassell.  Luella  Edwards  became  the  wife  of  Wil- 
liam Eisenhouer,  a  farmer,  and  died  in  Novem- 
ber, 1903,  at  the  age  of  fifty-six  years.  The  next 
member  of  the  family  is  Mrs.  Allen,  and  the 
other  died  in  infancy. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Allen  have  had  no  children  of 
their  own  but  have  been  very  generous  in  pro- 
viding for  the  support  of  others.  They  hold  mem- 
bership in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and 
exemplify  their  faith  in  their  daily  works  and 
in  their  relations  with  their  fellowmen.  Mr. 
Allen  is  a  republican  with  firm  faith  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  party,  and  in  matters  of  citizenship 
he  is  public  spirited  and  loyal.  He  has  found 
in  an  active  and  honorable  business  career  that 
ambition's  answer. 


AMBROSE  DUDLEY  KEEDY. 
Ambrose  Dudley  Keedy  is  now  practically  re- 
tired from  active  farm  work,  but  for  ten  years 
has  engaged  in  threshing  during  the  season  and 
still  follows  that  business.  His  home  is  on  sec- 
tion 10,  Richland  township,  Marshall  county,  and' 
his  birth  occurred  on  section  16  of  the  same  town- 
ship, October  30,  1842.  His  father,  John  A.  Kee- 
dy, was  a  native  of  Orange  county,  Indiana,  born 
April  25,  1820,  and  in  1834  he  accompanied  his 
parents  on  their  removal  to  Illinois,  the  family 
home  being  established  in  Marshall  county.  In 
1841,  having  attained  his  majority,  he  was  united 
in  marriage  to  Miss  Caroline  M.  Poster,  who  was 
born  in  Kentucky,  October  10,  1820.  Their  only 
living  child  is  Ambrose  D.  Keedy  of  this  review 
and  they  lost  one  child.  Mr.  Keedy  was  the 
owner  of  a  fine  farm  of  three  hundred  acres  of 
valuable  land,  which  is  indicative  of  his  life  of 
well  directed  energy  and  thrift.  Both  he  and 
his  wife  were  faithful  members  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church,  in  the  work  of  which  they  took 


an  active  interest  and  in  -which  he  served  as 
steward  and  trustee.  He  also  filled  nearly  all  of 
the  local  political  offices  of  his  township,  was 
called  upon  to  settle  large  estates  and  in  various 
ways  served  the  public.  The  trusts  which  were 
thus  reposed  in  him  were  never  betrayed.  On  the 
contrary,  he  was  a  most  honorable  and  reliable 
man,  whose  good  qualities  gained  him  the  confi- 
dence and  high  regard  of  all  with  whom  he  was 
associated.  He  died  June  16,  1897,  while  his  wife 
passed  away  April  23,  1894. 

Ambrose  D.  Keedy  in  his  boyhood  days  was  a 
student  in  what  is  known  as  the  Hull  school.  He 
worked  for  his  father  in  the  blacksmith  shop 
until  twenty-seven  years  of  age  and  was  then 
married  in  1870  to  Miss  Mima  Ramsey,  a  daugh- 
ter of  Andrew  and  Martha  Ramsey,  who  were 
farming  people  of  Hopewell  township,  Marshall 
county.  Mrs.  Keedy  departed  this  life  December 
28,  1877,  in  the  faith  of  the  Cumberland  Pres- 
byterian church,  of  which  she  was  a  most  devoted 
and  loyal  member.  She  left  two  daughters,  Mar- 
tha Luella  and  Margaret  Caroline. 

At  the  time  of  his  wife's  death  Mr.  Keedy  left 
his  daughters  with  his  mother  and  father,  who 
reared  them,  and  he  went  to  the  west,  locating  in 
Harper  county,  Kansas,  where  he  worked  on  a 
ranch  through  the  first  winter.  He  then  fed  cat- 
tle for  a  year  and  afterward  removed  to  south- 
western Kansas,  where  he  worked  on  the  Bell 
ranch,  while  later  he  joined  his  cousin,  John 
Jones,  and  entered  a  piece  of  land  in  Meade 
county,  Kansas.  In  the  meantime  he  worked  on 
the  Crooked  L  ranch  in  order  to  secure  money 
that  might  be  used  in  improving  his  claim.  He 
was  in  the  west  altogether  for  five  years  and  had 
varied  experiences  with  the  cowboys.  He  was 
employed  to  watch  the  Indians  at  a  salary  of 
thirty  dollars  per  month,  during  which  time  he 
had  little  to  do  and  plenty  of  wild  game  to  shoot. 
He  has  always  been  very  fond  of  hunting  and 
trapping  and  may  yet  be  seen  carrying  his  old 
shotgun  to  the  timber  when  he  goes  to  look  after 
his  stock.  He  has  killed  many  a  deer  upon  the 
frontier  and  he  became  quite  an  expert  with  the 
gun.  Following  his  return  to  this  county  Mr. 
Keedy  resumed  farming,  which  he  carried  on  suc- 
cessfully for  a  number  of  years,  but  is  now  re- 
tired from  the  active  work  of  the  fields.  He  still 
operates  a  threshing  machine,  however,  having  car- 
ried on  this  business  during  the  greater  part  of 


334 


PAST   AM)    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


his  life,  and  the  thresher  which  he  now  owns  he 
has  operated  for  about  ten  seasons. 

Mr.  Keedy  has  been  called  to  various  local 
offices  by  his  fellow  townsmen,  who  recognize  his 
worth  and  ability.  He  has  served  as  assessor  for 
twelve  years,  has  been  school  trustee  and  school 
director  and  was  road  commissioner  for  three 
years.  During  that  time  he  was  elected  justice 
of  the  peace  and  is  now  serving  for  the  second 
term  in  that  office,  wherein  his  decisions  are 
strictly  fair  and  impartial.  Since  1862  he  has 
been  a  member  of  the  Masonic  lodge  at  Lacon. 
His  daughters  are  now  keeping  house  for  him 
and  they  are  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church.  Mr.  Keedy's  father  was  very  much  in- 
terested in  the  history  of  the  country,  and  his  son, 
like  him,  has  a  well  filled  library  of  old  books, 
being  particularly  fond  of  history,  so  that  he  is 
well  informed  concerning  the  events  which  have 
molded  the  policy  of  the  country  and  shaped  its 

progress.  . . 

HENRY  E.  ZILM. 

Henry  E.  Zilm,  one  of  the  most  successful  and 
prosperous  agriculturists  of  Marshall  county,  is 
today  the  largest  taxpayer  in  Belle  Plain  town- 
ship. He  is  a  native  of  Germany,  born  in  Meck- 
lenburg-Schwerin  on  the  9th  of  April,  1842,  and 
is  a  son  of  Daniel  and  Minnie  (Mevis)  Zilm,  who 
were  also  natives  of  Mecklenburg,  the  former  bom 
in  1804  and  the  latter  in  1809.  It  was  in  1857 
that  the  father  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  became 
a  resident  of  the  new  world.  Locating  in  Henry, 
Marshall  county,  Illinois,  he  purchased  a  farm 
near  that  place  and  turned  his  attention  to  agri- 
cultural pursuits.  He  subsequently  lived  on  the 
Rolland  place  for  a  time  and  from  there  removed 
to  Belle  Plain  township,  where  he  continued  to 
make  his  home  until  his  death,  which  occurred 
in  1896.  He  was  a  supporter  of  the  republican 
party  and  religiously  was  identified  with  the  Ger- 
man Lutheran  church,  to  which  his  wife  also  be- 
longed. She  died  in  1888.  In  the  family  of 
this  worthy  couple  were  seven  children,  namely: 
William,  now  deceased;  Charles,  a  resident  of 
State  Center,  Iowa;  Louis,  of  Benson,  Illinois; 
Henry  E.,  of  this  review;  Frederick,  a  resident  of 
La  Rose ;  Mrs.  Alwina  Speck,  of  Lacon ;  and  Mrs. 
Minnie  Cook,  of  La  Rose. 

Henry  E.  Zilm  spent  the  first  fourteen  years  of 
his  life  in  his  native  land  and  there  acquired  a 
good  education  prior  to  the  emigration  of  the 


family  to  America.  It  was  in  1856  that  he  and 
his  brother  Louis  took  passage  on  the  sailing  ves- 
sel Rhine  and  after  a  stormy  voyage  of  forty-nine 
days  landed  in  New  York  on  the  1st  of  November. 
Locating  in  Henry,  Illinois,  he  began  to  learn  the 
wagonmaker's  trade  with  William  Hanna,  with 
whom  he  remained  for  seven  months,  and  for  the 
following  year  worked  on  the  farm  of  Steven 
Eckley,  on  the  west  side  of  the  river.  At  the  end 
of  that  period  he  returned  to  the  parental  roof 
and  was  employed  on  his  father's  farm  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  time  until  he  started  out  in 
life  for  himself  as  a  farmer.  During  his  minority 
he  gave  the  money  that  he  earned  to  his  parents 
and  in  return  received  only  his  board  and  clothes, 
but  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  his  father  gave  him 
an  old  team  and,  renting  a  farm  in  Belle  Plain 
township,  he  engaged  in  its  operation  for  two 
years  prior  to  his  marriage,  in  the  meantime 
boarding  with  his  brother. 

In  1866  Mr.  Zilm  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Johanna  Van  Hove,  who  was  born  in  New 
Amsterdam,  Holland,  in  April,  1845,  and  died  in 
this  county  in  1881.  Four  children  were  born  of 
this  union,  namely:  Lena,  who  married  John 
Phillips  and  lives  in  Elgin,  Illinois;  Anna,  de- 
ceased; Matilda,  the  wife  of  William  Harrin,  a 
resident  of  Chicago ;  and  Oscar,  who  married  Car- 
rie Maddox  and  lives  in  La  Rose.  For  his  second 
wife  Mr.  Zilm  married  Miss  Theresa  Eringer, 
March.  15,  1883.  She  was  born  in  Hanover,  Ger- 
many, May  15,  1859,  and  was  twenty-three  years 
of  age  when  she  came  to  the  United  States.  Unto 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Zilm  were  born  three  children, 
Carrie,  Adolph  and  Ernest,  all  at  home. 

For  two  years  after  his  marriage  Mr.  Zilm  lived 
on  the  William  Spangler  farm  and  engaged  in  its 
operation.  He  then  made  his  first  purchase  of 
land,  consisting  of  one  hundred  and.  sixty  acres 
on  the  southeast  quarter  of  section  9,  Belle  Plain 
township,  belonging  to  Nicholson  and  Stevenson. 
As  time  has  passed  he  has  steadily  prospered  in 
his  undertakings  and  has  added  to  his  landed 
possessions  until  today  he  is  the  owner  of  twelve 
Inmdred  acres  of  rich  and  valuable  land  under  a 
high  state  of  cultivation  and  improved  with  ex- 
cellent buildings.  He  has  worked  persistently  and 
energetically  and  the  success  that  has  come  to 
him  is  due  entirely  to  his  own  indefatigable  la- 
bors, good  judgment  and  careful  management.  He 
is  a  man  of  excellent  business  and  executive  abil- 


PAST   AND   PEESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


335 


ity  and  usually  carries  forward  to  successful  com- 
pletion whatever  he  undertakes.  His  political 
support  is  given  to  the  republican  party  and  re- 
ligiously he  affiliates  with  the  German  Lutheran 
church,  to  which  his  family  also  belong.  His  life 
has  been  one  of  earnest,  persistent  endeavor  and 
he  well  merits  the  success  that  has  come  to  him 
and  also  the  esteem  in  which  he  is  uniformly 
held. 


SAMUEL  KING. 

Samuel  King,  at  one  time  identified  with  agri- 
cultural interests  in  Marshall  county  and  now 
conducting  a  drug  store  at  Camp  Grove,  the  en- 
terprising little  village  which  has  had  an  exist- 
ence of  only  about  four  or  five  years,  was  born 
near  Glasgow,  Scotland,  on  the  12th  of  Decem- 
ber, 1857,  and  was  one  of  a  family  of  eleven 
children,  of  whom  ten  are  now  living.  The  par- 
ents were  John  and  Marguerite  (Malone)  King. 
The  father  was  born  in  County  Down,  Ireland, 
and  was  a  miner  by  occupation.  Coming  to  the 
United  States  in  1864,  he  settled  upon  a  farm  in 
La  Prairie  township,  Marshall  county,  Illinois, 
in  1867  and  for  many  years  was  connected  with 
agricultural  pursuits,  but  is  now  living  retired. 
His  wife,  also  a  native  of  the  Emerald  isle,  passed 
away  in  1878. 

Samuel  King  was  a  youth  of  six  years  when 
brought  by  his  parents  to  the  new  world.  His 
education  was  largely  acquired  in  the  district 
schools  of  La  Prairie  township,  where  he  also  be- 
came familiar  with  the  work  of  field  and  meadow, 
remaining  upon  the  home  farm  until  his  twenty- 
seventh  year.  He  then  purchased  a  fine  farm  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  on  section  30,  Sara- 
toga township,  which  now  adjoins  the  corporation 
limits  of  Camp  Grove,  and  there  he  actively  and 
successfully  carried  on  general  agricultural  pur- 
suits until  October,  1904,  when  he  took  up  his 
abode  in  the  town  and  is  now  manager  of  the 
drug  store  owned  by  C.  S.  Liggett  of  Wyoming, 
Illinois.  He  still  owns  his  home  farm,  as  well  as 
other  farming  properties  in  this  county,  and  is  a 
wide-awake  and  enterprising  business  man.  He 
is  alert  and  energetic  at  all  times,  watchful  of 
opportunities  for  judicious  investment  and  suc- 
cessful management,  and  his  labor  has  brought  to 
hint  a  gratifying  measure  of  prosperity. 

In  1889  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Mr. 
King  and  Miss  Delia  Thomas,  of  Sparland,  Illi- 


nois, and  in  the  best  homes  of  the  locality  cordial 
hospitality  is  extended  to  them.  Mr.  King  is  a 
democrat  in  his  political  views.  He  has  served 
as  school  trustee  in  Saratoga  township,  was  road 
commissioner  for  twelve  years  and  township  treas- 
urer for  eight  years,  discharging  the  various  du- 
ties connected  with  these  offices  in  prompt  and 
capable  manner.  He  is  likewise  connected  with 
Camp  Grove  lodge,  No.  3350,  M.  W.  A.,  in  which 
he  has  filled  all  of  the  chairs.  Almost  his  entire 
life  has  been  passed  in  this  county  and  while 
possessing  the  strong  and  sterling  characteristics 
of  his  Scotch  ancestry,  he  is  also  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  modern  progress  that  has  been  the  dom- 
inant factor  in  the  substantial  growth  and  rapid 
development  of  the  middle  west.  Of  a  friendly, 
genial  disposition,  he  has  gained  a  host  of  warm 
friends  and  is  well  liked  bv  all  who  know  him. 


H.  A.  STOTLEE. 

H.  A.  Stotler,  proprietor  of  the  grain  elevator 
at  Evans  station  and  a  resident  of  Wenona,  came 
to  this  city  in  August,  1905,  but  for  some  years 
has  been  closely  associated  with  business  inter- 
ests in  this  county.  He  was  born  in  Hudson,  Mc- 
Lean county,  Illinois,  October  13,  1876,  and  is  a 
son  of  John  and  Mary  (Burtis)  Stotler,  the  for- 
mer a  native  of  Somerset  county,  Pennsylvania, 
and  the  latter  of  Illinois.  The  father  is  a  farmer 
by  occupation  and  H.  A.  Stotler  was  reared  to 
agricultural  pursuits.  He  acquired  his  early 
education  in  the  schools  of  his  native  town  and 
afterward  attended  the  Gem  City  Business  Col- 
lege at  Quincy,  Illinois,  from  which  he  was  gradu- 
ated in  the  class  of  1894.  He  is  also  a  graduate 
of  the  normal  university  of  the  class  of  1904, 
wherein  he  pursued  a  four  years'  course,  teach- 
ing school  in  the  meantime.  He  taught  in  the 
country  schools  for  two  years  and  then  became 
principal  of  the  Secor  school,  where  he  remained 
for  two  years.  He  was  also  principal  of  the 
schools  of  Metamora  for  one  year  and  superin- 
tendent of  the  Chillicothe  schools  for  one  year. 
He  gave  excellent  satisfaction  there  and  was  re- 
elected  for  a  second  year  but  resigned.  Since  that 
time  he  has  been  solicited  several  times  to  return 
there  but,  retiring  from  the  field  of  educational 
labor,  he  has  become  a  factor  in  commercial  circles 
and  is  now  engaged  in  the  grain  trade.  On  com- 
ing to  Wenona  he  purchased  the  elevator  which 


PAST    AND    PKKSKXT    OK    MARSHALL    AM)    Pl'TXAM    COTXTIKS. 


he  now  conducts  from  J.  H.  Taggart  &  Son  and 
he  annually  handles  a  large  amount  of  grain  and 
deals  in  coal.  He  owns  a  nice  residence  property 
in  Wenona  and  he  and  his  brothers  own  a  half 
section  of  land  in  the  Eed  Eiver  valley  in  North 
Dakota  and  thus  his  interests  are  varied  and  im- 
portant. 

On  the  10th  of  August,  1904,  Mr.  Stotler  was 
married  to  Miss  Susie  Wagner,  of  Metamora,  Illi- 
nois. They  are  members  of  the  Christian  church 
and  are  well  known  socially,  having  gained  many 
friends  in  Wenona  during  the  brief  period  of  their 
residence  here.  A  man  of  native  intelligence  and 
enterprise,  he  has  developed  his  latent  powers  and 
made  good  use  of  his  opportunities  and  thus  has 
made  steady  progress  in  his  business  life. 


JAMES  N.  ANDERSON. 

James  N.  Anderson  is  now  living  retired  in 
Hennepin,  but  for  many  years  has  been  closely 
associated  with  agricultural  interests  in  Putnam 
county.  He  has  long  since  passed  the  Psalmist's 
span  of  three  score  years  and  ten,  having  reached 
the  age  of  seventy-eight  years,  his  birth  having  oc- 
curred in  Philadelphia  on  the  2d  of  May,  1828. 
His  parents  were  Eobert  and  Ann  (Crosby)  An- 
derson, the  former  a  native  of  Scotland,  whence  he 
came  to  America  in  1801,  being  at  that  time  about 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  For  twenty-one  years  he 
worked  for  a  man  by  the  name  of  Israel  Lobb 
upon  a  farm  in  Pennsylvania,  and  while  thus  en- 
gaged he  was  married.  Subsequently  he  removed 
to  Montgomery  county,  Ohio,  where  he  bought  a 
farm  of  one  hundred  acres,  nearly  all  of  which 
was  wild  land.  This  he  cleared  and  developed  into 
productive  fields,  making  his  home  thereon  until 
his  death,  which  occurred  when  he  had  reached  the 
very  venerable  age  of  eighty-five  years.  His  wife, 
who  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  died  in  Montgom- 
ery county,  Ohio,  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight  years. 
In  their  family  were  four  children,  of  whom  James 
N.  was  the  second  in  order  of  birth  and  the  only 
one  now  living.  The  others  were  Margaret,  who 
became  Mrs.  Addison  and  died  in  Montgomery 
county,  Ohio;  Elizabeth,  who  died  in  her  father's 
home;  and  Robert,  who  passed  away  in  Emmet 
county,  Iowa,  about  two  years  ago. 

James  N.  Anderson,  reared  under  the  parental 
roof,  attended  the  common  schools,  and  at  the  age 
of  twenty  years  began  earning  his  own  living.  He 
worked  at  carpentering  and  at  farm  labor,  and 


soon  afterward  he  engaged  in  farming  on  his  own 
account  and  lived  at  home.  However,  he  made 
further  arrangements  for  having  a  home  of  his 
own  by  his  marriage  on  the  3d  of  June,  1852,  to 
Miss  Mary  B.  McCabe,  who  was  born  in  Hights- 
town,  New  Jersey,  January  4,  1826,  a  daughter 
of  Isaac  and  Eachel  J.  (Brown)  McCabe,  the 
former  a  native  of  Ireland  and  the  latter  of  New 
Jersey.  At  an  early  day  they  removed  to  Ohio, 
and  the  father  worked  at  the  carpenter's  trade, 
which  he  made  his  life  occupation. 

Following  his  marriage  Mr.  Anderson  purchased 
a  farm  of  one  hundred  and  five  acres  in  the  coun- 
ty of  his  nativity  and  there  lived  until  1867,  when 
he  came  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  and  purchased 
a  farm  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  acres  in  Gran- 
ville  township,  near  Mount  Palatine.  This  farm 
was  considered  an  improved  property  in  those 
days.  Upon  it  was  a  small  frame  house,  a  log 
stable  with  thatched  roof  and  a  fence  built  of 
poles  and  posts.  The  farm,  however,  had  been 
rented  and  had  grown  up  in  weeds.  Mr.  Anderson 
at  once  began  its  further  development  and  culti- 
vation and  made  his  home  thereon  until  1889, 
during  which  time  he  transformed  the  place  into 
rich  and  productive  fields  and  made  many  sub- 
stantial modern  improvements  thereon.  In  1889 
he  retired  from  active  business  and  removed  to 
Hennepin.  He  had,  however,  in  the  meantime 
built  a  new  house  and  barns  upon  his  place  and 
had  added  eighty  acres  to  his  land.  He  had  also 
invested  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars  in  tile  and 
had  drained  his  place  until  it  was  one  of  the  best 
farms  of  the  county.  He  retained  the  ownership 
of  this  property  until  about  two  years  ago,  when 
he  sold  out.  In  the  meantime  he  had  purchased 
land  in  Missouri,  and  has  given  to  each  of  his 
children  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  and  a  half 
acres. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Anderson  were  born  a 
daughter  and  three  sons :  Annie,  now  the  wife  of 
Fred  Stansell,  a  resident  of  Knox  county,  Mis- 
souri, by  whom  she  has  three  children;  William 
J.,  who  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  months; 
Isaac,  who  died  at  the  age  of  four  years;  and 
Phillip  B.,  who  wedded  Martha  Stansell  and  is 
living  upon  a  farm  in  Knox  county,  Missouri. 
They  have  two  children.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Anderson 
have  recently  returned  from  a  visit  to  their  chil- 
dren in  Missouri,  whither  they  go  every  year.  In 
1902  they  celebrated  their  golden  wedding,  their 


MR.  AXD  MRS.  J.  N.  ANDERSON. 


PAST   AND    PHESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


339 


children  being  at  home,  and  over  fifty  invited 
guests  were  present,  making  the  day  a  most  mem- 
orable and  enjoyable  one. 

For  more  than  a  half  century  Mr.  Anderson 
has  been  an  Odd  Fellow.  His  political  support  is 
given  to  the  democracy,  and  his  first  presidential 
vote  was  cast  for  Franklin  Pierce.  He  delights 
to  tell  of  the  pioneer  days,  and  recalls  many  in- 
teresting experiences  of  the  times  when  ox  teams 
were  used  in  breaking  the  land  and  tilling  the 
fields,  and  when  nearly  all  of  the  work  was  done 
by  hand.  He  has  watched  with  interest  the  prog- 
ress of  events  that  have  occurred,  bringing  about  a 
wonderful  transformation  in  the  county,  and 
though  he  retains  pleasant  recollections  of  the  early 
tunes  when  almost  every  home  was  noted  for  its 
hospitality,  he  yet  rejoices  in  what  has  been  accom- 
plished as  the  work  of  improvement  has  been 
carried  forward.  He  and  his  wife  now  have  a  nice 
home  in  the  city  of  Hennepin,  and  he  takes  great 
delight  in  the  well  kept  appearance  of  the  place. 
His  rest  is  well  merited,  being  the  fitting  reward 
of  many  years  of  earnest  toil. 


FERDINAND  KLINGEE. 

The  business  and  community  interests  of  To- 
luca  find  a  worthy  and  prominent  representative 
in  Ferdinand  Klinger,  who  is  closely  associated 
with  the  material  and  public  affairs  of  the  town. 
He  was  born  in  Bavaria,  Germany,  in  1864  and 
is  a  son  of  Ferdinand  and  Catherine  (Weileder) 
Klinger.  The  parents  were  likewise  natives  of 
Germany,  born  in  Bavaria,  the  former  in  1815 
and  the  latter  in  1826.  The  mother  still  lives  at 
the  old  home  place  in  Germany  with  her  son,  but 
the  father,  who  followed  farming  as  a  life  work, 
passed  away  in  1901.  In  the  family  were  six 
children.  John,  born  in  1862,  is  now  living  in 
Toluca.  Ferdinand  is  the  second  of  the  family. 
Mary  Schoenhull,  now  living  in  Germany,  was 
born  in  1866.  She  came  to  America  in  company 
with  her  sister  Catherine  in  1896,  remaining 
until  1901,  when  they  returned  to  Germany  on 
receiving  word  that  their  father  was  ill.  He  lived 
but  a  short  time  after  their  arrival.  Catherine  is 
at  home  with  her  mother  in  Germany,  having  re- 
turned with  her  sister  Mary  to  their  native  land. 
Father  Max  Klinger,  the  fifth  member  of  the 
family,  was  born  in  1872  and  died  in  April,  1905. 
He  studied  in  Passau,  Germany,  for  twelve  years 
in  preparation  for  the  priesthood  and  died  at 


Altoetting,  where  he  was  in  charge  of  a  fine  par- 
ish. His  early  death  was  probably  due  to  study 
and  overwork,  as  he  was  very  industrious.  He 
was  a  young  man  of  strong  intellectual  force  and 
marked  ability,  who  at  an  early  age  prepared  for 
the  priesthood  and  became  one  of  the  able  repre- 
sentatives of  the  church.  His  mother  made  her 
home  with  him  until  his  death.  Sebastian,  the 
next  member  of  the  family,  is  living  on  the  old 
homestead  in  Germany.  He  was  born  in  1886, 
was  married  in  1904,  and  his  mother  now  lives 
with  him. 

Ferdinand  Klinger,  whose  name  introduces  this 
review,  was  reared  and  educated  in  his  native 
country  and  according  to  its  laws  rendered  two 
years  of  military  service,  after  which  an  attempt 
was  made  to  have  him  work  for  a  year  for  noth- 
ing. Not  desiring  such  a  condition,  he  hastily 
left  for  the  new  world,  and  after  coming  to  this 
country  he  was  married  in  Peoria,  Illinois,  in 
July,  1887,  to  Miss  Annie  Myer,  who  was  born 
in  Bavaria,  Germany,  and  had  come  to  the  United 
States  about  two  years  before  Mr.  Klinger.  On 
the  1st  of  January,  1888,  the  young  couple  re- 
moved to  Washburn,  Illinois,  in  Woodford  coun- 
ty, where  Mr.  Klinger  established  a  harness  shop, 
having  learned  the  trade  in  his  native  country. 
He  remained  there  for  eleven  years  and  in  the 
meantime  opened  a  branch  shop  in  Toluca,  Illi- 
nois, conducting  both  shops  for  two  years.  In 
1897,  however,  he  removed  to  Toluca,  having  the 
first  harness  shop  in  this  town.  He  is  now  con- 
ducting an  extensive  and  profitable  business  and 
in  the  rear  of  his  harness  shop  he  has  a  carriage 
and  buggy  department.  Above  the  store  rooms 
is  a  nice  opera  house.  In  front  and  back  of  the 
stage  are  large  rooms  where  different  lodges  meet. 
Mr.  Klinger  lost  quite  heavily  in  the  failure  of 
the  First  National  Bank  of  Toluca,  about  a  year 
and  a  half  ago,  but  is  working  hard  to  retrieve 
his  lost  possessions  and  has  a  good  business,  his 
trade  constantly  growing  in  volume  and  import- 
ance. 

In  community  affairs  Mr.  Klinger  takes  an  ac- 
tive and  helpful  interest  and  is  a  most  public- 
spirited  and  progressive  citizen.  He  has  served 
on  the  school  board  for  three  years  and  has  al- 
ways been  a  promoter  of  good  schools,  spending 
considerable  money  in  educating  his  own  chil- 
dren and  in  giving  them  musical  advan- 
tages. Joseph,  his  eldest  son,  is  a  fine 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


performer  on  the  violin,  taking 
Streator  each  week,  while  Max  is  being  instructed 
on  the  piano  and  Oswald  is  playing  the  cornet. 
There  are  also  twin  sons,  Alvin  and  Walter,  and 
Mr.  Klinger  says  lie  expects  soon  to  give  them 
music  lessons,  so  that  he  can  have  a  band  in  his 
own  family.  The  other  three  boys  are  frequent- 
ly engaged  to  play  music  for  dances  and  other 
public  functions.  The  record  of  the  family  is 
as  follows:  Joseph  was  graduated  at  the  sisters' 
school  in  Toluca  and  is  now  assisting  his  father 
in  the  shop,  learning  the  harnessmaking  trade 
and  also  acting  as  bookkeeper.  Max  is  a  student 
in  Magnolia  school.  Oswald  is  attending  the 
sisters'  school  in  Toluca.  Alvin  and  Walter, 
twins,  born  in  1897,  are  also  students  in  the  sis- 
ters' school  and  are  most  interesting  boys,  who 
have  the  greatest  attachment  for  each  other. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Klinger  is  a  stalwart 
democrat  and  has  filled  a  number  of  offices,  serv- 
ing for  six  years  as  alderman  of  Toluca,  while 
from  1903  until  1905  he  filled  the  position  of 
mayor,  giving  to  the  city  a  public-spirited  and 
business-like  administration,  characterized  by  re- 
form, progress  and  improvement.  He  belongs  to 
the  Woodmen  lodge  and  also  holds  membership 
relations  with  the  Foresters  and  the  Knights  of 
Pythias.  His  religious  faith  is  indicated  by  his 
membership  in  the  Catholic  church,  while  his  wife 
is  a  member  of  the  German  Lutheran  church. 
Mr.  Klinger  deserves  much  credit  for  what  he 
has  accomplished  in  the  new  world.  Coming  to 
America  with  little  capital,  he  has  worked  his 
way  upward  through  strong  purpose,  close  appli- 
cation and  unremitting  energy  and  is  not  only 
controlling  a  successful  business,  but  has  also 
won  a  place  among  the  representative  citizens  of 
his  community,  exercising  an  influence  in  local 
affairs  that  is  far-reaching  and  beneficial. 


EDMOND  E.  WONSER. 

Edmond  E.  Wonser,  a  prosperous  hardware 
merchant  of  Hennepin,  conducting  his  interests 
along  modern  business  lines,  was  born  near  Ober- 
lin,  Ohio,  August  21,  1860.  His  father,  Elanson 
E.  Wonser,  was  born  in  New  York  and  when 
quite  young  removed  to  Ohio.  He  was  a  cooper 
by  trade  and  followed  that  pursuit  until  his  re- 
moval to  Kansas,  where  he  engaged  in  farming. 
In  early  life  he  wedded  Agnes  Louise  Brannan, 
who  was  born  in  Ohio  and  died  in  Michigan  at 


the  age  of  thirty  years.  He  afterward  married 
again  and  by  his  first  union  he  had  two  sons  and 
two  daughters,  of  whom  the  daughters  and  one 
son  died  in  early  life,  while  by  the  second  mar- 
riage there  were  three  children,  all  now  deceased. 
The  father's  death  occurred  in  Kansas  when  he 
was  sixty-four  years  of  age. 

Edmond  E.  Wonser  was  only  a  year  old  when 
his  parents  removed  from  Ohio  to  Michigan, 
where  they  lived  for  about  eight  years,  and  then 
went  to  Kansas.  He  acquired  his  education  in 
the  common  schools  and  has  made  his  own  way 
in  the  world  from  the  age  of  fifteen.  When  a 
youth  of  fourteen  he  left  home,  after  which  he 
engaged  in  farming  and  cattle-raising  in  Kansas, 
Iowa  and  Nebraska.  For  three  years  he  was  with 
the  firm  of  Wiggins  Brothers,  at  Burlington,  Kan- 
sas, working  on  the  ranch  for  one  year  and  after- 
ward buying  and  shipping  cattle.  Subsequently 
he  was  for  seven  years  foreman  of  a  large  ranch  in 
Holt  county,  Nebraska,  and  in  1889  he  went  to 
Valparaiso,  Indiana,  where  he  pursued  a  commer- 
cial course  in  a  business  college  there,  realizing 
the  value  of  such  a  training  as  a  preparation  for 
life's  responsible  duties.  He  afterward  spent  three 
years  in  the  United  States  car  shops  at  Chicago 
and  in  1896  he  came  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois, 
where  for  eleven  months  he  was,  employed  as 
driver  of  a  team.  For  a  year  and  a  half  he  was 
employed  in  the  elevator  office  of  H.  H.  Leech 
and  next  entered  the  employ  of  W.  H.  Lucas  in  a 
hardware  store.  In  April,  1901,  he  formed  a 
partnership  with  Mr.  Ham  and  bought  the  busi- 
ness, which  was  conducted  under  the  firm  style 
of  Wonser  &  Ham  for  eighteen  months.  Mr.  Ham 
then  wishing  to  retire,  Mr.  Wonser  purchased  the 
entire  stock.  He  now  carries  a  large  line  of  hard- 
ware, stoves,  tinware,  furnaces,  roofing  and  farm 
tools,  and  does  all  kinds  of  tin  and  metal  work. 
He  has  a  liberal  and  constantly  growing  patron- 
age and  he  owns -a  two-story  building  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Front  and  High  streets,  where  he  conducts 
the  business.  He  has  a  much  larger  stock  than 
is  usually  found  in  a  town  of  this  size  and  thus 
he  gives  his  customer  the  benefit  of  an  extensive 
assortment  of  goods. 

On  the  28th  of  June,  1899,  Mr.  Wonser  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Clara  I.  Ham,  a  na- 
tive of  this  county  and  a  daughter  of  Philip  Ham, 
now  deceased,  who  was  one  of  the  early  settlers  of 
Putnam  countv.  Her  mother  survives  and  is  now 


PAST   AND   PBESENT    OF   MABSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


living  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wonser.  Unto  our  sub- 
ject and  his  wife  has  been  born  a  daughter,  Doris 
Catherine,  now  four  years  of  age.  Mrs.  Wonser 
is  a  member  of  the  Congregational  church  and  a 
most  estimable  lady.  Mr.  Wonser  supports  the 
republican  party  and  has  served  as  village  treas- 
urer for  three  years.  He  is  somewhat  prominent 
in  local  political  circles  and  is  a  genial  gentle- 
man, of  kindly  manner  and  cordial  disposition, 
who  stands  well  in  the  cpmmunity,  where  his  busi- 
ness integrity  is  above  reproach. 


SAMUEL  W.  McCULLOCH. 

Among  the  men  whose  depth  of  character  and 
fidelity  to  duty,  combined  with  business  ability 
and  enterprise,  have  commanded  for  them  the 
respect  of  their  fellowmen  and  won  for  them 
prominence  and  success  in  business  circles,  is 
numbered  Samuel  W.  McCulloch,  president  of  the 
Marshall  County  Bank  at  Varna.  His  life  record 
began  in  Cumberland  county,  Pennsylvania,  on 
the  29th  of  August,  1846.  His  father,  Eobert  C. 
McCulloch,  was  a  native  of  the  Keystone  state 
and  a  farmer  by  occupation.  He  lived  to  the  ven- 
erable age  of  eighty-four  years,  passing  away  in 
1905,  while  his  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden  name 
of  Eebecca  Woodburn  and  was  also  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania,  died  in  1900.  In  their  family  were 
two  sons  and  two  daughters:  Samuel  W.;  John 
C.,  who  is  engaged  in  the  furniture  business  in 
West  Plains,  Missouri;  Mary  E.,  the  wife  of  J. 
E.  Barnes,  of  Washburn,  Woodford  county;  and 
Laura,  who  is  living  in  Washburn. 

Samuel  W.  McCulloch  spent  the  first  ten  years 
of  his  life  in  the  county  of  his  nativity,  during 
which  time  he 'began  his  education  in  the  district 
schools  there.  He  then  accompanied  his  parents 
on  their  removal  to  Illinois,  the  family  home  being 
established  in  Eichland  township,  Marshall  coun- 
ty, near  Washburn,  where  the  father  purchased 
land  and  improved  a  farm.  Samuel  W.  McCul- 
loch continued  his  education  in  the  schools  of 
Washburn,  from  which  he  was  graduated,  and 
then  entered  Monmouth  College  at  the  age  of  six- 
teen years.  He  left  that  institution  to  enlist  in 
the  Union  army  in  1864,  when  but  seventeen  years 
of  .age,  joining  the  boys  in  blue  of  Company  C, 
Seventy-seventh  Illinois  Infantry.  His  company 
went  through  Kentucky  and  did  duty  at  Vicks- 
burg  and  in  Louisiana  and  Alabama.  He  was  in 
active  service  continuously  from  the  time  when  he 


joined  the  army  until  mustered  out  at  the  close 
of  the  war,  and  displayed  valor  equal  to  many 
a  veteran  of  twice  his  years. 

Following  his  return  home  Mr.  McCulloch  was 
engaged  in  teaching  school  in  Washburn  for  sev- 
eral years,  after  which  he  became  connected  with 
the  grain  business  at  that  place  for  six  or  seven 
years.  In  connection  with  his  father  he  built  a 
large  elevator  at  Washburn,  and  subsequent  to 
his  connection  with  the  grain  trade  spent  a  few 
years  in  a  bank  at  Washburn.  In  1885  he  re- 
moved to  Varna  and  established  the  Marshall 
County  Bank,  a  private  institution,  of  which  he 
is  the  president,  while  his  son  Balph  is  the  cashier. 
This  enterprise  has  proven  of  value  to  the  com- 
munity, facilitating  the  transaction  of  business 
and  at  the  same  time  has  been  a  source  of  grati- 
fying revenue  to  the  owners. 

In  1867  Mr.  McCulloch  was  married  to  Miss 
Alice  Clark,  a  daughter  of  William  Clark,  a  resi- 
dent farmer  of  Marshall  county.  She  was  born 
in  Pennsylvania,  and  by  her  marriage  has  become 
the  mother  of  four  children.  William  C.,  who  is 
engaged  in  the  dry  goods  business  in  Eureka,  Illi- 
nois, married  Hattie  Spangler  and  has  two  daugh- 
ters. Eobert  W.,  a  railroad  official,  who  died  at 
Varna,  Illinois,  October  17,  1906,  lived  in  south- 
ern California,  wedded  Ella  Holstrom  and  had  one 
daughter.  Frank  C.,  who  was  engaged  in  the 
lumber  business  in  California,  and  married  Gail 
Broaddus.  Ealph  married  Mary  L.  Lord,  at  Var- 
na, October  14,  1906,  and  is  the  cashier  of  the 
bank  in  Varna.  This  is  one  of  the  old  financial 
institutions  of  the  county,  having  been  founded 
by  Louis  Linebarger  in  1883,  becoming  the  prop- 
erty of  Mr.  McCulloch  in  1885.  He  is  also  en- 
gaged in  the  insurance  business  and  has  valuable 
real  estate  and  farming  interests.  A  man  of  re- 
sourceful business  ability,  he  is  never  taken  by 
surprise,  but  is  always  alert  and  enterprising,  care- 
fully controlling  the  interests  which  are  under 
his  supervision  and  enlarging  the  scope  of  his 
activities  from  time  to  time. 

Mr.  McCulloch  holds  membership  in  Highland 
lodge,  No.  324,  K.  P.,  of  Varna,  of  which  he  is 
now  past  chancellor,  and  he  belongs  to  Varna 
camp,  No.  155,  M.  W.  A.,  in  which  he  has  filled 
all  of  the  chairs.  He  is  likewise  a  member  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Eepublic  and  of  the  Methodist 
church,  in  the  work  of  which  he  takes  a  very 
active  and  helpful  part,  serving  at  the  present 


PAST   AND    PBESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTJKS. 


time  as  a  trustee  of  the  church  and  as  superin- 
tendent of  the  Sunday-school.  His  political  al- 
legiance is  given  to  the  republican  party  and  the 
cause  of  education  has  found  in  him  a  warm 
friend,  doing  active  service  in  its  behalf  as  school 
trustee  and  director  both  in  Washburn  and  Varna. 
He  is  a  representative  citizen  of  business  enter- 
prise and  discernment,  who  is  watchful  of  oppor- 
tunities and  utilizes  the  means  at  hand  to  the  best 
advantage,  so  that  he  seems  to  have  compassed 
at  any  one  point  in  his  career  the  possibility  for 
success  at  that  point.  Business  integrity  and  en- 
terprise are  both  synonymous  with  his  name  and 
he  is  justly  accounted  one  of  the  leading  men  of 
his  community,  having  wielded  a  wide  influence 
in  public  affairs  in  the  line  of  material,  intel- 
lectual and  moral  progress. 


NEWTON  H.  COLBY. 

Newton  H.  Colby,  a  capitalist  deriving  consid- 
erable of  his  income  from  real  estate  as  well  as 
from  agricultural  interests,  is  a  typical  repre- 
sentative of  the  spirit  that  is  dominant  in  the 
business  world  today — the  spirit  which  recognizes 
and  utilizes  opportunities,  bringing  the  utmost 
measure  of  accomplishment  possible  at  any  given 
point  in  a  period  of  progress.  Without  special  ad- 
vantages at  the  outset  of  his  career  save  for  the 
gift  of  sixty  acres  of  land  received  from  his 
father,  he  started  out,  and  by  judicious  manage- 
ment, keen  sagacity  and  unfaltering  diligence  has 
arisen  to  a  prominent  place  in  business  circles  in 
Putnam  county. 

He  was  born  December  20,  1852,  in  New  York, 
a  son  of  Hiram  and  Sophia  E.  (Clark)  Colby. 
The  parents  were  both  natives  of  the  Empire 
state,  the  former  born  June  23,  1825,  and  the 
latter  on  the  15th  of  October,  1834.  Mr.  Colby 
was  a  carpenter  and  millwright,  and  followed 
those  trades  in  New  York  until  1852,  when  he 
sought  a  home  in  the  middle  west,  locating  in 
Granville  after  making  a  prospecting  tour  in  the 
west  and  southern  states.  He  realized  the  nat- 
ural resources  of  this  part  of  the  country,  and, 
bringing  with  him  to  his  new  home  a  considerable 
capital,  he  found  it  profitable  to  loan  money, 
for  which  he  received  twenty-five  per  cent  interest. 
He  later  bought  land  and  became  actively  con- 
nected with  farming  operations  in  this  part  of 
the  state,  though  he  made  his  home  in  the  village. 
In  1885  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  a  few  years 


later  took  up  his  abode  at  Covert,  Michigan, 
where  his  death  occurred.  Following  the  demise 
of  his  first  wife  he  had  married  again  and  is  yet 
survived  by  his  second  wife.  Mrs.  Sophia  Colby 
passed  away  in  Granville,  March  27,  1877,  while 
the  death  of  Hiram  Colby  occurred  at  Covert, 
Michigan,  August  12,  1905.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  in  his  political 
affiliations  was  a  republican,  on  which  ticket  he 
was  elected  to  various  township  offices,  including 
that  of  supervisor,  in  which  capacity  he  served 
for  several  years.  The  only  surviving  members 
of  the  family  are :  Newton  H.,  of  this  review ; 
a  brother,  Archie  L.,  living  in  Detroit,  Mich- 
igan; and  a  half-brother,  Arthur. 

Newton  H.  Colby  attended  the  common  schools 
in  his  youth,  but  his  educational  privileges  were 
somewhat  limited,  but  he  is  qualified  for  the  re- 
sponsible duties  of  a  business  career  through 
study  in  a  correspondence  school  and  by  experi- 
ence. When  twenty-six  years  of  age  his  father 
gave  him  sixty  acres  of  land  and  he  began  farm- 
ing on  his  own  account.  He  had  previously  be- 
come familiar  with  the  work  of  field  and  meadow 
through  the  assistance  which  he  had  rendered  in 
the  operation  of  his  father's  farms.  In  the  same 
year  he  was  married  and  began  the  improvement 
of  his  property.  He  built  his  present  residence 
and  other  buildings  on  the  place,  all  of  which 
are  large  and  substantial,  while  everything  about 
the  farm  is  in  first-class  condition.  Utilizing  the 
opportunity  for  judicious  investment,  he  has  added 
to  his  landed  possessions  until  he  now  owns  three 
hundred  and  fifty  acres  in  Granville  township. 
Though  still  living  on  his  farm,  his  agricultural 
pursuits  are  now  only  a  side  issue  with  him,  for 
in  company  with  A.  W.  Hopkins  he  is  extensively 
engaged  in  handling  real  estate.  They  located 
land  near  Granville,  upon  which  coal  mines  have 
since  been  developed,  and  they  have  platted  and 
sold  lots  in  various  parts  of  the  village,  contrib- 
uting more  largely  perhaps  to  the  substantial  de- 
velopment and  progress  of  the  growing  town  of 
Granville  than  any  other  two  men  in  Putnam 
county.  Mr.  Colby  is  also  engaged  in  prospecting 
and  in  locating  coal  lands  for  the  Chicago,  Mil- 
waukee &  St.  Paul  Railroad.  For  seven  or  eight 
years  he  conducted  a  semi-portable  sawmill,  get- 
ting out  hardwood  timber  for  the  coal  mines.  He 
bought  up  pieces  of  timber  in  Putnam  and  La 
Salle  counties,  coin  inning  in  the  work  until  the 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


coal  company  began  using  steel  in  construction 
work.  Mr.  Colby  found  that  business  very  prof- 
itable, and,  in  fact,  has  prospered  in  all  of  his 
undertakings. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-six  years  Newton  H.  Colby 
was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Whedon  who  was  born 
in  Ohio  but  was  living  in  Madison,  Wisconsin,  at 
the  time  of  her  marriage.  Unto  them  have  been 
born  two  children:  Irving  N.,  who  was  edu- 
cated in  the  Granville  schools  and  later  at  Brad- 
ley Polytechnic  School  at  Peoria,  Illinois,  and  who 
is  now  conducting  a  machine  shop  in  Granville; 
and  Jessie  M.,  at  home,  who  was  also  a  student  in 
Bradley  Polytechnic  School  in  Peoria. 

Mr.  Colby  exercises  his  right  of  franchise  in 
support  of  the  men  and  measures  of  the  repub- 
lican party.  He  served  for  four  terms  as  super- 
visor and  has  been  school  director,  but  is  holding 
no  office  'at  the  present  time,  as  his  business 
interests  require  his  undivided  attention.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  Congregational  church  and  con- 
tributes generously  to  its  support.  While  he  takes 
no  active  part  in  public  affairs  as  an  office  seeker, 
he  is  nevertheless  interested  in  the  welfare  of  the 
community,  and  his  labors  have  largely  been  of  a 
character  that  have  contributed  to  general  pros- 
perity and  progress  as  well  as  to  individual  suc- 
cess. He  is  a  typical  business  man,  alert  and  en- 
terprising, and  possesses  in  large  measure  that 
quality  which  has  been  termed  commercial  sense. 
Seldom,  if  ever,  at -error  in  matters  of  judgment, 
he  has  keen  insight  into  business  situations  and 
their  possibilities  and  seems  to  have  accomplished 
at  any  one  point  in  his  career  the  possibility  for 
successful  accomplishment  at  that  point. 


RICHARD  WAUGHOP. 

Richard  Waughop,  who  in  former  years  was 
identified  with  general  agricultural  pursuits  and 
now  lives  in  Henry,  was  born  in  Portsmouth,  Vir- 
ginia, October  8{  1830.  His  father,  Richard 
Waughop,  ST.,  was  also  a  native  of  the  Old  Do- 
minion, and  was  a  ship  carpenter  by  trade.  In 
1825  he  married  Miss  Eliza  Willis,  of  New  York. 
To  them  were  born  five  children :  James,  Rebecca, 
Richard,  Amos  and  Eliza.  The  two  oldest  and  the 
youngest  of  these  children  died  during  childhood, 
and  Amos  in  1892  at  Decatur,  Illinois,  at  the  age 
of  fifty-nine  years.  Thinking  to  enjoy  better  busi- 
ness opportunities  in  the  middle  west,  Mr.  Waug- 
op  came  to  Illinois  in  1834  and  settled  in  Tazewell 


county,  where  he  followed  the  occupation  of  farm- 
ing. His  wife  died  in  1835,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
eight.  Mr.  Waughop  was  married  again  in  1837 
to  Miss  Mary  Bowman,  and  to  them  were  born 
eight  children :  Mrs.  Lizzie  Wilmot,  of  California ; 
Dr.  J.  W.  Waughop,  who  was  superintendent  of 
the  hospital  for  the  insane  at  Steilacoom,  Wash- 
ington, for  sixteen  years  and  died  on  shipboard 
en  route  from  Honolulu  to  the  United  States  in 
1903;  William,  a  retired  farmer  of  Bloomfield, 
Iowa,  who  died  in  October,  1906;  Virginia,  who 
died  in  1877;  Franklin,  of  Manchester,  Iowa; 
George,  professor  of  ancient  language  in  Mt. 
Union  (Ohio)  College,  who  died  in  1876 ;  Amanda, 
who  died  in  childhood ;  and  Mrs.  Caroline  Van 
Petten,  a  missionary  in  Japan  since  1881.  Mr. 
Waughop,  Sr.,  lived  in  Tazewell  county  for  forty 
years,  his  death  occurring  in  December,  1874,  at 
the  age  of  sixty-nine  years. 

Richard  Waughop,  of  this  review,  was  only  four 
years  of  age  when  brought  by  his  parents  from 
Virginia  to  Illinois.  He  acquired  his  education  in 
the  early  schools  of  Tazewell  county  and  worked 
upon  his  father's  farm  until  twenty-three  years  of 
age,  when  he  left  home  and  came  to  Marshall  coun- 
ty, settling  in  La  Prairie  township,  where  he  en- 
gaged in  farming  on  his  own  account.  He  at  first 
bought  eighty  acres  of  land,  which  he  increased  to 
one  hundred  and  sixty.  This  he  sold  when  he  re- 
moved to  Whitefield  township  in  1865. 

In  1857  Mr.  Waughop  married  Miss  Mary  C. 
Bondurant,  daughter  of  Isaac  and  Marcy  Hay 
Bondurant,  of  Kentucky.  She  came  with  her 
parents  to  Washington,  Illinois,  when  a  child. 
Mrs.  Waughop  is  a  lady  of  superior  intelligence 
and  culture,  and  in  early  life  engaged  in  teaching. 
To  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Waughop  were  born  four  chil- 
dren: Clara  Belle,  at  home,  who  taught  school 
several  years,  attended  Eureka  College  and  is 
prominent  in  church  work.  Isaac  Willis,  a  fanner, 
married  Miss  Susie  Jacobs  in  1880  and  has  two 
children,  George  and  Effie,  and  one  grandchild, 
Opal  Sale.  Marcie,  a  graduate  of  Eureka  College 
and  a  special  student  of  Wellesley  College  (Mas- 
sachusetts), taught  in  the  public  schools  a  few 
years,  was  principal  in  the  Eureka  (Illinois)  high 
school  four  years,  and  also  occupied  the  chair  of 
English  literature  in  Eureka  College.  In  1899, 
during  the  second  year  in  this  last  position,  she 
passed  away  at  the  age  of  thirty-one  years,  deeply 
mourned  by  a  large  circle  of  friends.  Richard 


344 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF    MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Leslie,  who  follows  farming  and  stock-raising  on 
the  old  homestead,  was  married  to  Miss  Estella 
Deck  in  1896.  They  have  two  children,  Irma  and 
Vada. 

In  his  political  views  Mr.  Waughop  is  a  stalwart 
republican,  who  has  continuously  voted  for  the 
party  since  casting  his  ballot  for  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. He  has  served  as  school  director  and  was 
collector  in  La  Prairie  township,  but  has  never 
been  active  as  a  politician  in  the  sense  of  office 
seeking,  preferring  to  concentrate  his  energies 
upon  his  business  affairs  or  other  interests. 
He  holds  membership  in  the  Christian  church 
and  has  been  elder  therein  for  over  thirty  years — 
a  fact  which  indicates  his  prominent  position  in 
the  church  and  his  active  and  helpful  interest  in 
its  work.  His  life  has  been  a  busy,  useful  and 
honorable  one,  and  now,  in  the  evening  of  his 
days,  he  is  able  to  enjoy  a  rest  which  has  been 
justly  won  and  is  therefore  well  merited.  He  is 
now  the  owner  of  two  good  farms,  one  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  and  the  other  of  two  hun- 
dred acres,  besides  a  tract  of  timber  land. 


EGBERT  R.  McCULLOUGH. 
Robert  R.  McCullough,  whose  farming  interests 
comprise  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  val- 
uable laud  on  section  15,  La  Prairie  township, 
was  born  in  Winsted,  Connecticut,  February  17, 
1831,  and  there  resided  until  three  years  of  age, 
when  he  was  taken  by  his  parents  to  New  York, 
where  he  remained  until  after  he  attained  his 
majority.  He  comes  of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry. 
His  father,  Samuel  McCullough,  was  a  native  of 
County  Down,  Ireland,  and  well  remembered  the 
revolutionary  war  of  that  country,  when  so  many 
people  were  massacred.  After  seeking  a  home 
in  the  new  world  he  acted  as  foreman  in  large 
manufactories  in  different  parts  of  Connecticut. 
His  political  views' were  in  accord  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  democracy,  and  he  died  at  Caroline, 
Tompkins  county,  New  York,  in  1846.  He  mar- 
ried Nancy  Robinson,  also  a  native  of  Ireland, 
whence  she  came  to  the  new  world  at  the  age  of 
ten  years,  making  the  voyage  on  a  sailing  vessel 
with  her  uncle.  She  belonged  to  the  Presbyterian 
church  and  was  an  earnest,  sincere  Christian 
woman.  Her  death  occurred  in  Henry  county, 
Illinois,  in  1865,  and  she  was  laid  to  rest  in 
Boyd's  Grove.  The  members  of  the  family  were 


Samuel,  James  and  David,  all  now  deceased; 
Adelia;  Jane;  Robert,  of  this  review;  and  John 
L.,  who  was  supervisor  in  Bureau  county  for 
twenty-eight  years  and  was  one  of  the  best  known 
citizens  of  this  part  of  the  state.  He  died  in 
April,  1904,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three  years. 

Robert  McCullough  spent  his  childhood  in  New 
York,  and  when  twenty-two  years  of  age  started 
out  to  face  the  hardships,  difficulties  and  oppor- 
tunities of  the  world.  He  had  no  capital  and  he 
worked  by  the  month  as  a  farm  hand.  He  spent 
four  and  a  half  years  in  Minnesota,  and  was  well 
acquainted  with  the  majority  of  the  people  who 
were  massacred  there  by  the  Indians  at  the  fork 
of  the  Yellow  Medicine  river.  He  realized  the 
possibility  of  an  attack,  and,  thoroughly  under- 
standing the  frontier  conditions,  he  prepared  a 
plan  by  which  to  escape  in  case  of  the  approach 
of  the  savages.  Those  that  followed  his  advice 
managed  to  escape  unharmed,  but  the  others  were 
killed.  Mr.  McCullough  certainly  deserves  much 
credit  for  his  plan,  but  modestly  disclaims  all 
credit.  Throughout  his  entire  life  he  has  carried 
on  general  farming,  and  is  now  the  owner  of 
three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  rich  and 
productive  land  in  La  Prairie  township,  where 
he  is  successfully  carrying  on  general  agricul- 
tural pursuits,  having  brought  his  fields  under 
a  high  state  of  cultivation.  He  has  also  added 
many  modern  improvements  to  the  property,  and 
it  is  now  one  of  the  excellent  farms  of  the  com- 
munity. 

On  the  22d  of  December,  1864,  was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  Mr.  MeCullough  and  Miss  An- 
gelins  Jones,  who  was  born  in  Chillicothe,  Illi- 
nois, February  3,  1834.  Her  father,  Edwin  S. 
Jones,  who  was  always  known  by  the  title  of 
squire,  assisted  in  laying  out  Peoria  county,  and 
was  one  of  the  honored  and  prominent  pioneer 
residents  of  this  portion  of  the  state.  He  lived 
here  during  the  Black  Hawk  war  and  took  part 
in  the  Civil  war,  while  two  of  his  sons  were  also 
loyal  defenders  of  the  Union  cause.  He  married 
Emily  Root,  who  was  born  in  Roxbury,  New 
York,  in  1807.  Her  father,  Jerel  Root,  was  at 
one  time  a  resident  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  and  in 
1829  was  elected  treasurer  of  Hancock  county, 
that  state.  In  1831  he  came  to  Illinois  and 
served  in  the  Black  Hawk  war  during  the  follow- 
ing year.  In  1832  he  was  elected  county  com- 


ME  AND  MRS.  B.  R.  McCULLOUGH. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTESS. 


847 


missioner  of  Peoria,  and,  with  the  assistance  of 
Mr.  Wrenn  and  John  Coyle,  they  platted  the 
land  whereon  Peoria  now  stands.  He  was  like- 
wise a  soldier  in  the  Civil  war.  His  wife,  Mrs. 
Jones,  was  a  devoted  member  of  the  Christian 
church,  and  died  in  1892.  The  members  of  the 
Jones  family  are  as  follows:  Mrs.  Isabella  Wood, 
the  eldest,  was  a  resident  of  Chillicothe,  Illinois, 
and  died  in  San  Antonio,  Texas,  March  12,  1906. 
Albert  W.  Jones  was  a  lieutenant  of  the  Union' 
army  in  the  Civil  war  and  later  served  on  the 
staff  of  the  governor  of  Colorado  with  the  title 
of  colonel.  He  is  now  retired  from  business  in 
Greeley,  Colorado,  but  takes  a  very  active  part  in 
politics.  Mrs.  McCullough  is  the  next  of  the 
family.  Mrs.  Harriet  Foster,  a  resident  of  Brad- 
ford, Illinois,  died  in  1875.  Julius  E.,  who  was 
also  a  soldier,  is  deceased.  Julia  married  How- 
ard Edminster,  and  died  April  30,  1895. 

Mrs.  McCullough  attended  school  in  Henry, 
Illinios,  and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  years  began 
teaching,  which  profession  she  successfully  fol- 
lowed. In  1864  she  gave  her  hand  in  marriage 
to  Mr.  McCullough,  and  unto  them  have  been 
born  the  following  named :  Albert  J.,  who  mar- 
ried Anna  B.  Madison,  of  Fort  Scott,  Kansas,  is 
now  living  in  La  Prairie  township,  farming  his 
own  land  and  also  his  father's  farm.  He  com- 
pleted his  education  at  Quincy  Commercial  Col- 
lege. Anna  B.,  who  engaged  in  teaching  school 
in  Chillicothe  and  in  the  State  Normal,  is  now 
the  wife  of  A.  B.  Stickney,  a  prominent  railroad 
man  and  train  dispatcher,  living  at  Chillicothe, 
Illinois.  Louis  E.  is  a  student  in  the  high  school 
at  Chillicothe.  Edwin,  who  for  seven  years  was  a 
student  in  a  college  at  Galesburg,  Illinios,  was 
graduated  with  both  a  Bachelor  and  Master  of 
Arts  degrees.  He  is  also  a  graduate  of  the  State 
Normal  of  North  Dakota  and  was  formerly  prin- 
cipal of  the  high  school  at  Valley  City,  while  at 
the  present  writing  he  is  a  professor  in  the  high 
school  at  Anamoose,  North  Dakota.  Mrs.  Mc- 
Cullough is  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church. 

Mr.  McCullough  is  rather  inclined,  politically, 
to  the  democracy,  yet  is  independent  of  all  party 
ties.  He  has  .10  w  passed  the  seventy-fifth  mile- 
stone on  life's  journey,  and  in  a  review  of  his 
record  it  will  be  seen  that  he  has  been  most  en- 
ergetic and  capable  in  his  business  affairs.  What 


he  possesses  he  has  acquired  through  his  own 
labor,  and  his  is  a  valuable  farm  of  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty  acres,  equipped  with  all  the 
accessories  and  conveniences  of  a  model  farm 
property  of  the  twentieth  century. 


W.  P.  JENSEN. 

W.  P.  Jensen,  owning  and  conducting  a  black- 
smith shop  in  Toluca,  where  he  also  owns  a  nice 
home,  is  a  native  of  Denmark,  his  natal  year  being 
1871.  His  parents,  John  J.  and  Mary  (Anderson) 
Jorgensen,  were  also  born  in  that  country,  the 
former  in  1841  and  the  latter  in  1839.  The  father 
is  also  a  blacksmith,  and  has  always  made  his  home 
in  that  country.  His  wife,  however,  is  now  de- 
ceased, her  death  having  occurred  in  1881.  She 
was  a  member  of  the  Luthern  church.  In  their 
family  were  the  following  named:  Jorgen,  who 
eight  years  ago  started  on  a  trip  to  the  north 
pole  and  has  not  been  heard  from  since  that  time; 
Katherine,  the  wife  of  John  Hempel,  who  lives 
in  Streator,  Illinois;  Caroline,  the  wife  of  James 
Fort,  a  fanner  residing  near  Dwight,  in  Living- 
ston county,  this  state ;  and  W.  P.,  of  this  review. 

Mr.  Jensen  was  reared  and  educated  in  his 
native  country,  and  during  his  youth  he  learned 
the  blacksmith's  trade,  which  he  followed  ere  he 
emigrated  to  the  new  world.  When  he  had  at- 
tained his  majority  he  decided  to  try  his  fortune 
in  the  new  world,  for  he  had  heard  of  the  ad- 
vantages which  might  be  enjoyed  in  this  country, 
and  accordingly  on  crossing  the  Atlantic  and 
reaching  the  United  States,  he  made  his  way  at 
once  to  the  home  of  his  sister  in  Livingston  coun- 
ty, where  he  was  employed  for  six  months  on  her 
farm,  which  is  located  near  Dwight.  He  then  went 
to  Streator,  where  he  resumed  his  operations  as  a 
blacksmith,  being  employed  in  a  shop  there  for 
two  years,  and  in  1895  he  came  to  Toluca,  where 
he  opened  a  shop  of  his  own  and  has  since  con- 
tinued in  business.  He  is  an  expert  in  this  line 
and  therefore  enjoys  a  large  and  growing  patron- 
age. He  has  been  very  successful  in  his  business 
affairs  and  is  ever  known  to  be  reliable  and  trust- 
worthy in  all  trade  transactions.  He  owns  a  nice 
home  in  this  city  and  is  accounted  one  of  the 
enterprising  business  men  of  this  part  of  the 
county. 

Mr.  Jensen  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Mary 
Mathis,  who  was  born  in  Marshall  county,  in  1867, 
a  daughter  of  Jesse  and  Eliza  Mathis,  who  were 


;MS 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


farming  people  of  Bennington  township,  but  the 
former  is  now  deceased,  having  passed  away  in 
1905.  Mrs.  Jensen  was  reared  and  educated  in 
this  county,  and  in  1897  gave  her  hand  in  mar- 
riage to  Mr.  Jensen.  She  is  a  devoted  member 
of  the  Christian  church,  and  by  her  marriage  has 
become  the  mother  of  two  children :  Le  Roy 
Dewey,  who  was  born  in  1898,  and  died  in  1904; 
and  Irene,  who  was  born  in  1900. 

Mr.  Jensen  gives  his  political  allegiance  to  the 
republican  party  and  is  interested  in  every  move- 
ment which  tends  toward  the  advancement  of  his 
town  or  community.  His  fraternal  relations  are 
with  the  Modern  Woodmen  of  America,  while  in 
religious  faith  he  is  a  member  of  the  Lutheran 
church.  He  is  well  known  not  only  in  Toluca 
but  throughout  many  of  the  surrounding  districts, 
for  his  trade  is  drawn  from  many  portions  of 
Marshall  county,  and  he  and  his  wife  enjoy  the 
esteem  of  a  large  circle  of  friends. 


A.  J.  CARLSON. 

A.  J.  Carlson,  who  was  accounted  one  of  the 
foremost  representatives  of  agricultural  life  in 
Richland  township,  was  born  in  Sweden  in  1850. 
When  a  young  man  of  eighteen  years  he  came  to 
the  United  States,  making  his  way  at  once  to 
Illinois,  and  through  unremitting  labor  and  frugal 
habits  he  saved  a  sufficient  sum  to  enable  him  to 
purchase  a  farm  of  eighty  acres,  which  is  now  a 
very  valuable  property  in  Richland  township.  Ex- 
cellent improvements  have  been  made  thereon,  in- 
cluding the  erection  of  good  barns  and  outbuild- 
ings, while  the  latest  improved  machinery  is  used 
in  facilitating  the  work  of  the  fields  and  the  gath- 
ering of  the  harvests.  He  bought  the  farm  about 
seven  years  ago,  previous  to  which  time  he  had 
been  employed  at  farm  labor  or  had  operated 
rented  land  in  various  parts  of  the  county.  He 
never  had  occasion  to  regret  his  determination  to 
seek  a  home  in  the  new  world,  for  the  years  wit- 
nessed his  progress  and  advancement,  resulting  in 
success.  His  father  had  died  in  Sweden,  but  the 
mother  came  to  the  United  States  and  made  her 
home  with  her  two  sons,  A.  J.  and  Charles  Carl- 
son. Both  are  now  deceased,  however,  and  the 
mother  passed  away  about  sixteen  years  ago. 

In  the  year  1877,  in  Varna,  Illinois,  A.  J.  Carl- 
son was  married  to  Miss  Amanda  Palm,  a  daugh- 
ter of  John  and  Christine  Palm,  who  were  early 


settlers  of  Roberts  township.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Carlson  were  born  the  following  named :  Edward, 
twenty-seven  years  of  age,  who  works  on  a  farm 
near  the  home  place;  Charles  August,  who  is  op- 
erating the  home  farm ;  Minnie  and  Elsie,  who  are 
also  with  their  mother.  The  death  of  the  husband 
and  father  occurred  September  26,  1905.  He  was 
building  a  new  corn  crib,  and  met  his  death 
through  accident,  -timbers  falling  upon  him.  He 
was  a  man  of  excellent  traits  of  character,  widely 
known  as  a  devoted  husband  and  father,  a  faithful 
friend  and  a  loyal  citizen.  Wherever  known  he 
was  respected  and  his  life  was  characterized  by 
unfaltering  fidelity  to  a  high  standard  of  conduct. 
His  political  allegiance  was  given  to  the  repub- 
lican party  and  for  years  he  acted  as  a  school  di- 
rector. His  religious  faith  was  that  of  the  Swedish 
Lutheran  church.  Men  who  knew  him  respected 
him  and  had  the  utmost  confidence  in  his  business 
integrity.  His  diligence  was  one  of  the  salient 
features  of  his  success,  and  his  life  record  proved 
that  industry  is  the  key  which  will  unlock  the 
portals  of  prosperity.  Although  he  came  to  Amer- 
ica empty  handed,  he  gradually  made  advance- 
ment, and  at  his  death  was  the  owner  of  a  valuable 
farm  property.  Mrs.  Carlson  has  since  carried  on 
the  farm  with  the  assistance  of  her  son,  Charles 
August,  who,  though  now  only  twenty-five  years 
of  age,  is  recognized  as  a  most  enterprising,  prac- 
tical and  progressive  young  farmer.  The  family 
are  all  members  of  the  Swedish  Lutheran  church 
and  have  many  warm  friends  in  this  community. 

ADDISON  PORTER  WEBBER. 
Addison  Porter  Webber,  deceased,  who  was 
spoken  of  by  his  friends  as  "one  of  the  best  men 
that  ever  lived,"  became  a  pioneer  resident  of 
Marshall  count}'  and  for  more  than  a  half  century 
lived  within  its  borders — respected  and  honored  by 
all  who  knew  him.  His  birth  occurred  in  Gay- 
head,  New  York,  October  9,  1829.  His  parents 
were  Dr.  Robert  and  Harriet  (Pitts)  Webber,  who 
came  to  Illinois  in  1852,  settling  near  Lawn  Ridge, 
where  the  Doctor  engaged  in  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine until  his  death,  being  one  of  the  prominent 
early  physicians  of  the  county.  He  was  the  young- 
est of  a  family  of  five  sons  and  was  the  last  sur- 
vivor of  that  family.  The  Webbers  are  descend- 
ants of  one  of  the  first  Dutch  settlers  of  New 
York,  the  ancestry  being  traced  back  to  Henry 
Webber,  who  was  born  in  the  Empire  state  in  1727. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


3-49 


Reared  in  the  state  of  his  nativity,  A.  Porter 
Webber  acquired  there  a  common-school  educa- 
tion and  remained  in  New  York  until  twenty- 
three  years  of  age,  when,  at  the  time  of  his  parents' 
removal  to  Illinois,  he  also  became  a  resident  of 
Marshall  county  and  settled  with  them  upon  a 
farm  near  Lawn  Ridge.  Coming  to  this  county 
in  early  manhood,  while  it  was  nearly  all  raw 
prairie,  he  endured  many  hardships  and  priva- 
tions such  as  are  incident  to  frontier  life.  He  also 
worked  for  many  of  the  early  settlers  and  bought 
and  sold  different  tracts  of  land,  but  did  not  en- 
gage in  farming  on  his  own  account  until  his  mar- 
riage, in  1858,  when  he  settled  in  Valley  township, 
Stark  county.  It  was  in  December  of  that  year 
that  he  wedded  Miss  Rachel  Naomi  Calder,  also 
of  Lawn  Ridge  and  a  daughter  of  Joseph  Calder, 
one  of  the  early  settlers  of  that  locality.  Follow- 
ing their  marriage  the  young  couple  began  their 
domestic  life  in  Stark  county,  where  they  lived 
until  1867,  when  Mr.  Webber  purchased  a  farm  in 
La  Prairie  township,  whereon  he  resided  until  his 
death,  covering  a  period  of  almost  four  decades. 
Throughout  his  entire  life  he  carried  on  general 
agricultural  pursuits  and  placed  his  land  under  a 
high  state  of  cultivation,  adding  thereto  many 
modern  improvements  as  time  wrought  changes  in 
the  methods  of  farming,  while  iuventive  genius 
introduced  new  machinery  to  facilitate  the  work  of 
the  fields.  His  life  was  one  of  industry,  perse- 
verance and  enterprise — qualities  v/hich  are  essen- 
tial elements  in  success,  and  as  the  years  passed 
he  won  a  goodly  measure  of  prosperity. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webber  were  born  six  chil- 
dren: Alice,  now  the  wife  of  Lewis  T.  Wood,  a 
real-estate  and  insurance  agent  at  Lacon;  Alma, 
the  wife  of  J.  W.  Green,  an  extensive  farmer  and 
stock-raiser  of  La  Prairie  township:  Lulu,  who 
died  at  the  age  of  thirteen  years ;  Maud,  the  wife 
of  Linus  Root,  a  farmer  living  near  Blue  Ridge ; 
Mabel  La  Veta,  who  remained  at  home  to  care  for 
her  aged  parents  until  their  death,  and  is  still  a 
resident  of  this  county;  and  Herman,  who  is  the 
fourth  child  and  only  son.  He  was  married  Sep- 
tember 24,  1895,  to  Miss  Anna  Collins,  and  now 
resides  just  across  the  road  from  the  old  home- 
stead, which  he  has  managed  for  several  years  in 
connection  with  the  work  of  his  own  farm.  His 
wife  was  a  daughter  of  Patrick  Collins,  a  well 
known  and  prominent  pioneer  resident  of  this  part 
of  the  state.  Herman  Webber  attended  the  Spar- 


land  high  school,  the  Northern  Illinois  Normal 
School  at  Dixon,  Illinois,  and  was  thus  well  fitted 
for  life's  practical  and  responsible  duties.  He  is 
now  numbered  among  the  enterprising  and  suc- 
cessful farmers  of  La  Prairie  township  and  owns 
four  hundred  acres  of  valuable  and  productive 
land,  which  he  has  brought  under  a  high  state  of 
cultivation.  In  politics  he  is  independent,  and 
has  served  as  justice  of  the  peace.  His  religious 
views  are  indicated  by  his  membership  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church.  Unto  him  and  his 
wife  have  been  born  five  children,  namely :  Mar- 
garet, Robert,  Lawrence,  Wilfred  and  Florence. 

During  the  time  of  the  Civil  war  and  for  many 
years  thereafter  Mr.  Webber  was  a  stalwart  re- 
publican, but  as  the  issues  which  brought  about 
that  rebellion  passed  away  he  saw  that  the  next 
great  battle  of  the  American  people  must  be  fought 
at  the  ballot  box,  and  so  arrayed  himself  with  the 
prohibition  party  and  voted  as  he  prayed  as  long 
as  he  was  able  to  attend  the  elections.  He  was 
never  connected  with  any  secret  organizations,  but 
in  early  life  united  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church,  and  until  the  time  of  his  death  was  a  faith- 
ful and  devout  member  and  one  of  its  most  active 
and  helpful  workers.  He  held  the  office  of  trus- 
tee, steward  and  Sunday-school  superintendent  and 
teacher  and  for  many  years  was  regarded  as  one 
of  the  most  valued  representatives  of  the  congre- 
gation, his  labors  being  far  reaching  and  bene- 
ficial for  the  upbuilding  of  the  church.  Mrs.  Web- 
ber was  also  equally  faithful  to  the  church  and 
was  a  most  estimable  Christian  woman.  Together 
they  traveled  life's  journey  for  forty-seven  years, 
sharing  with  each  other  its  joys  and  sorrows,  its 
adversity  and  prosperity,  but  on  the  27th  of 
February,  1905,  they  were  separated  through  the 
death  of  the  wife,  who  passed  away  at  the  age  of 
sixty-five  years.  Not  long  afterward  the  health 
of  Mr.  Webber  began  to  fail,  and  his  strength  grad- 
ually declined  until  on  the  27th  of  July,  1906,  at 
his  home  in  La  Prairie  township,  where  he  had 
resided  for  nearly  forty  years,  he  passed  away.  One 
of  the  local  publications  said  of  him :  "He  was 
quiet  and  reserved  in  his  manne.-  but  firm  in  his 
belief  of  what  was  right.  When  quite  young  he 
united  with  the  Methodist  church  and  lived  a 
conscientious  Christian  life.  He  hatrd  shams  or 
pretense  in  everything  and  lived  only  lor  what 
was  grand,  noble  and  uplifting.  In  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  resided  he  was  considered  a 


PAST  AND    PRESENT   OP  MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


pillar  on  which  all  might  lean.  He  never  mingled 
in  politics  or  public  affairs,  but  was  ever  ready 
to  give  freely  of  his  advice,  which  was  much  sought 
for.  His  noble  character  was  shown  to  best  advan- 
tage in  his  own  home.  He  was  a  kind  and  loving 
husband,  a  devoted  father.  He  was  never  more 
happy  than  when  surrounded  by  his  children,  their 
husbands  and  wives  and  his  grandchildren.  In  his 
parents'  home  he  was  one  of  five  brothers,  and  in 
later  years  when  they  moved  to  Marshall  county 
the  affection  of  the  Webber  brothers  for  each  other 
was  always  noticeable.  He  was  the  last  survivor 
of  the  family.  The  funeral  was  held  Sunday  at 
three  o'clock  at  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  in 
La  Prairie  and  was  very  largely  attended.  Rev. 
Dille,  pastor  of  the  church,  assisted  by  Rev.  Thom- 
as Martin,  conducted  the  services.  Both  were  per- 
sonal friends  of  the  deceased  and  spoke  comforting 
words  to  the  bereaved  children.  They  held  his  life 
as  an  example  for  the  rising  generation  and 
touched  on  the  beautiful  character  of  the  man 
who  had  spent  a  full  half  century  in  the  neighbor- 
hood and  departed  without  leaving  an  enemy  or  a 
stain  on  his  character." 


CHARLES  A.  BROWN. 

Charles  A.  Brown,  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the 
Toluca  Lumber  Company  at  Toluca,  is  a  native 
son  of  Illinois,  his  birth  having  occurred  in  Prince- 
ton, Bureau  county,  in  1871.  His  parents  were 
C.  E.  and  Frances  (Pelton)  Brown.  The  father, 
a  native  of  Massachusetts,  was  born  in  1838,  and 
is  a  contractor  and  builder  now  living  in  Prince- 
ton. His  wife,  born  in  1846,  is  a  daughter  of  C. 
Pelton.  She  belongs  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church,  and  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Brown  are  widely 
and  favorably  known  in  Princeton,  where  for  many 
years  they  have  resided. 

Charles  A.  Brown,  an  only  child,  was  educated 
in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  city  and  began 
work  for  himself  in  1889,  clerking  in  Kansas, 
Princeton,  Illinois,  and  different  places  until  1899, 
when  he  engaged  in  business  for  himself.  He  is 
now  conducting  a  lumber  yard  at  Toluca,  being  the 
active  manager  of  the  business  and  also  secretary 
and  treasurer  of  the  company,  of  which  J.  E. 
Porterfield  is  president.  Mr.  Brown  is  a  young 
man  of  good  business  ability  and  executive  force, 
who  has  carefully  directed  his  energies  along  well 


defined  lines  of  labor,  keeping  in  touch  with  the 
spirit  of  modern  progress  and  improvement. 

In  1892  Mr.  Brown  was  married  to  Miss  Edna 
Porterfield,  who  was  born  in  Spring  Valley,  Illi- 
nois, in  1873,  a  daughter  of  J.  E.  Porterfield. 
They  now  have  an  interesting  little  son,  James  E. 
Brown.  Mrs.  Brown  belongs  to  the  Congregational 
church.  Mr.  Brown  is  identified  with  the  Wood- 
men, Knights  of  Pythias  and  Masonic  lodges.  He 
is  very  fond  of  hunting,  which  he  makes  his  chief 
source  of  recreation,  and  he  displays  no  mean  skill 
with  the  rifle.  He  is  popular,  being  a  genial  gen- 
tleman, considerate  of  the  opinions  of  others  and 
possessing  a  jovial,  kindly  nature  that  has  gained 
him  many  warm  friends. 


EDWARD  A.  LENZ. 

Edward  A.  Lenz,  who  follows  farming  in  Rob- 
erts township,  was  born  within  its  borders  May  8, 
1872.  His  parents  were  Jacob  and  Augusta  (Kem- 
nitz)  Lenz,  who  are  still  residing  in  Roberts  town- 
ship. The  father  was  born  in  Schoenlanke,  Posen, 
Germany,  and  when  eighteen  years  of  age  crossed 
the  Atlantic  to  America,  making  his  way  first  to 
Canada,  thence  to  Chicago  and  afterward  to  Mar- 
shall county.  He  took  up  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  of  land  on  section  35,  Roberts  township,  and 
is  now  residing  upon  a  farm  of  one  hundred  and 
fifty-nine  acres  on  section  25  of  the  same  town- 
ship. Throughout  the  period  of  his  residence  here 
he  has  been  identified  with  agricultural  interests, 
and  his  diligence  has  proven  the  foundation  upon 
which  he  has  builded  his  success.  His  wife,  also 
a  native  of  Posen,  Germany,  came  to  the  United 
States  when  fourteen  years  of  age  with  her  father, 
Michael  Kemnitz,  who  settled  upon  a  farm  in 
Roberts  township. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lenz  were  born  seven  chil- 
dren, of  whom  six  are  yet  living:  Louis,  who  is 
engaged  in  the  furniture  and  undertaking  business 
in  Lacon,  has  been  very  prominent  in  community 
affairs,  serving  as  mayor  of  his  city,  sheriff  of  the 
county  and  in  other  offices.  Edward  A.  is  the 
second  of  the  family.  Frederick  is  deceased.  Mrs. 
Ida  Schwanke  resides  upon  a  farm  near  Varna. 
Emma  is  the  wife  of  John  Albert  Vosberg,  who 
resides  upon  one  of  the  Lenz  farms.  Julia  is  the 
wife  of  Fred  Arndt,  living  upon  the  Downey  farm, 
about  three  miles  east  of  Varna.  Theresa  is  with 
her  parents  and  completes  the  family. 


PAST    AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


351 


Edward  A.  Lenz  was  educated  in  the  district 
and  German  schools  of  Roberts  township  and  was 
reared  to  the  occupation  of  farming.  This  pursuit 
has  always  claimed  his  time  and  energies  and  he 
is  now  operating  about  three  hundred  and  twenty 
acres  of  rich  and  productive  land.  His  father 
owns  about  two  thousand  acres  of  land  in  Roberts 
township,  being  one  of  its  most  wealthy  farmers, 
and  has  recently  returned  from  an  extended  trip 
in  Europe.  Edward  A.  Lenz  is  now  erecting  a 
fine  new  residence  of  stone  and  concrete  upon  his 
father's  old  homestead.  His  father  still  owns 
this  farm  and  is  most  comfortably  situated  in  life. 
His  land  brings  forth  rich  harvests,  owing  to  the 
care  and  labor  bestowed  upon  the  fields,  and  every- 
thing about  the  place,  in  its  neat  and  thrifty  ap- 
pearance, indicates  the  careful  supervision  of  our 
subject. 

In  1901  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Edward 
A.  Lenz  and  Miss  Louisa  Kaatz,  of  Roberts  town- 
ship, a  daughter  of  Fred  Kaatz,  who  is  engaged 
in  the  implement  business  in  Varna.  Two  chil- 
dren have  been  born  unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lenz : 
Gerhardt  and  Ernest,  aged  respectively  four  and 
a  half  and  three  years.  The  young  couple  are 
prominent  socially  and  enjoy  the  hospitality  of 
the  best  homes  of  this  part  of  the  county.  In 
politics  Mr.  Lenz  is  an  independent  democrat 
without  aspiration  for  office,  though  well  informed 
on  the  questions  and  issues  of  the  day.  He  and 
his  wife  are  members  of  the  German  Lutheran 
church,  and  they  occupy  an  enviable  social  posi- 
tion. From  pioneer  times  the  name  of  Lenz  has 
figured  prominently  in  connection  with  the  his- 
tory of  the  county,  especially  along  agricultural 
lines,  and  Edward  A.  Lenz  is  a  worthy  scion  of 
the  race. 


ALBERT  G.  HUMPHREY. 

Albert  G.  Humphrey,  one  of  the  prominent  and 
representative  residents  of  Henry,  has  been  an 
active  factor  in  public  life  and  in  office  has  ren- 
dered signal  service  to  the  city  along  lines  of 
progress  and  improvement.  He  is  now  manager 
at  this  point  for  the  Turner  Hudnut  Company, 
grain  merchants  at  Pekin,  Illinois,  and  is  ac- 
counted one  of  the  enterprising  business  men  here. 

He  was  born  in  Switzerland  county,  Indiana, 
July  9,  1857,  and  is  one  of  the  six  children  of 
Elias  F.  and  Eliza  S.  (Jack)  Humphrey.  The 
father  was  born  in  Indiana  and  is  now  living  in 


Peoria,  Illinois,  at  the  advanced  age  of  seventy- 
five  years.  He  followed  the  occupation  of  farm- 
ing in  Indiana  and  for  some  time  was  a  distiller 
in  Chillicothe,  Illinois.  In  1864  he  removed  to 
Peoria,  where  he  was  engaged  in  the  real-estate 
business,  in  which  he  continued  actively  until 
1871,  when  he  retired  from  business  life  and  has 
since  enjoyed  a  well  earned  rest.  Fraternally  he 
is  connected  with  the  Masons.  In  politics  he  is  a 
democrat,  and  held  minor  offices  while  in  Chilli- 
cothe. His  wife,  who  was  born  in  Kentucky,  died 
in  1896  at  the  age  of  sixty-eight  years.  She  was 
a  member  of  the  Universalist  church  and  a  lady 
of  many  excellent  traits  of  character.  In  the  fam- 
ily were  six  children:  Edward  S.,  who  is  private 
secretary  for  Edward  H.  Jack,  a  capitalist  of 
Peoria  and  an  uncle  of  our  subject  in  the  ma- 
ternal line;  Katie,  who  died  at  the  age  of  two 
years;  Albert  G.;  Arthur,  who  died  in  infancy; 
Robert,  who  died  at  the  age  of  four  years;  and 
Harry  J.,  who  is  in  New  York  city.  He  is  one 
of  the  foremost  managers  of  the  Smith  Typewriter 
Company,  being  formerly  in  charge  of  its  branch 
offices  at  St.  Paul  and  Chicago.  He  drew  the 
plans  for  the  company's  office  at  No.  311  Broad- 
way, New  York,  and  was  placed  in  charge  of  the 
Chicago  branch  in  1900,  from  which  place  he 
was  changed  to  the  New  York  office.  The  plans, 
furnishings  and  finishings  of  this  office  are  all  the 
embodiment  of  suggestions  made  by  him. 

Albert  G.  Humphrey  attended  the  public 
schools  of  Chillicothe  and  is  a  graduate  of  the 
high  school  of  the  class  of  1875.  He  was  after- 
ward a  student  in  a  business  college  in  Peoria, 
Illinois,  and  after  learning  telegraphy  he  became 
an  operator  for  the  Western  Union  and  the  Rock 
Island  Railroad  and  was  also  United  States  Ex- 
press agent  at  Chillicothe  for  six  years.  He  came 
to  Henry  in  1882  and  accepted  a  position  as  book- 
keeper in  the  grain  office  of  Nicholson,  Gilbert  & 
Company,  with  whom  he  remained  for  a  year. 
They  then  sold  out  to  G.  C.  Griswold  &  Com- 
pany, with  whom  he  continued  until  1895,  when 
Mr.  Griswold  died,  after  which  Mr.  Humphrey 
conducted  the  business  for  A.  K.  Knapp  for  a 
year  and  a  half,  or  until  it  was  sold.  In  1899  he 
became  manager  for  the  Turner  Hudnut  Com- 
pany, grain  merchants,  with  headquarters  at  Pe- 
kin, Illinois,  and  is  still  acting  in  that  capacity. 
He  also  has  an  interest  in  the  coal  firm  of  Green- 
lee  &  Humphrey,  of  Henry,  which  firm  was  or- 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OP   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


ganized  in  1894,  and  he  is  likewise  interested  in 
insurance.  He  is  a  stockholder  and  director  of 
the  Henry  National  Bank,  and  is  thus  associated 
with  various  business  interests  of  the  city,  being  a 
man  of  keen  enterprise  and  resourceful  ability. 

In  1885  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Albert 
G.  Humphrey  and  Miss  Anna  M.  Orr,  a  daughter 
of  N.  W.  and  Lydia  Orr.  She  was  born  in  Troy, 
Ohio,  in  1855,  and  her  father  was  one  of  the 
pioneer  merchants  of  Henry.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Humphrey  have  been  born  two  children :  Lila  A. 
and  Alta  May. 

Fraternally  Mr.  Humphrey  is  connected  with 
the  Knights  of  Pythias  and  with  the  Modern 
Woodmen  of  America.  His  political  allegiance  is 
given  to  the  democracy  and  he  is  prominent  in 
the  local  ranks  of  his  party.  He  has  been  mayor, 
alderman,  city  clerk  and  city  treasurer  of  Henry, 
and  the  duties  of  each  office  have  been  faithfully 
and  promptly  performed.  He  has  also  been  a 
member  of  the  board  of  education  for  twelve 
years,  and  the  public-school  system  of  the  city 
finds  in  him  a  stalwart  champion.  The  water 
works  of  Henry  were  built  in  1902  under  his 
administration,  and  he  has  always  stood  for  prog- 
ress and  improvement  in  municipal  affairs  and 
champions  every  interest  which  is  a  matter  of  civic 
virtue  and  of  civic  pride. 


MRS.  MIRANDA  DOYLE. 
Mrs.  Miranda  Doyle  is 'the  owner  of  a  valuable 
farm  of  four  hundred  acres  situated  on  section  27, 
Saratoga  township,  in  the  midst  of  which  stands 
a  beautiful  residence  that  is  surrounded  by  well 
tilled  fields  that  annually  return  to  her  a  good 
income.  Mrs.  Doyle  is  one  of  Marshall  county's 
native  daughters,  having  been  born  in  La  Prairie 
township,  March  1.2,  1856.  Her  father,  Major 
Alanson  P.  Webber,  was  born  in  Gayhead,  Greene 
county,  New  York,  March  16,  1828,  and  was  mar- 
ried on  the  13th  of  February,  1850,  to  Marion  J. 
Calder,  who  was  borne  in  Greene  county,  New 
York,  June  22,  1831,  the  marriage  being  cele- 
brated when  she  was  nineteen  years  of  age.  A 
few  months  later  they  removed  to  Illinois  and  lo- 
cated in  La  Prairie  township,  where  they  lived 
for  five  years.  On  the  expiration  of  that  period 
Mr.  Webber  purchased  a  quarter  section  of  land  in 
Saratoga  township,  upon  which  he  resided  until 
nib  death.  He  passed  away,  however,  at  the  home 
of  Owen  Doyle,  June  27,  1902,  having  for  about 


three  years  survived  his  wife,  who  died  on  the  old 
home  farm  in  Saratoga  township,  August  31, 
1899.  A  lovely  daughter,  Orie  B.  Kelley,  had  also 
preceded  him  to  the  better  land.  Two  sons  and 
two  daughters  survive :  Newton,  who  is  living  in 
Chicago;  Allie,  of  Saratoga;  Miranda,  now  Mrs. 
Doyle;  and  Myra,  the  "wife  of  Clarence  H.  Watt, 
of  Chicago.  When  the  Civil  war  broke  out  Mr. 
Webber  volunteered  and  enlisted  in  Company  C, 
Eighty-sixth  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  and  was 
chosen  fife  major  of  the  regiment.  During  the 
battles  in  which  the  regiment  participated  he 
served  as  a  sharpshooter  and  for  extraordinary 
gallantry  and  bravery  at  Kenesaw  Mountain  the 
congress  of  the  United  States  awarded  him  a 
medal  of  honor.  He  afterward  served  with  great 
credit  as  a  member  of  the  Illinois  legislature.  He 
and  his  wife  were  faithful  and  devoted  members 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  for  about  fifty 
years  and  in  their  lives  they  stood  for  temperance 
and  for  all  ennobling  virtues.  The  richest  legacy 
they  left  their  children  was  their  good  name — a 
most  blessed  memory. 

Mrs.  Doyle  of  this  review  spent  her  girlhood 
days  upon  the  old  home  farm  in  Saratoga  town- 
ship and  supplemented  her  early  educational  privi- 
leges in  the  district  school  by  study  in  Hedding 
College  at  Abingdon,  Il'inois.  On  the  18th  of 
September,  1881,  she  gave  her  hand  in  marriage 
to  Owen  Doyle,  who  was  born  in  Peoria  county, 
Illinois,  March  1,  1850,  and  was  a  son  of  Thomas 
Doyle,  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  who  for  many 
years  lived  in  Illinois  and  removed  from  Peoria 
county  to  Saratoga  township,  Marshall  county. 
Owen  Doyle  was  for  a  long  period  identified  with 
the  agricultural  interests  of  this  county  and 
prospered  in  his  undertakings.  He  lived  a  life  of 
thrift  and  industry  characterized  by  strong  pur- 
pose and  unfaltering  fidelity  to  manly  principles, 
and  in  his  business  undertakings  he  prospered,  so 
that  he  became  the  owner  of  a  valuable  farm  of 
four  hundred  acres  of  fine  land,  which  he  left  to 
his  widow  and  children.  He  erected  thereon  a 
beautiful  residence,  which  was  built  about  the 
time  of  their  marriage  and  which  is  most  taste- 
fully furnished. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Doyle  were  born  four  chil- 
dren: Carl,  who  is  living  with  his  mother  at  the 
age  of  twenty-four  years  and  operates  the  home 
farm  for  her ;  Herbert,  sixteen  years  of  age ;  Belle, 
fourteen  years  of  age;  and  Marion,  who  is  ten 


ALANSON  P.  WEBBER. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


355 


years  of  age  and  completes  the  family.  The  death 
of  the  husband  and  father  occurred  May  19,  1904, 
after  a  very  brief  illness  and  was  the  occasion  of 
deep  and  widespread  regret.  He  had  served  as 
school  director  and  as  road  commissioner  and 
was  treasurer  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church, 
with  which  he  long  held  membership.  His  life 
was  characterized  by  unfaltering  industry  and  in 
all  relations  he  was  found  true  to  manly  prin- 
ciples and  a  high  standard  of  conduct,  so  that  he 
commanded  the  esteem  and  good  will  of  all  with 
whom  he  was  associated. 


JOHN  D.  BALL. 

John  D.  Ball,  one  of  the  prosperous  and  prom- 
inent residents  of  Marshall  county,  is  living  on 
section  12,  Belle  Plain  township,  where  he  owns 
and  occupies  a  beautiful  residence  about  a  mile 
west  of  Toluca.  He  has  wielded  a  wide  influence 
over  public  life  in  this  community,  manifesting  a 
public  spirited  devotion  to  the  general  good,  and 
in  his  business  interests  has  displayed  a  spirit  of 
progress  and  enterprise  that  have  enabled  him  to 
overcome  all  difficulties  and  obstacles  in  his  path 
and  make  steady  advancement  on  the  highroad  of 
prosperity.  He  was  born  in  Lacon,  Illinois,  in 
1855.  His  father,  Jonas  L.  Ball,  a  native  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, came  from  Hamilton,  Ohio,  to  Marshall 
county,  Illinois,  making  the  journey  on  horseback. 
He  settled  here  at  a  pioneer  epoch  in  the  history 
of  the  county,  taking  up  his  abode  just  west  of 
Toluca,  where  G.  W.  Thomas  now  resides  on  a 
part  of  the  old  homestead.  Mr.  Ball  became  a  very 
extensive  land  owner,  having  at  one  time  fifteen 
hundred  acres,  but  he  divided  his  property  among 
his  children,  giving  to  each  two  hundred  acres 
when  they  attained  their  majority.  He  ever 
utilized  his  opportunities  to  the  best  advantage, 
was  quick  to  recognize  a  chance  for  good  invest- 
ment, and,  moreover,  in  his  daily  life  displayed  a 
spirit  of  industry  and  capable  management  that 
constituted  the  strongest  elements  in  his  success. 
His  political  views  were  in  accord  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  democracy  and  he  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  Antioch  Christian  church,  which  was  after- 
ward removed  to  Toluca.  His  land  lay  just  west 
of  Toluca  about  a  half  mile  and  extended  into 
Belle  Plain  township.  For  four  years  he  served 
as  supervisor,  and  his  devotion  to  the  public  good 
stood  as  an  unquestioned  fact  in  his  life.  He  con- 
tributed to  the  material,  intellectual  and  moral 


progress  of  the  community  through  his  co-opera- 
tion in  affairs  that  had  direct  bearing  upon  the 
welfare  of  the  county  along  those  lines,  and  he 
passed  away  in  1888,  respected  and  honored  by  all 
who  knew  him.  His  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden 
name  of  Elizabeth  C.  Fetter,  was  born  in  Pennsyl- 
vania in  1823,  and  was  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Fetter. 
She  too  held  membership  in  the  Christian  church 
and  was  a  most  estimable  lady.  In  the  family  of 
this  worthy  couple  were  seven  children:  Alice, 
who  died  in  infancy;  William  L.,  also  deceased; 
Charles,  who  died  at  the  age  of  two  years;  Jonas 
T.,  living  west  of  Toluca;  John  D.,  of  this  review; 
Gertrude,  the  wife  of  Sain  Welty,  a  lawyer  of 
Bloomington;  and  George  L.,  who  was  drowned 
in  Senachwine  lake  while  in  bathing  on  a  pleasure 
trip  at  the  age  of  thirty-three  years.  He  left  a 
wife  and  four  children,  the  wife  being  now  Mrs. 
Maria  E.  Ball,  who  is  educating  her  children  in 
Eureka. 

John  D.  Ball  was  provided  with  liberal  educa- 
tional privileges.  He  supplemented  his  early 
training  by  study  in  Eureka  College  at  Eureka, 
Illinois,  and  he  began  farming  on  his  own  account 
in  1875.  He  first  followed  that  occupation  just 
west  of  the  old  home  place  on  a  farm  given  him 
by  his  father.  He  now  has  extensive  property 
holdings,  including  three  hundred  and  forty-five 
acres  of  the  old  homestead,  three  hundred  and 
twenty  acres  in  Oklahoma  and  one  hundred  and 
seventy  acres  in  southwestern  Kansas.  His  prop- 
erty holdings  are  therefore  extensive,  and  return  to 
him  a  very  gratifying  income.  For  the  past  fifteen 
years  he  has  lived  retired  from  active  business  life. 
While  at  La  Rose,  Illinois,  he  was  engaged  in  the 
grain  business  and  also  dealt  in  coal,  lumber,  lime, 
salt,  cement  and  other  similar  commodities.  He 
established  his  store  in  1888  and  sold  out  in  1893. 
He  removed  to  the  town  in  order  to  give  his  chil- 
dren good  educational  privileges,  and  while  re- 
siding there  became  connected  with  its  commercial 
interests. 

Mr.  Ball  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Anna 
M.  Griffin,  who  was  born  in  Pennsylvania,  near 
Pittsburg,  in  1853,  and  is  a  daughter  of  Hamilton 
and  Nancy  Griffin,  both  of  whom  are  now  de- 
ceased. They  were  members  of  the  Cumberland 
Presbyterian  church.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ball 
have  been  born  the  following  named:  Charles, 
who  died  at  the  age  of  two  years ;  L.  Eleta,  living 
at  home;  Ellen  G.,  at  home;  Josie  Fayetta  and 


356 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Jonas  H.,  twins.  The  former  is  attending  the 
Woman's  College  at  Jacksonville,  Illinois,  and  the 
latter  is  studying  scientific  farming  in  the  uni- 
versity at  Champaign. 

Mr.  Ball  is  deeply  interested  in  the  cause  of 
education  and  is  giving  to  his  children  excellent 
opportunities  in  this  direction.  The  local  schools 
have  found  in  him  a  stalwart  champion,  and  for 
twenty-one  years  he  has  served  as  school  director 
and  as  school  trustee.  He  has  also  been  assessor 
of  Belle  Plain  township  for  four  years  and  was 
supervisor  for  three  years.  While  living  in  La 
Eose  he  was  a  member  of  the  village  board  for 
three  years  and  was  president  at  the  time  of  his 
removal  to  the  farm.  In  1904  he  was  the  candi- 
date of  his  party,  the  democratic,  for  state  sena- 
tor, but  was  defeated.  Fraternally  he  is  identified 
with  the  Knights  of  Pythias  lodge,  No.  291,  at 
Lacon,  and  the  Modern  Woodmen  camp  and  the 
Eoyal  Neighbors  of  Toluca.  He  belongs  to  the 
Christian  church,  of  which  he  is  serving  as  trus- 
tee, and  his  interest  in  various  phases  which  con- 
stitute the  general  life  of  the  individual  is  man- 
ifest by  the  hearty  co-operation  which  he  gives  to 
many  movements  for  the  public  good.  He  lives 
in  a  beautiful  home  about  a  mile  west  of  To- 
luca, facing  the  main  public  road.  His  business 
interests  have  been  carefully  managed,  and  though 
he  received  from  his  father  a  good  farm  he  has 
enlarged  his  holdings  and  brought  his  land  under 
a  high  state  of  cultivation.  He  is  seldom  if  ever 
at  error  in  matters  of  business  judgment,  and  his 
carefully  directed  labors  have  brought  to  him  a 
gratifying  measure  of  prosperity.  He  has  never 
concentrated  his  energies,  howeve1'  upon  business 
affairs  to  the  exclusion  of  other  interests,  and,  in 
fact,  in  all  matters  of  citizenship  has  displayed  a 
most  worthy  and  generous  support.  Viewed  from 
a  personal  standpoint  he  is  a  strong  man — strong 
in  his  honor  and  his  good  name,  strong  in  his 
ability  to  plan  and  to  perform  and  in  his  power 
to  achieve  that  which  he  imdertakes. 


ORANGE  A.  AVERILL. 

A  life  of  continuous  and  well  directed  activity 
has  brought  to  Orange  A.  Averill  a  well  merited 
measure  of  success  and  he  is  now  owner  of  a  well 
appointed  hardware  store  in  Hennepin,  from 
which  he  derives  a  good  income,  owing  to  his 
honorable  methods  and  his  earnest  desire  to  please 
his  patrons.  He  was  bom  August  3,  1843,  in  an 


old  house  that  formerly  stood  upon  the  site  of  the 
present  home  of  0.  B.  Davis.  His  father,  Na- 
thaniel Averill,  familiarly  known  all  over  this 
part  of  the  state  as  Uncle  Nat,  was  born  at  Alfred, 
Maine,  June  1,  1819,  and  died  in  Princeton,  No- 
vember 29,  1905.  He  came  to  Hennepin  in  1836, 
casting  in  his  lot  with  the  early  settlers  who  were 
reclaiming  the  region  from  the  influences  of  the 
rule  of  the  Indians  and  converting  it  into  uses  of 
civilization.  Locating  in  Hennepin  he  followed 
the  trade  of  wagon  and  carriage  making,  which  he 
had  previously  learned,  devoting  his  energies  to 
that  pursuit  until  1848,  when  he  removed  to  a 
farm  across  the  line  in  Bureau  county.  He  also 
made  trunks  and  coffins  in  those  early  days,  and 
was  regarded  as  the  best  woodworker  in  this  part 
of  the  state.  He  would  go  into  the  forest  and  get 
out  his  own  timber,  bring  it  home,  dry  it  out  and 
work  it  up  into  wagons  and  buggies.  Some  of  the 
vehicles  which  he  built  were  in  use  forty  years, 
being  splendidly  made.  He  also  made  the  blinds 
for  the  windows  of  the  Union  Grove  church  in 
1840  and  today  those  blinds  are  still  doing  service. 
They  were  made  of  butternut  wood,  and  have  been 
utilized  for  two-thirds  of  a  century.  He  was  close- 
ly associated  with  many  interesting  events  con- 
nected with  the  pioneer  history  of  the  county.  At 
one  time,  in  company  with  Isaac  Cecil,  father  of 
Jasper  Cecil,  whose  sketch  appears  elsewhere  in 
this  work,  he  found  a  nest  of  wild  goose  eggs  in  a 
tree.  He  climbed  the  tree,  put  the  six  eggs  in 
his  shirt,  climbed  down,  took  the  eggs  home  and 
put  them  under  a  setting  hen.  They  were  hatched 
and  grew  to  be  large  geese,  but  one  day  wandered 
away  with  some  wild  geese  that  came  flying  past, 
their  native  instincts  thus  being  asserted.  In 
early  manhood  Nathaniel  Averill  was  married  in 
Granville,  Illinois,  to  Miss  Nancy  Rice,  a  native 
of  Maine,  who  died  in  Hennepin  when  her  son 
Orange  was  but  a  year  and  a  half  old.  The  father 
afterward  wedded  Amelia  Nickerson,  who  came 
with  her  parents  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  at  a 
very  early  day.  She  is  still  living  in  Princeton, 
one  of  the  honored  pioneer  women  of  this  part 
of  the  state,  and  she  can  remember  when  there 
were  five  hundred  Indians  encamped  just  across 
the  river  from  Hennepin.  It  was  in  1848  that 
Nathaniel  Averill  removed  with  his  family  to  a 
farm  of  two  hundred  acres  in  Bureau  county.  Of 
this  about  two  acres  had  been  cleared,  while  the 
remainder  was  covered  with  heavy  timber.  Upon 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


357 


the  place  was  a  large  log  house  with  a  double  fire 
place,  built  by  a  man  of  the  name  of  Nevis,  one 
of  the  early  settlers  of  the  county.  The  house  was 
a  story  and  a  half  in  height  and  was  considered  a 
mansion  for  those  times.  A  house  today  as  large 
as  that  and  built  of  the  same  kind  of  timber 
would  cost  ten  thousand  dollars.  Nathaniel  Aver- 
ill,  with  the  assistance  of  his  son  Orange,  cleared 
and  developed  that  farm  and  the  father  there 
made  his  home  until  1888,  when  he  left  the  farm 
and  retired  to  Princeton,  where  he  passed  away 
November  29,  1905.  His  widow  still  owns  the 
farm,  the  estate  having  never  yet  been  divided. 
Mr.  Averill  belonged  to  what  is  known  today  as 
the  Christian  church.  In  politics  he  was  a  whig 
until  the  dissolution  of  the  party,  and  later  he  be- 
came a  stanch  republican.  For  many  years  he  was 
regarded  as  the  most  popular  man  in  Leepertown 
township,  and  held  office  there  for  over  twenty 
years,  acting  as  supervisor,  assessor,  township  clerk 
and  school  treasurer  all  at  one  lime.  He  was 
greatly  interested  in  everything  pertaining  to  the 
progress  and  development  of  his  community,  and 
he  was  instrumental  in  forcing  the  Chicago,  Rock 
Island  &  Pacific  Railroad  Company  to  pay  its 
taxes,  and  forced  the  company,  while  he  was  asses- 
sor, to  pay  as  it  does  today — sixty  per  cent  of  the 
taxes  of  Leepertown  township.  He  was  a  man  of 
marked  individuality  and  of  strong  and  sterling 
characteristics,  of  unquestioned  honesty  of  pur- 
pose and  most  faithful  in  his  friendships. 

Orange  A.  Averill  was  the  only  child  born  of 
his  father's  first  marriage.  By  the  second  mar- 
riage there  were  five  children :  Mrs.  Helen  Howe, 
who  with  her  two  children  lives  in  Princeton ; 
Caroline,  the  wife  of  James  Reeves,  of  Waco,  Ne- 
braska: Lucy,  who  is  living  in  Peoria,  Illinois; 
Marcella,  who  was  injured  in  a  runaway  accident 
and  died  soon  afterward;  and  Charles  0.,  who 
is  living  on  the  old  home  farm. 

Orange  A.  Averill  remained  at  home  until  Au- 
gust 7,  1861,  when  at  the  age  of  eighteen  years 
he  left  the  parental  roof  and  began  earning  his 
own  living  by  working  as  a  farm  hand  by  the 
month.  In  1862  he  went  to  Chicago,  intending  to 
enlist  in  the  army,  but  on  account  of  his  youth 
his  father  prevented  this.  He  was  not  only  too 
young  but  was  also  under  size.  However,  in  1863 
he  enlisted  for  three  months'  service  as  a  member 
of  Company  B,  One  Hundred  and  Thirty-ninth 
Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  and  on  the  expiration 


of  that  term  he  re-enlisted  in  the  same  regiment 
for  another  three  months'  service.  In  1864  he 
became  a  member  of  Company  E,  One  Hundred 
and  Forty-eighth  Illinois  Infantry,  for  one  year's 
service  or  until  the  close  of  the  war,  and  was  mus- 
tered out  October  28,  1865.  He  went  as  far  south 
as  Chattanooga,  Tennessee,  but  was  never  in  any 
pitched  battles,  although  he  participated  in  sev- 
eral skirmishes.  He  enlisted  as  a  private,  but  be- 
came corporal  before  his  term  expired,  and  while 
at  Springfield,  Illinois,  had  entire  charge  of  the 
company,  being  the  only  member  who  had  seen 
service  or  knew  anything  about  drilling.  He  was 
a  faithful  soldier,  and  the  government  now  grants 
him  a  pension  of  twelve  dollars  per  month.  He 
belongs  to  Hennepin  post,  No.  231,  G.  A.  R., 
in  which  he  has  held  all  of  the  offices. 

At  the  time  he  joined  the  army  Mr.  Averill  was 
learning  the  blacksmith's  trade,  which  he  com- 
pleted after  his  return  from  the  war.  He  then 
followed  the  business  for  thirty-seven  and  a  half 
years.  Ten  years  ago  he  secured  a  small  stock  of 
hardware,  investing  a  capital  not  over  eighty  dol- 
lars. Today  he  carries  a  complete  line  of  hard- 
ware, tools  and  tinware,  his  stock  being  worth  at 
least  three  thousand  dollars.  He  has  enlarged  his 
store  room  from  time  to  time  but  now  finds  it 
hardly  adequate  for  the  increased  line  of  goods 
which  he  carries.  His  trade  has  constantly  grown 
and  his  business  is  today  very  profitable.  He  is 
now  treasurer  and  one  of  the  stockholders  of  the 
Mutual  Telephone  Company  and  is  collector  and 
agent  for  the  National  Co-operative  Burial  Asso- 
ciation. 

In  1870  Mr.  Averill  was  married  to  Miss 
Helena  Deck,  a  native  of  Pennsylvania  and  a 
daughter  of  Adam  Deck,  deceased,  who  came  to 
Hennepin  in  1848.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Averill  now 
have  one  daughter,  Nancy  Florence,  who  was  ed- 
ucated in  the  Hennepin  schools  and  for  four  years 
held  a  position  in  the  office  of  the  Toledo,  Peoria 
&  Warsaw  Railroad  at  Peoria.  She  is  now  at 
home  with  her  parents  and  gives  music  lessons, 
being  a  fine  musician.  She  is  also  a  seamstress 
of  acknowledged  ability. 

Mr.  Averill,  since  age  conferred  upon  him  the 
right  of  franchise,  has  been  a  supporter  of  the 
republican  party  and  has  served  as  city  alderman 
and  as  city  clerk.  Few  men  in  this  part  of  the 
state  have  a  wider  acquaintance  or  are  more 
favorably  known  than  Orange  A.  Averill,  who  was 


358 


PAST   AND   PEESBNT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


born  in  the  city  which  is  yet  his  home  and  which 
has  been  his  place  of  residence  throughout  the 
greater  part  of  his  life.  He  relates  many  inter- 
esting reminiscences  of  pioneer  times.  He  tells 
that  on  one  occasion,  when  the  family  were  living 
upon  the  farm  in  Bureau  county,  the  year  1849 
being  memorable  for  the  highest  water  ever  known, 
a  man  running  a  mill — one  of  the  oldest  in  the 
county — saw  something  coming  down  stream.  He 
called  the  settlers  together  and  with  pike  poles 
they  succeeded  in  landing  a  Mississippi  catfish 
that  had  come  down  from  above  and  was  making 
its  way  to  the  Illinois  river.  They  took  it  ashore, 
two  men  over  six  feet  tall  carrying  it  on  their 
shoulders  with  a  pole  through  the  gills,  and  the 
tail  of  the  fish  dragged  on  the  ground.  It  weighed 
about  one  hundred  and  forty  pounds.  Mr.  Aver- 
ill's  memory  compasses  the  period  when  the  great 
majority  of  the  homes  were  log  cabins  and  when 
the  work  of  clearing  and  developing  the  land  had 
scarcely  been  begun.  The  years  have  wrought 
many  changes,  and  he  rejoices  in  what  has  been 
accomplished  and  at  all  times  has  borne  his  full 
share  in  the  work  of  progress  in  his  community. 


ORRIN  FRISBEY. 

When  the  tocsin  of  war  sounded  and  men  from 
all  walks  of  life  responded  to  the  country's  call 
in  order  to  aid  in  the  preservation  of  the  Union 
Mr.  Frisbey  was  among  the  number  and  is  there- 
fore now  classed  with  the  honored  veterans  of  the 
Civil  war.  He  is,  moreover,  one  who  has  made 
steady  progress  in  the  business  world  and  al- 
though he  started  out  in  life  empty-handed  he  is 
now  the  owner  of  two  hundred  and  eighty  acres 
of  excellent  farming  land  in  Steuben  township. 
He  was  born  on  the  canal  about  twenty-four  miles 
south  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  May  4,  1840,  and  is 
one  of  the  three  children  of  Russell  M.  and  Rosa- 
linda (Johnson)  Frisbey.  The  father  was  born 
in  Middletown,  Vermont,  in  1812,  and  the  moth- 
er's birth  occurred  there  on  the  4th  of  June  of 
the  same  year.  They  were  married  in  1831  and 
in  1843  came  to  Illinois.  Mr.  Frisbey  was  a  far- 
mer and  prospered  in  his  undertakings,  owning  at 
the  time  of  his  death  three  hundred  and  twenty 
acres  of  rich  and  valuable  land.  He  also  operated 
a  coal  drift  for  about  fifteen  years  and  thus  added 
materially  to  his  income.  He  voted  with  the  re- 
publican party  and  was  unfaltering  in  his  support 
of  its  principles.  He  died  in  1898,  while  his  wife 


passed  away  in  1887.  She  was  a  very  devout 
member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church.  Of 
their  children  Edwin  married  Rachel  J.  Osborne 
and  lives  in  this  township,  while  Louis  died  at  the 
age  of  fourteen  years. 

Orrin  Frisbey,  the  other  member  of  the  family, 
was  only  about  three  years  old  when  brought  by 
his  parents  to  Marshall  county.  His  childhood 
days  were  accordingly  passed  in  Steuben  township 
and  he  attended  the  Central  district  school.  In 
his  youth  he  aided  in  the  work  of  the  home  farm 
and  in  1861,  on  attaining  his  majority,  he  started 
out  in  life  on  his  own  account,  having  but  one 
horse.  His  patriotic  spirit  was  aroused  by  the 
continued  attempt  of  the  south  to  overthrow  the 
Union  and  on  the  14th  of  August,  1862,  he  joined 
the  boys  in  blue  of  Company  E,  Eighty-sixth  Illi- 
nois Infantry,  with  which  he  served  continuously 
until  honorably  discharged  in  Washington,  D.  C., 
June  6,  1865.  He  participated  in  about  thirty 
battles  but  was  never  wounded,  although  he  was 
often  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight  and  displayed 
marked  bravery  on  many  a  battle-field.  Since  his 
return  from  the  war  he  has  given  his  attention  to 
general  agricultural  pursuits  and  he  spent  the 
years  1877-79  farming  on  contract  for  Mr.  Greno 
in  Ellsworth  county,  Kansas.  He  has  made  steady 
progress  in  his  business  life,  being  now  the  owner 
of  two  hundred  and  eighty  acres  of  rich  and  prod- 
uctive land  on  sections  15,  16  and  18,  Steuben 
township. 

Mr.  Frisbey  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Stephen- 
son,  who  was  born  in  Dunnville,  Canada,  March 
10,  1846.  In  her  early  girlhood,  however,  she 
was  brought  to  Illinois  and  was  reared  in  Wood- 
ford  county  until  the  removal  of  the  family  to 
Steuben  township,  Marshall  county,  where  she 
has  since  lived.  After  her  marriage  her  parents 
moved  to  New  Jersey,  where  her  father  died.  Her 
father,  James  Stephenson,  was  born  near  New 
Castle,  England,  November  4,  1812,  and  was  an 
engineer  and  a  school  teacher,  following  the  lat- 
ter profession  for  several  years.  He  was  married 
in  1841  in  Chippewa,  Canada,  to  Miss  Maria  Mer- 
riam,  who  was  born  in  Otsego  county,  New  York,i 
in  1817,  and  was  four  years  old  when  her  people 
removed  to  Canada.  In  1850  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ste- 
phenson came  to  Illinois,  settling  in  Woociiord 
county,  and  in  March,  1864,  removed  to  Marshall 
county.  In  1866  they  became  residents  of  New 
Jersey,  where  Mr.  Stephenson  died  in  1869.  His 


PAST    AND    PltKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


widow  and  her  younger  children  then  returned 
to  Steuben  township,  Marshall  county,  Illinois. 
In  politics  Mr.  Stephenson  was  a  stalwart  re- 
publican, giving  unfaltering  support  to  the  party. 
His  wife  was  a  member  of  the  Methodist  church. 
Their  children  were:  Mrs.  Clara  Tarbell,  who 
lived  in  Chicago  and  died  August  28,  1905,  at 
the  age  of  sixty-one  years;  Mary,  now  Mrs. 
Frisbey ;  Joe,  a  carpenter  by  trade,  living  in  Des 
Moines,  Iowa ;  Mrs.  Ellen  Kiddle,  who  is  living  on 
a  farm  in  La  Prairie  township,  Marshall  county; 
Andrew,  who  wedded  Julia  Root  and  is  professor 
of  history  in  De  Pauw  College  in  Green  Castle, 
Indiana;  Mrs.  Caroline  Dunlap,  residing  in  Spar- 
land;  Maria,  the  wife  of  Edwin  Eoot,  of  Des 
Moines,  Iowa ;  and  Alice,  who  died  in  infancy. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Frisbey  have  been  born  five 
children :  W.  S.,  who  was  drowned  while  in  bath- 
ing in  Wisconsin,  at  which  time  he  was  in  the 
employ  of  G.  A.  Ogle,  a  publisher  of  Chicago; 
James,  who  died  when  about  six  years  old  and 
who  had  a  twin  brother  who  lived  but  a  short 
time;  E.  M.,  who  married  Jessie  Dunn  and  is  en- 
gaged in  the  drug  business  in  Mattoon,  Illinois; 
and  Clara  L.,  the  wife  of  Vernie  Ketchum,  a 
farmer  of  Whitefield  township,  Marshall  county. 

Mr.  Frisbey  has  been  an  unfaltering  advocate 
of  the  republican  party  since  age  conferred  upon 
him  the  right  of  franchise  and  he  keeps  well  in- 
formed on  questions  and  issues  of  the  day,  yet 
has  never  been  an  office  seeker,  preferring  to  con- 
centrate his  energies  upon  his  business  affairs, 
in  which  he  has  met  with  gratifying  success. 


OTTO  WEBER. 

Otto  Weber,  who  is  successfully  operating  the 
Hegeler  farm  on  section  19,  Hennepin  township, 
consisting  of  two  hundred  and  forty  acres,  is  a 
native  of  Hesse,  Germany,  born  on  the  13th  of 
March,  1853,  and  was  nineteen  years  of  age  when 
he  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  become  a  resident  of  the 
new  world.  Locating  in  Putnam  county,  Illinois, 
he  went  to  work  by  the  month  on  a  farm  north  of 
Granville,  where  he  was  in  the  employ  of  John 
Brenneman  for  three  years.  On  the  expiration  of 
that  period  he  rented  a  farm  and  has  engaged  in 
agricultural  pursuits  on  his  own  account  ever 
since.  He  has  lived  upon  his  present  place  for 
about  twenty  years  and  has  met  with  excellent  suc- 
cess- in  his  farming  operations.  He  recently  pur- 


chased a  large  farm  in  Missouri  but  does  not  ex- 
pect to  remove  to  that  state,  being  satisfied  with 
Illinois  as  a  place  of  residence. 

In  the  family  of  Mr.  Weber  are  four  children, 
namely:  Walter,  Blanch,  Max  and  Butt.  Mr. 
Weber  was  reared  in  the  Catholic  faith,  but  is 
not  connected  with  any  church  at  the  present 
time.  Politically  he  is  independent,  supporting 
the  men  and  measures  that  he  believes  calculated 
to  promote  the  best  interests  of  the  country.  He 
takes  a  commendable  interest  in  public  affairs 
and  is  a  man  highly  respected  and  esteemed  by  all 
who  know  him. 


MRS.  ALVINA  SCHUMACHER. 

Mrs.  Alvina  Schumacher  owns  and  occupies  an 
excellent  farm  on  section  2,  Richland  township, 
Marshall  county.  She  was  born  in  Germany,  in 
1863,  and  her  parents  were  likewise  natives  of 
Germany.-  The  father,  who  was  born  in  1826, 
died  in  that  country  in  1897,  and  the  mother  is 
still  living  there  at  the  age  of  seventy-one  years. 
In  the  family  were  seven  daughters,  two  of  whom 
are  yet  residents  of  the  fatherland,  while  all  are 
still  living. 

Mrs.  Schumacher  spent  her  girlhood  days  in  her 
parents'  home  and  was  there  trained  to  the  duties 
of  the  household,  so  that  she  was  well  qualified 
to  take  charge  of  a  home  of  her  own  at  the  time 
of  her  marriage'  to  Ernest  Schumacher.  Her  hus- 
band was  also  a  native  of  Germany,  born  in  1847, 
and  came  to  America  when  ten  years  of  age. 
Their  wedding  was  celebrated  in  1885  and  they 
removed  to  the  farm  on  section  2,  Richland  town- 
ship, where  the  widow  now  resides.  Their  entire 
married  life  was  spent  upon  this  farm  and  Mr. 
Schumacher  continuously  engaged  in  its  cultiva- 
tion and  development,  his  labors  making  his  fields 
very  productive,  while  his  progressive  spirit 
prompted  him  to  place  many  valuable  improve- 
ments upon  the  farm  in  the  way  of  substantial 
buildings  and  good  machinery.  He  continued 
actively  in  farm  work  until  1901,  when  he  was 
called  to  his  final  rest. 

Mr.  Schumacher  was  twice  married,  his  first 
wife  being  Julia  Clark,  by  whom  he  had  two 
children,  Adolph  and  Ernest,  both  of  whom  were 
reared  by  his  second  wife.  Unto  the  second  mar- 
riage have  been  born  five  children:  Walter,  who 
is  living  in  Wenona,  Illinois,  where  he  is  en- 
gaged in  the  grain  business ;  Gerhardt,  who  is 


360 


PAST   AND   PBE'SENT   OP   MAESHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


living  at  home  and  operates  the  farm  in  connec- 
tion with  his  brother  George,  who  is  the  third 
member  of  the  family;  and  Alma  and  Irvin,  who 
are  also  under  the  parental  roof.  Mr.  Schu- 
macher -was  a  faithful  member  of  the  German 
Lutheran  church,  to  which  Mrs.  Schumacher  also 
belongs.  He  left  to  his  family  a  good  property  of 
one  hundred  and  seventy  acres  and  this  is  one  of 
the  attractive  farms  of  the  community,  lacking  in 
none  of  the  equipments  and  accessories  of  a  model 
farm  property  of  the  twentieth  century.  Mrs. 
Schumacher  has  lived  here  continuously  since  her 
marriage  in  1885  and  is  well  known  in  the  neigh- 
borhood as  a  lady  worthy  of  the  highest  regard 
of  friends  and  neighbors. 


HENEY  M.   STOUPFEE. 

Henry  M.  Stouffer  is  one  of  the  most  venerable 
and  one  of  the  most  respected  citizens  of  Henne- 
pin  and  Putnam  county.  He  is  still  an  active 
man,  and  although  he  has  passed  the  eighty-fourth 
anniversary  of  his  birth,  in  spirit  and  interest 
seems  yet  in  his  prime.  He  was  born  in  Juniata 
county,  Pennsylvania,  September  29,  1822,  and 
many  a  man  of  but  half  his  years  has  not  his 
sprightliness  nor  energy.  His  parents  were  John 
and  Nancy  (Markley)  Stouffer,  and  the  father 
was  born  in  Chester  county,  Pennsylvania,  about 
the  year  1800,  and  died  in  Juniata  county  in  186o> 
when  sixty-five  years  of  age.  He  was  a  carpenter 
by  trade  and  followed  that  pursuit  throughout  his 
entire  business  life.  His  wife,  also  a  native  of  the 
Keystone  state,  died  about  a  year  after  her  hus- 
band's death,  when  sixty-four  years  of  age.  In 
their  family  were  eleven  children,  of  whom  three 
died  in  infancy,  while  eight  reached  adult  age.  For 
over  fifty  years  there  was  not  a  death  in  the  fam- 
ily. Six  of  the  number  are  yet  living. 

Henry  M.  Stouffer  is  the  eldest  of  the  surviving 
members  of  the  family.  His  educational  privileges 
were  very  meager,  for  when  he  was  only  twelve 
years  of  age  he  began  earning  his  own  living, 
learning  the  printer's  trade,  at  which  he  worked 
for  four  years.  He  walked  from  Lebanon,  Penn- 
sylvania, to  Beading,  that  state,  and  obtained  em- 
ployment in  one  of  the  largest  printing  offices  in 
Philadelphia,  but  when  he  had  worked  there  for 
only  ten  days  he  became  disgusted  and  returned 
home,  telling  his  father  that  he  must  either  teach 
him  the  carpenter's  trade  or  give  him  an  educa- 
tion. Not  being  able  to  afford  his  son  the  school 


advantages  desired,  nor  wishing  him  to  learn  the 
carpenter's  trade,  the  father  advised  him  to  master 
some  other  pursuit,  and  for  the  next  four  years 
he  devoted  his  energies  to  the  silversmith's  trade 
and  became  an  adept  at  making  and  repairing 
clocks  and  watches.  He  also  learned  to  make 
levels  and  all  kinds  of  delicate  instruments  used 
by  surgeons.  Deciding  to  become  a  teacher,  he 
took  up  the  study  of  arithmetic  and  'grammar, 
passed  a  creditable  examination  and  then  began 
teaching. 

While  thus  engaged  Mr.  Stouffer  was  married, 
and  after  teaching  for  about  four  years  he  decided 
to  study  medicine.  Accordingly  he  entered  the 
Physio-Medical  College  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in 
1850,  but  soon  his  funds  were  exhausted  and  he 
had  to  return  to  teaching  in  order  to  get  money  to 
complete  his  medical  course.  While  again  busy 
in  the  schoolroom  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  medical  profession  was  overcrowded,  there 
being  four  physicians  in  his  little  town  of  four  or 
five  hundred  people.  He  continued  to  study  and 
teach,  however,  until  1870,  when  he  came  to  Hen- 
nepin.  His  uncle,  David  Markley,  had  engaged  in 
the  hardware  business  in  Hennepin,  having  the 
first  store  of  the  kind  in  the  town,  and  a  brother 
of  our  subject  was  employed  in  the  tinner's  de- 
partment of  this  store.  The  uncle  died,  and  at 
the  solicitation  of  his  brother  Mr.  Stouffer  came 
to  Hennepin  and  took  charge  of  the  business  in 
1870.  The  next  year  the  family  came,  and  he 
has  since  made  his  home  in  this  town.  He  con- 
tinued in  idle  hardware  business  for  about  seven 
years  and  then  sold  out,  after  which  he  again 
engaged  in  teaching  school  for  several  years  in 
Putnam  county.  He  has  always  been  an  indus- 
trious man  and  has  accumulated  a  goodly  compe- 
tence. He  owns  a  nice  home  and  four  lots  in 
Hennepin,  also  a  good  farm  of  eighty  acres  two 
miles  north  of  the  town.  Until  three  years  ago 
he  did  a  great  deal  of  work  on  his  piece  of  ground 
in  the  city  and  had  fine  gardens,  but  he  now  rents 
this  property.  He  works,  however,  from  five  until 
eight  o'clock  each  morning,  and  by  no  means 
leads  an  idle  or  useless  life. 

Mr.  Stouffer  was  converted  and  became  a  Chris- 
tian in  1840,  at  that  time  identifying  himself  with 
the  United  Brethren  church.  He  soon  afterward 
left  the  church,  however,  and  has  not  joined  any 
other  denomination,  yet  has  always  been  a  great 
student  of  the  Bible,  and  often  puzzles  able  min- 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


363 


isters  and  teachers  in  the  churches  through  his 
comprehensive  understanding  of  the  Scriptures. 
He  attends  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and 
teaches  a  class  in  the  Sunday-school.  He  prefers 
to  be  judged  by  his  life,  not  by  any  professions 
that  he  may  make,  and  at  all  times  he  has  walked 
in  the  way  of  uprightness  and  of  peace. 

Mr.  Stouffer  was  married  in  1846  to  Miss  Susan 
Moltz,  who  was  born  in  Pennsylvania  and  was  six 
months  her  husband's  senior.  She  lived  to  be 
seventy-two  years  of  age  and  passed  away  at  their 
home  in  Hennepin.  They  were  the  parents  of  six 
children :  Ann,  now  the  wife  of  Henry  Maxwell, 
a  resident  of  Sparland,  Illinois;  John  W.,  who 
married  a  daughter  of  William  Allen,  and  lives  in 
Hennepin ;  Marion,  the  wife  of  Jason  Ranch,  who 
is  living  near  Lincoln,  Nebraska;  Sadie  J.,  at 
home;  Mrs.  Emma  Hoffman,  who  died  at  Boulder 
Colorado ;  and  George  W.,  who  married  Edith 
Johnson  and  lives  at  Princeton,  Illinois. 

Mr.  Stouffer  certainly  deserves  great  credit  for 
what  he  has  accomplished  in  life.  He  is  now  a 
man  of  broad  general  information  and  strong 
mentality.  His  knowledge  has  been  acquired 
solely  through  his  study  in  his  leisure  hours, 
through  observation  and  experience.  He  is  also 
a  fine  penman  and  once  gained  a  first  prize  in  a 
penmanship  contest  in  Pennsylvania.  For  three 
years  he  preached  for  the  Protestant  Methodist 
congregation  at  Spring  Valley,  often  going  to 
that  place  on  skates  on  the  ice.  Few  theologians 
are  better  informed  concerning  the  Bible,  and 
many  of  them  have  much  less  knowledge  of  the 
subject  than  Mr.  Stouffer.  In  his  life  he  ex- 
emplifies his  faith  and  belief,  being  upright  and 
honorable  at  all  times  and  straightforward  in  all 
of  his  relations  with  his  fellowmen.  In  politics 
he  has  always  been  a  republican,  and  he  twice 
served  as  justice  of  the  peace.  In  his  business 
affairs  he  has  manifested  the  diligence  and  per- 
severance which  are  always  essential  elements  to 
prosperity.  

HENRY  C.  CROOKS. 

Henry  C.  Crooks  and  owns  and  operates  a  farm 
of  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  acres  which  is 
pleasantly  located  on  section  24,  Lacon  township, 
.•ilxuit  ;i  mile  and  a  half  north  of  Lacon.  A  native 
of  Maryland,  he  was  born  in  1845,  and  is  a  son 
of  Richard  and  Maria  (Sowers)  Crooks,  who  are 
also  natives  of  that  state,  the  father  having  been 


born  in  1816  and  the  mother  in  1820.  Mr.  Crooks 
was  a  blacksmith  by  trade  and  devoted  his  time 
and  attention  to  that  work  during  the  greater 
part  of  his  life.  He  died  in  1892,  having  long 
survived  his  wife,  who  passed  away  in  1866.  They 
were  the  parents  of  nine  children,  the  brothers 
and  sisters  of  our  subject  being  Mrs.  Catherine 
Musgrove,  who  is  living  in  Maryland;  George,  who 
was  born  in  1849  and  died  in  1886 ;  Winfield,  who 
was  born  in  1852;  Amanda,  a  resident  of  How- 
ard county,  Maryland ;  Anna,  who  is  living  in  the 
same  county;  Susanna,  who  died  in  1891;  Robert, 
who  died  in  infancy;  and  Mrs.  Sarah  Yater,  liv- 
ing in  Baltimore,  Maryland. 

Henry  C.  Crooks  spent  his  childhood  and  youth 
in  the  state  of  his  nativity  and  was  twenty-four 
years  of  age  when  he  came  to  Illinois,  first  lo- 
cating in  Marshall  county.  He  has  always  fol- 
lowed fanning  and  worked  by  the  month  as  a 
farm  hand  for  two  years,  when  he  resolved  that 
his  labors  should  more  directly  benefit  himself 
and  began  farming  on  his  own  account.  He 
started  out  with  nothing,  but  instead  of  capital 
he  possessed  energy,  determination  and  resolute 
purpose  and  as  the  result  of  his  careful  conduct  of 
his  business  interests  and  his  unfaltering  dili- 
gence he  is  today  the  owner  of  one  hundred  and 
sixty-seven  acres  of  good  land  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  north  of  Lacon.  His  farm  is  well  culti- 
vated and  has  upon  it  good  buildings  and  other 
substantial  improvements. 

In  1871,  in  Hopewell  township,  Marshall 
county,  Mr.  Crooks  was  married  to  Miss  Delia 
Westbrook,  who  was  born  near  Rome,  in  Adams 
county,  Ohio,  in  1851,  a  daughter  of  J.  R.  and 
Elizabeth  Westbrook.  The  other  members  of  her 
parents'  family  were  Albert,  who  married  Sadie 
Cole  and  is  now  engaged  in  farming  in  Gentry 
county,  Missouri ;  Lina,  the  wife  of  William  Hall, 
a  resident  farmer  of  the  same  county;  Joseph, 
who  married  Rose  Collier  and  lives  in  Lincoln- 
ville,  Marion  county,  Kansas ;  Jennie,  the  wife  of 
James  Jordan,  a  real-estate  dealer  at  Los  Angeles, 
California;  and  William,  who  married  Benena 
Cox  and  is  farming  at  Rush  Springs,  Indian  Ter- 
ritory. 

Mrs.  Crooks  acquired  her  education  in  the 
schools  of  Ohio  and  came  with  her  parents  to 
Illinois  in  1865,  the  family  home  being  estab- 
lished in  Woodford  county,  whence  they  removed 
to  Marshall  county  in  1869.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Crooks 


364 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


have  no  children  of  their  own,  but  have  an  adopted 
son,  Perry,  now  sixteen  years  of  age.  Mrs.  Crooks 
belongs  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and 
Mr.  Crooks  is  fraternally  connected  with  the  Odd 
Fellows.  Since  coming  to  Illinois  he  has  made 
steady  progress  in  his  business  career  and  each  for- 
ward step  has  been  carefully  and  thoughtfully 
made.  There  have  been  few  mistakes  in  his  busi- 
ness life  and  on  the  contrary  he  has  displayed  a 
keen  discernment  and  ready  recognition  of  op- 
portunity whereby  he  has  won  a  gratifying  meas- 
ure of  success. 


AUGUSTUS  GAERETT. 

Augustus  Garrett  has  been  an  active  factor  in 
public  life  in  Steuben  township  and  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  was  actively  engaged  in  general 
farming  there  on  section  17,  but  in  the  fall  of 
1906  removed  to  Lacon,  where  he  is  now  living 
a  retired  life.  He  was  born  in  Steuben  township 
in  1859.  His  father,  Amasa  Garrett,  was  one 
of  the  best  known,  most  honored  and  most  pop- 
ular residents  of  this  portion  of  the  state  and 
his  long  service  as  justice  of  the  peace  led  him 
to  be  always  known  by  the  title  of  squire.  His 
birth  occurred  in  Washington  county,  Ohio, 
April  14,  1818,  and  his  father,  who  was  of 
French  ancestry,  was  a  pioneer  of  that  state.  In 
1836  the  family  removed  to  Bureau  county,  lo- 
cating in  that  section  which  was  then  a  part  of 
Putnam  county  and  subsequently  the  father  took 
up  his  abode  at  Bulbona  Grove  near  the  present 
village  of  Wyanet  in  Bureau  county. 

In  early  life  Amasa  Garrett  began  trading  in 
furs  and  continued  in  that  business  for  a  num- 
ber of  years,  but  later  engaged  in  buying  and 
shipping  cattle,  which  were  largely  sent  to  the 
Chicago  markets.  He  also  became  an  agent  for 
the  location  and  sale  of  land  lying  in  the  mili- 
tary tract  of  Illinois  and,  making  the  subject 
of  titles  a  study,  became  a  recognized  authority 
on  this  subject.  His  operations  extended  over  a 
radius  of  forty  miles  and  within  that  distance 
he  invested  in  military  lands,  owning  at  one  time 
about  one  thousand  acres.  When  these  lands 
were  mostly  disposed  of  by  the  government  he 
turned  his  attention  to  his  farming  interests  and 
confined  his  attention  to  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil  and  raising  stock.  He  raised  cattle  and  hogs 
of  high  grades  and  became  one  of  the  most  ex- 
tensive farmers  of  Steuben  township  and  Mar- 


shall county.  Although  he  started  out  in  life 
without  capital,  dependent  entirely  upon  his  own 
resources  and  business  ability,  he  owned  at  the 
time  of  his  death  about  one  thousand  acres.  He 
drove  cattle  across  the  country  to  Chicago  and 
shipped  to  St.  Louis  by  way  of  the  river.  His 
political  support  was  given  to  the  democracy  and 
for  many  years  he  served  as  justice  of  the  peace, 
while  for  sixteen  years  he  was  supervisor  from 
Steuben  township,  his  long  continued  sendee  be- 
ing indicative  of  the  confidence  and  trust  re- 
posed in  him  by  his  fellow  townsmen.  A  great 
admirer  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  he  followed  the 
fortunes  of  that  statesman  until  his  death  and 
served  as  a  delegate  in  the  Baltimore  convention 
which  nominated  Douglas  for  the  presidency.  He 
was  usually  a  delegate  to  the  district,  county 
and  state  conventions  and  his  opinions  carried 
weight  and  influence,  often  proving  a  decisive 
factor  in  the  setttlement  of  political  questions. 

Amasa  Garrett  was  married  at  Lacon,  Feb- 
ruary 20,  1848,  to  Miss  Sarah  A.  Orr,  who  was 
born  in  Maryland,  a  daughter  of  James  and 
Sarah  (Ramsey)  Orr,  both  natives  of  Maryland, 
whence  they  removed  to  Marshall  county,  Illi- 
nois, when  their  daughter  was  eight  years  of  age. 
Mr.  Orr,  who  was  a  farmer,  entered  land  a  mile 
and  a  half  from  the  village  of  Lacon  in  Lacon 
township  and  proceeded  to  improve  the  farm, 
which  in  course  of  time  became  one  of  the  best 
cultivated  tracts  of  land  in  the  county.  Mrs. 
Garrett  was  one  of  the  younger  members  of  a 
family  of  six  children  and  as  a  bride  she  went 
with  her  husband  to  a  farm  in  the  Bethel  neigh- 
borhood of  Marshall  county,  which  he  had  pur- 
chased. There  they  resided  for  twelve  years, 
after  which  they  removed  to  Steuben  township, 
where  they  reared  their  family  of  five  chil- 
dren. James  0.,  the  oldest,  who  for  some  time 
was  in  the  government  employ  and  was  one  of 
the  famous  "101"  in  the  Springfield  legislature, 
is  now  living  in  Peoria,  Illinois ;  Josephine  be- 
came the  wife  of  Samuel  McFarland  and  both 
died,  leaving  two  children.  Augustus  is  the 
next  of  the  family.  Clara  is  deceased,  and  Alli- 
son is  a  retired  farmer  living  in  Sparland. 

Augustus  Garrett  spent  his  childhood  days  in 
Steuben  township  and  attended  the  Senachwine 
district  school  prior  to  entering  the  Sparland 
high  school,  where  he  remained  as  a  student  for 
three  years.  His  education  completed,  he  turned 


PAST    AND    I'K'KSKNT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    I'LTNAM    < 'OLNTI KS. 


365 


hjs  attention  to  general  agricultural  pursuits, 
which  he  continuously  followed  until  the  fall  of 
1906,  when  he  retired  from  active  business  life 
and  took  up  his  abode  in  Lacon.  He  still  owns 
two  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  land  in  Steuben 
township,  which  is  valuable  property  and  yields 
to  him  a  gratifying  income. 

On  the  17th  of  October,  1893,  Mr.  Garrett  was 
married  to  Miss  Electa  Sargent  and  unto  them 
have  been  born  four  children:  Millie,  Marie, 
Ella  and  Amasa,  all  at  home.  In  his  political 
views  Mr.  Garrett  is  a  stalwart  democrat  and  has 
served  as  supervisor  of  Steuben  township  for  the 
past  six  years,  but  on  account  of  ill  health  has 
resigned.  He  has  held  a  number  of  other  local 
offices  and  he  belongs  to  the  Masonic  lodge  of 
Sparland  and  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 
The  Garrett  family  has  long  been  a  prominent, 
influential  and  prosperous  one  in  this  part  of  the 
county  and  the  life  record  of  Augustus  Garrett 
is  in  harmony  with  that  of  other  members  of  the 
family,  who  are  accounted  leading  and  valued 


GEOEGE  EITHMILLER. 

George  Eithmiller  is  the  owner  of  seven  hun- 
dred acres  of  valuable  land,  from  which  he  de- 
rives an  excellent  income  that  now  enables  him 
to  live  retired.  Few  men  can  show  a  more  cred- 
itable record.  A  man's  success  is  not  measured 
by  his  possessions,  but  is  determined  by  the  abil- 
ity and  energy  that  he  shows  in  working  his  way 
from  a  lowly  position  to  one  of  prominence  and 
affluence.  In  the  early  years  of  his  residence  in 
America.  Mr.  Rithmiller  encountered  many  diffi- 
culties and  obstacles.  Having  come  to  the  United 
States  empty-handed,  the  language  and  customs 
of  the  people  being  unfamiliar  to  him,  he  never- 
theless by  determined  and  unfaltering  purpose 
worked  his  way  upward,  making  a  business  rec- 
ord which  any  man  might  be  proud  to  possess. 

Born  in  Wurtemberg,  Germany,  March  15,  1833, 
he  was  a  son  of  George  and  Christina  (Frey) 
Eithmiller,  who  were  likewise  natives  of  that  coun- 
try. The  father,  who  was  born,  in  1796,  engaged 
in  farming  in  Germany  on  a  small  farm  and 
passed  away  there  in  1866,  when  about  seventy 
years  of  age.  In  the  family  were  four  children 
of  whom  Jacob  and  Gotfried  are  both  now  de- 
ceased, while  the  daughter,  Mrs.  Anna  Maria 
Feazle,  has  also  passed  away. 


George  Eithmiller  is  thus  the  only  surviving 
me*"aDer  of  the  family.  He  spent  the  period  of 
his  I'oyhood  and  youth  in  his  native  country  and 
in  1854  came  to  America,  hoping  that  he  might 
have  better  business  opportunities  in  the  new 
world.  Accordingly  he  crossed  the  Atlantic,  land- 
ing at  New  York  on  the  26th  of  July  from  the 
sailing  vessel  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  which  was  seven 
weeks  in  crossing  the  Atlantic  at  that  time.  Mr. 
Eithmiller  did  not  remain  long  in  the  eastern 
metropolis,  but  continued  on  his  journey  to  Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio,  in  company  with  a  friend  by  the 
name  of  Gampler.  His  friend  was  a  baker  anl 
soon  obtained  a  situation,  but  Mr.  Eithmiller  was 
less  fortunate  and  during  the  first  year  after  his 
arrival  in  America  he  found  it  very  difficult  to 
secure  work.  He  was  employed  in  a  hotel  when 
a  certain  man  wanted  to  know  if  there  was  a  raw 
Dutchman  there  who  desired  a  position,  saying 
that  he  had  heard  they  were  good  workers.  Mr. 
Rithmiller  desired  the  job  and  wanted  to  know 
what  was  expected  of  him.  He  was  told  that  he 
must  wheel  mud  to  make  eight  thousand  bricks  per 
day  and  that  the  pay  would  be  a  dollar  and  a  half 
per  day,  which  was  considered  good  wages  at  that 
time,  but  there  was  considerable  danger  attached 
to  the  work  and  Mr.  Eithmiller's  friend  objected 
to  him  accepting  the  position.  About  eight  miles 
from  Cincinnati  he  secured  work  in  a  starch  fac- 
tory for  fifty  cents  per  day  and  boarded  himself. 
Later  he  was  employed  at  Cottage  Hill  at  ten 
dollars  per  month  with  board,  and  while  thus  en- 
gaged he  managed  to  save  about  seventy  dollars. 
He  was  then  told  by  a  friend  that  he  could  obtain 
a  good  situation  in  Cincinnati  and  he  went  to  the 
city,  where  all  of  his  funds  became  exhausted 
while  he  was  seeking  employment  there.  He  then 
borrowed  money  in  order  to  go  to  Indiana  and 
from  that  state  later  came  to  Illinois,  making  his 
way  to  Bennington  township,  Marshall  county. 
This  proved  to  be  the  turning  in  the  tide  of  his 
affairs  and  during  his  residence  in  this  county 
he  has  continuously  prospered.  At  length  when 
his  labors  had  brought  him  some  capital  he  in- 
vested in  land  and  began  farming  on  his  own  ac- 
count. He  placed  his  fields  under  cultivation  and 
his  crops  brought  him  a  good  financial  return. 
He  did  the  first  tiling  in  Bennington  township  in 
1877.  As  the  years  passed  by  he  kept  adding  to 
his  land  until  he  has  accumulated  a  goodly  for- 
tune in  Marshall  county,  being  now  the  owner  of 


VAST    AM)    I'KKSKVF    OF    MARSHALL    AND    PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


seven  hundred  acres  of  the  rich  farming  land  of 
Illinois,  which  is  equal  to  any  in  this  great  land 
of  ours  for  the  production  of  crops.  In  1901  he 
went  to  Oklahoma  and  purchased  three  hundred 
and  twenty  acres  of  land,  which  has  since  dou- 
bled in  value. 

In  1858  Mr.  Kithmiller  was  married  to  Miss 
Sarah  Shilling,  who  was  born  in  New  Jersey  and 
in  her  early  girlhood  became  a  resident  of  Ohio, 
while  later  she  went  to  Indiana.  They  were  mar- 
ried at  Clarksburg,  Indiana,  and  remained  in  that 
state  for  about  nine  years,  after  which  they  came 
to  Illinois,  locating  about  four  miles  south  of 
Toluca  in  Bennington  township.  For  many  years 
thereafter  Mr.  Eithmiller  was  continuously  en- 
gaged in  general  farming,  but  is  now  practically 
living  retired,  merely  giving  his  supervision  to 
his  landed  interests.  He  makes  his  home  in  the 
village  of  Toluca  and  derives  an  excellent  income 
from  his  property,  which  comprises  seven  hun- 
dred acres.  He  is  the  oldest  representative  of  the 
Masonic  fraternity  in  this  locality,  having  joined 
the  order  in  1856,  and  throughout  his  life  he  has 
exemplified  its  beneficent  spirit.  The  success 
which  Mr.  Eithmiller  has  achieved  seems  mar- 
velous when  we  remember  how  he  started  in  life 
in  America.  Working  at  fifty  cents  per  day  and 
boarding  himself,  he  eagerly  watched  for  oppor- 
tunities for  advancement  and  for  the  improve- 
ment of  his  condition  and  made  good  use  of  the 
advantages  that  came  to  him.  His  success  is  due, 
however,  not  to  any  fortunate  combination  of  cir- 
cumstances, but  to  his  own  earnest  and  persistent 
labor  and  his  careful,  judicious  investments.  Dili- 
gence was  the  basis  of  his  prosperity  and  his  life 
record  should  serve  as  a  source  of  inspiration  and 
encouragement  to  others,  showing  what  may  be 
accomplished  through  unfaltering  industry  when 
supplemented  by  sound  judgment  and  business  in- 
tegrity.   

HARLEY  B.   ZENOB. 

Harley  B.  Zenor,  a  prosperous  farmer  owning 
eight  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land  in  Putnam 
county,  his  home  being  just  outside  the  city  limits 
of  Hennepin,  was  born  upon  this  place  December 
31,  1855,  and  was  one  of  the  ten  children  of 
Housen  K.  and  Flora  (Patterson)  Zenor.  The 
father  was  born  in  Kentucky  in  January,  1810, 
and  died  upon  his  farm  southeast  of  Hennepin  in 
February,  1870.  He  was  a  son  of  William  and 


Sarah  (Seaton)  Zenor,  the  former  a  native  .of 
Pennsylvania  and  the  latter  of  Virginia,  while 
her  mother  was  the  first  nurse  that  George  Wash- 
ington ever  had.  William  Zenor  was  reared  in 
the  state  of  his  nativity,  whence  he  removed  to 
Kentucky,  while  his  last  days  were  spent  at  the 
home  of  his  son,  Housen  K.  Zenor,  where  he  died 
at  the  age  of  eighty-nine  years.  His  wife  passed 
away  in  Hennepin  township  at  the  age  of  sixty 
years. 

Housen  K.  Zenor  accompanied  his  parents  on 
their  removal  from  Kentucky  to  Indiana  in  1830 
and  in  1832  came  with  his  brother  Jacob  to  Put- 
nam county,  Illinois,  where  he  took  up  govern- 
ment land.  He  then  returned  to  Indiana  and 
brought  the  family  to  this  state.  His  father  pur- 
chased a  farm  in  Hennepin  township  and  lived 
thereon  until  his  wife's  death,  after  which  he 
made  his  home  with  his  son  Housen.  The  latter 
was  married  May  7,  1835,  to  Miss  Flora  Patter- 
son, who  was  born  in  Indiana,  October  29,  1815. 
They  began  their  domestic  life  upon  a  farm  and 
Mr.  Zenor  continued  to  carry  on  agricultural 
pursuits  throughout  his  active  business  career.  He 
took  up  land  before  it  was  placed  upon  the  market 
by  the  government.  It  is  probable  that  he  served 
in  the  Black  Hawk  war.  He  was  one  of  the  ear- 
liest settlers  of  this  part  of  the  state  and  contrib- 
uted in  substantial  measure  to  the  task  of  reclaim- 
ing and  developing  the  land.  As  the  years  passed 
he  prospered  in  his  undertakings  and  at  his  death 
left  an  estate  of  eleven  hundred  acres.  He  was 
a  devoted  member  of  the  Methodist  church,  in  the 
work  of  which  he  was  actively  interested,  and  his 
political  support  was  given  to  the  republican 
party  at  the  polls.  He  served  as  supervisor  for 
several  terms  and  held  other  minor  offices,  the 
duties  of  which  he  discharged  in  prompt  and 
capable  manner.  As  stated,  he  died  in  February, 
1870,  and  was  long  survived  by  his  wife,  who 
passed  away  November  4,  1902.  Of  their  ten 
children  only  three  are  now  living,  the  sister  being 
in  Kansas,  while  Henry  makes  his  home  with  his 
brother  Harley. 

The  latter  was  educated  in  the  district  schools 
and  spent  his  boyhood  days  on  the  home  farm, 
early  becoming  familiar  with  the  duties  of  field 
and  meadow.  After  the  death  of  his  father  he 
continued  upon  the  old  homestead  and  carried  on 
the  place  until  his  mother's  death.  He  then  pur- 
chased the  interest  of  the  other  heirs  in  the  prop- 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MAKSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


361; 


ert\  and  has  since  resided  thereon.  His  home  is  a 
beautiful  residence  which  was  erected  by  his  father, 
and  the  farm  presents  a  well  kept  appearance, 
being  neat  and  thrifty  in  every  department,  while 
the  fields  return  golden  harvests  for  the  care  and 
labor  bestowed  upon  them.  Mr.  Zenor  is  one  of 
the  extensive  landowners  of  the  county  and  in 
his  business  interests  shows  a  most  practical  and 
progressive  spirit. 

In  December,  1896,  Mr.  Zenor  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Miss  Lottie  Greiner,  who  was  born 
in  Hennepin,  a  daughter  of  Charles  B.  Greiner 
and  a  sister  of  C.  C.  Greiner,  who  is  county  clerk 
of  Putnam  county.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Zenor  have 
three  children — Flora,  Helen  and  Irene.  The 
parents  attend  the  Methodist  church,  of  which 
Mrs.  Zenor  is  a  member.  Mr.  Zenor  gives  his 
political  allegiance  to  the  republican  party  and 
has  served  as  highway  commissioner  for  two  terms 
and  as  assessor  for  two  terms.  He  has  been  a 
member  of  the  Odd  Fellows  society  since  1877. 
Wherever  known  he  is  esteemed  and  is  justly  ac- 
counted one  of  the  leading  and  representative 
agriculturists  of  Putnam  county,  his  business  be- 
ing of  such  extent  and  importance  and  so  capably 
managed  as  to  class  him  with  the  prominent  agri- 
culturists of  this  part  of  the  state. 


FRANK  FARLING. 

Frank  Farling,  who  for  eight  years  has  resided 
in  Marshall  county,  his  home  being  on  section  26, 
Whitefield  township,  is  however,  a  typical  resident 
of  the  middle  west,  being  a  native  son  of  Illinois, 
while  in  his  life  he  has  been  imbued  with  the 
spirit  of  enterprise  that  has  been  the  important 
factor  in  the  substantial  upbuilding  of  the  central 
Mississippi  valley.  His  birth  occurred  in  Men- 
dota,  La  Salle  county,  on  the  21st  of  May,  1865, 
his  parents  being  Thomas  B.  and  Elvina  (Eby) 
Farling,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. When  a  young  man  the  father  came  to 
Illinois  and,  having  learned  the  trade  of  a  car- 
penter and  builder  in  the  east,  he  began  working  in 
that  way  in  Mendota,  where  for  many  years  he 
was  closely  associated  with  building  operations. 
He  there  died  in  1904  and  his  widow  is  still  living 
in  that  city.  Six  of  their  children  yet  survive: 
Emma,  the  wife  of  a  Mr.  Feathergeau,  who  is  con- 
nected with  an  engraving  house  of  Chicago; 
William,  who  is  with  his  brother  Frank ;  John,  a 
carpenter  of  Chicago;  Frank,  of  this  review;  Ed- 


ward, who  is  engaged  in  the  engraving  business 
in  Chicago;  and  Carrie,  who  is  with  her  mother 
in  Mendota. 

Mr.  Farling,  whose  name  introduces  this  record, 
is  indebted  to  the  public  school  system  of  Meudota 
for  the  educational  privileges  which  he  enjoyed 
and  which  prepared  him  for  life's  practical  duties. 
After  putting  aside  his  text-books  he  entered  upon 
his  business  career  as  a  farm  hand  in  La  Salle 
county,  and  for  eighteen  years  he  was  connected 
with  agricultural  interests  in  Putnam  county. 
Eight  years  ago  he  came  to  Marshall  county  and 
his  time  and  energies  are  now  given  to  the  further 
development  and  improvement  of  a  farm  of  eighty- 
one  and  a  half  acres  situated  on  section  26, 
Whitefield  township.  This  property  is  the  vis- 
ible evidence  of  his  life  of  thrift  and  enterprise 
and  from  his  fields  he  annually  gathers  good  har- 
vests as  the  reward  of  his  persistent  and  energetic 
labors.  - 

In  1888  Mr.  Farling  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Harriet  Long,  a  native  of  Bureau  county, 
Illinois,  and  they  became  the  parents  of  four 
children,  of  whom  three  are  living,  Thomas,  Al- 
bert and  Blanche,  all  of  whom  are  in  school.  In 
1902  Mr.  Farling  was  again  married,  his  second 
union  being  with  Miss  Henrietta  Lyons,  a  native 
of  England.  There  is  one  son  by  this  marriage, 
William  I.,  born  July  3,  1906. 

Mr.  Farling  is  connected  through  membership 
relations  with  Putnam  camp,  No.  2107,  M.  W.  A., 
while  in  his  political  views  he  is  an  earnest  repub- 
lican. No  special  family  or  pecuniary  advantages 
assisted  him  at  the  outset  of  his  career  in  the  busi- 
ness world,  but  he  recognized  the  fact  that  earnest 
labor  is  a  safe  foundation  upon  which  to  build 
success  and  as  the  years  have  passed  his  diligence 
has  been  manifest  until  his  work  is  now  crowned 
with  a  goodly  measure  of  prosperity  and  he  is  ac- 
counted one  of  the  substantial  farmers  of  White- 
field  township. 


ARTHUR  P.  OWENS. 

Arthur  P.  Owens,  cashier  of  the  recently  organ- 
ized bank  at  Camp  Grove,  was  born  in  Saratoga 
township,  about  two  miles  from  this  village,  on  the 
10th  of  July,  1875.  His  father,  John  Owens, 
was  a  native  of  Ireland,  born  in  County  Cork  in 
1838.  He  came  to  America  in  1855  and  made  his 
way  to  Henry,  Illinois,  where  he  worked  for  the 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


meager  wage  of  seven  dollars  per  month.  In 
the  early  days  he  once  walked  from  Henry,  Illi- 
nois, to  the  farm  of  John  Roof,  near  Camp  Grove, 
a  distance  of  sixteen  miles,  in  order  to  secure  a 
half  day's  work  at  shocking  wheat,  and  then 
walked  back  the  entire  distance.  He  labored 
earnestly  and  persistently  in  order  to  gain  a  start, 
and  at  length  purchased  eighty  acres  of  land  in 
Stark  county  in  1870,  for  which  he  paid  eight 
hundred  dollars.  Later  he  sold  this  property,  and 
at  different  times  has  bought  and  sold  farms  and 
made  further  investments  in  real  estate  until  he 
now  owns  six  hundred  acres  of  valuable  land  ad- 
joining Bradford.  Illinois,  and  is  one  of  the  pros- 
perous property  holders,  his  possessions  being  ex- 
tensive and  valuable.  He  certainly  deserves  much 
credit  for  what  he  has  accomplished,  as  he  started 
out  in  life  empty-handed  and  was  forced  to  work 
for  a  very  meager  wage  during  the  early  days  of 
his  residence  in  this  country.  He  holds  member- 
ship in  the  Catholic  church  and  fraternally  is  con- 
nected with  the  Knights  of  Father  Mathew.  He 
married  Miss  Maria  Dillon,  who  was  born  in  Ire- 
land, their  wedding  being  celebrated  in  Lacon  in 
1870.  They  traveled  life's  journey  together  for 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  were  then 
separated  through  the  death  of  the  wife  on  the 
18th  of  December,  1898.  She  too  was  a  devout 
Catholic.  Her  father  was  Patrick  Dillon  and  she 
was  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Thomas  O'Brien  and  Mrs. 
Anna  Donavan.  of  Wyoming.  Unto  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Owens  were  born  the  following:  Daniel  J., 
Charles  P..  J.  Thomas.  Arthur  P.  and  Hannah  M. 
Arthur  P.  Owens  acquired  the  greater  part  of 
his  education  in  the  schools  of  Bradford.  Illinois, 
and  was  also  for  one  year  a  student  in  St.  Mary's 
College,  St.  Mary's.  Kansas.  He  was  reared  to 
farm  life  until  1900,  at  which  time,  thinking  that 
he  would  find  other  pursuits  more  congenial,  he 
turned  his  attention  to  the  banking  business  as  an 
employe  in  the  Phcenix  bank  at  Bradford.  There 
he  remained  until  February  17,  1902,  when  the 
bank  at  Camp  Grove  was  opened  and  Mr.  Owens 
was  placed  in  charge  as  cashier.  He  has  since 
been  in  control  of  this  institution,  which,  under 
his  capable  management,  has  grown  and  developed 
and  has  become  one  of  the  valued  moneyed  con- 
cerns of  the  county— a  great  convenience  to  the 
residents  of  this  locality  as  well  as  a  source  of  in- 
come to  the  stockholders.  Mr.  Owens  belongs  to 
the  Catholic  church  and  is  identified  with  the 


Knights  of  Father  Mathew.  A  young  man,  he  has 
displayed  many  traits  of  character  which  have  ren- 
dered him  popular  both  in  social  and  business 
circles. 

THOMAS  WARE. 

Thomas  Ware  was  one  whose  life  record  con- 
stituted an  important  element  in  the  pioneer 
history  of  Putnam  count)-.  He  is  now  numbered 
among  the  honored  dead,  but  the  influence  of  his 
life  and  labor  still  remains.  A  native  of  Massa- 
chusetts, he  was  born  in  Conway  on  the  6th  of 
January,  1806.  and  his  early  years  were  spent  in 
the  state  of  his  nativity,  where  after  entering  the 
field  of  business  he  was  engaged  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  combs  until  his  removal  to  the  west. 
While  still  living  in  the  Bay  state  Mr.  Ware  was 
married  at  Worcester.  Massachusetts.  March  19, 
1833,  to  Miss  Nancy  Lauretta  Shepherd,  and  the 
following  summer,  accompanied  by  his  brother 
Ralph,  he  came  to  Putnam  county  and  entered 
a  large  tract  of  government  land  in  the  vicinity  of 
Granville,  where  he  continued  to  make  his  home 
until  his  death.  They  were  among  the  earliest 
settlers  of  the  township.  The  Black  Hawk  war 
had  occurred  only  the  year  previous  and  some 
Indians  still  lingered  in  Illinois.  Great  tracts  of 
land  were  still  unclaimed  and  uncultivated,  being 
covered  with  the  native  prairie  grasses  and  crossed 
with  many  sloughs,  which  made  travel  across  the 
prairie  somewhat  difficult.  Deer  were  still  seen 
and  lesser  wild  game  could  be  had  in  abundance. 
The  homes  of  the  early  settlers  were  widely  scat- 
tered, the  nearest  neighbor  being  frequently  miles 
away.  Most  of  the  pioneer  dwellings  were  built 
of  logs  and  the  cooking  was  done  over  the  fire- 
place, while  the  work  of  the  fields  was  largely 
performed  by  hand.  The  usual  experiences  of 
frontier  life  confronted  Mr.  Ware  and  his  bride 
when  they  came  to  Putnam  county-,  but  he  reso- 
lutely set  to  work  to  establish  a  home  and  develop 
a  farm. 

On  the  9th  of  October.  1846,  he  was  called 
npon  to  mourn  the  loss  of  his  wife.  There  had 
been  five  children  born  by  that  marriage,  namely: 
Thomas  S.,  a  resident  of  Manhattan.  Kansas: 
Cynthia  McEowen  and  Nancy  Farwell,  both  de- 
ceased :  Charles  K.,  of  Downs.  Kansas :  and  Henry 
M.,  who  died  in  infancy.  On  the  6th  of  May. 
1847,  Mr.  Ware  was  again  married,  near  Florid. 
Illinois,  his  second  union  being  with  Miss  Man- 


THOMAS  WATiE. 


MRS.  THOMAS  WAKE. 


PAST    AND    PBESENT    OF   MAESHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Ann  Stewart,  who  was  born  in  Bond  county,  Illi- 
nois, November  6,  1819,  and  still  lives  at  the  old 
home.  She  is  one  of  the  oldest  native  residents 
of  the  state  and  one  of  the  earliest  pioneers  of 
Putnam  county.  There  is  not  a  resident  of  Gran- 
ville  who  was  here  at  the  time  of  her  arrival. 
She  is  a  daughter  of  William  and  Elizabeth 
(Willis)  Stewart.  Her  father,  who  was  born  in 
Pennsylvania  in  1793,  and  reared  in  Ohio,  died 
near  Florid  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven  years,  while 
the  mother,  whose  birth  occurred  in  North  Caro- 
lina, passed  away  when  Mrs.  Ware  was  only  seven 
years  of  age.  William  Stewart  and  his  family 
removed  from  Ohio  to  Bond  county,  Illinois,  in 
1818 — the  year  in  which  the  state  was  admitted 
to  the  Union — and  in  May,  1832,  they  arrived  in 
Putnam  county,  settling  on  government  land  near 
Florid.  His  first  home  here  was  a  log  cabin,  and 
he  later  built  another  joining  it,  it  being  the  first 
"double  log  cabin"  in  the  locality.  In  1840  he 
erected  a  brick  house,  which  is  still  standing,  the 
brick  being  made  upon  the  place.  It  is  one  of 
the  old  landmarks  of  the  county  and  a  mute  wit- 
ness of  the  many  changes  that  have  occurred, 
bringing  about  a  wonderful  transformation. 
James  Willis,  an  uncle  of  Mrs.  Ware,  built  the 
corn  cribs  which  were  used  as  a  protection  against 
the  Indians  and  won  for  the  locality  the  name  of 
Fort  Cribs. 

Unto  the  second  marriage  of  Mr.  Ware  there 
were  born  eight  children,  namely :  William  S., 
who  is  carrying  on  the  home  farm  in  connection 
with  his  brother  James ;  Mary  A.,  who  for  several 
years  engaged  in  teaching  and  is  now  with  her 
mother ;  Sarah,  the  wife  of  G.  A.  Whitney,  a  resi- 
dent of  Pasadena,  California;  Henry  M.,  who  is 
living  near  Blairsburg,  Iowa;  James  W.,  at  home; 
Joseph  E.,  who  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-five 
years ;  Lucy  Hullinger,  living  in  Granville ;  and 
Justin  P.,  who  is  living  in  Weaubleau,  Missouri. 
The  family  home  is  one  of  the  finest  residences 
in  Granville,  and  was  built  by  Mr.  Ware.  He 
also  left  to  his  family  an  excellent  farm  of  three 
hundred  and  ninety  acres. 

Throughout  the  greater  part  of  his  life  Mr. 
Ware  devoted  his  time  and  energies  to  general 
agricultural  pursuits  and  he  transformed  his  tract 
of  raw  land  which  he  secured  from  the  govern- 
ment into  fields  of  rich  fertility  and  added  many 
modern  equipments  to  his  farm  in  the  way  of  good 
buildings  and  improved  machinery.  He  was  a 


man  of  diligence  and  enterprise  and  brooked  no 
obstacles  that  barred  his  path  to  success  when 
they  could  be  overcome  by  persistent  and  honor- 
able effort.  Moreover,  he  was  prominently  iden- 
tified with  the  establishment  of  schools  and 
churches  and  was  an  active  and  cheerful  worker 
in  providing  suitable  accommodations  for  those 
indispensable  adjuncts  of  civilization.  For  years 
he  was  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  but 
in  later  life  joined  the  Congregational  church  and 
at  all  times  was  an  earnest,  consistent  Christian 
gentleman.  His  political  allegiance  was  given  to 
the  republican  party  but  he  never  aspired  to  office, 
although  for  some  years  he  filled  the  position  of 
justice  of  the  peace.  His  life  was  at  all  times 
actuated  by  high  principles  and  characterized  by 
manly  conduct  and  his  record  forms  an  integral 
chapter  in  the  pioneer  history  of  the  county.  He 
passed  away  December  6,  1886,  honored  and  re- 
spected by  all  who  knew  him.  Mrs.  Ware  is  an 
exceptionally  well  preserved  woman  for  one  of  her 
years  and  recalls  and  relates  in  interesting  man- 
ner many  incidents  of  early  pioneer  life.  She 
has  now  passed  the  eighty-seventh  milestone  on 
life's  journey  and  is  therefore  one  of  the  oldest 
citizens  of  Putnam  county,  while  the  years  of  her 
residence  in  Illinois  are  scarcely  surpassed  by 
that  of  anv  native  citizen. 


ALBERT  D.  FISHES, 

Albert  D.  Fisher  has  practically  retired  from 
active  business  life  and  yet  makes  his  home  upon 
his  farm  a  mile  west  of  Granville.  His  former 
activity,  enterprise  and  carefully  directed  labor 
brought  to  him  a  goodly  measure  of  success  and 
the  competence  which  he  acquired  is  sufficient  to 
now  supply  him  with  the  comforts  and  some  of 
the  luxuries  of  life. 

A  native  of  Indiana,  he  was  born  in  the  town 
of  Richmond  in  Wayne  county,  January  24,  1835, 
his  parents  being  Thomas  and  Elizabeth  (Wig- 
gins) Fisher.  The  father's  birth  occurred  in  Ohio, 
April  8,  1809,  and  he  reached  the  venerable  age  of 
eighty-four  years,  passing  away  in  Huntington 
county,  Indiana.  His  wife,  who  was  born  in  Clin- 
ton county,  Ohio,  in  1810,  died  in  Indiana  in 
1844,  when  her  son  Albert  was  a  little  lad  of  nine 
years.  Thomas  Fisher  was  a  nurseryman  and 
farmer  and  for  more  than  sixty  years  lived  upon 
one  farm,  on  which  he  took  up  his  abode  in~1834, 
when  Huntington  county  was  a  frontier  region. 


374 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


His  political  allegiance  was  first  given  to  the  whig 
party  and  later  he  became  a  freesoiler,  while  iipon 
the  organization  of  the  republican  party  to  pre- 
vent the  further  extension  of  slavery—  of  whicri 
he  was  a  strong  opponent — he  joined  its  ranks 
and  followed  its  banners  until  his  death.  His  wife 
was  reared  in  the  faith  of  the  Society  of  Friends  or 
Quakers,  but  in  later  years  she  and  her  husband 
became  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church.  They  were  people  of  the  highest  respect- 
ability, their  good  qualities  of  heart  and  mind 
gaining  for  them  warm  friendships  and  high  re- 
gard. In  their  family  were  seven  children,  all 
of  whom  reached  years  of  maturity,  but  only  three 
are  now  living,  one,  Nancy  E.  Fisher,  still  re- 
maining upon  the  old  homestead  in  Indiana,  while 
Daniel  D.  Fisher  has  for  several  years  been  cir- 
cuit judge  of  St.  Louis  and  is  still  upon  the  bench 
He  studied  law  in  Ottawa,  Illinois,  and  practiced 
for  several  years  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  before 
his  election  to  the  office  which  he  is  now  filling. 

Albert  D.  Fisher  spent  his  boyhood  days  upon 
the  home  farm  and  attended  the  country  schools. 
No  event  of  special  importance  occurred  to  vary 
the  routine  of  farm  life  for  him  in  his  youth. 
When  he  had  largely  mastered  the  branches  of 
learning  taught  in  the  district  schools  he  entered 
upon  a  scientific  course  at  Wheaton  (Illinois) 
College.  He  had  no  other  thought  nor  desire 
than  to  become  an  agriculturist,  being  well  con- 
tent to  devote  his  energies  to  the  occupation  to 
which  he  had  been  reared,  and  in  this  department 
of  labor  he  has  found  ample  opportunity  for  the 
exercise  of  his  industry  and  enterprise — his  domi- 
nant characteristics.  In  1861  he  came  to  Putnam 
county  and  for  a  year,  in  partnership  with  Joseph 
B.  Albert,  leased  land  near  Florid  and  engaged 
in  farming.  On  the  expiration  of  that  period  he 
purchased  a  farm  of  eighty  acres  in  Granville 
township,  to  which  he  afterward  added  forty 
acres.  With  characteristic  determiation  and  en- 
ergy he  improved  this  farm,  built  a  house  thereon 
and  made  it  his  home  for  twenty  years.  In  1884 
he  purchased  the  farm  upon  which  he  now  resides, 
comprising  two  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  rich 
and  productive  land  adjoining  the  village  of  Gran- 
ville. He  has  built  a  commodious  residence  here 
and  other  good  buildings.  He  no  longer  works 
the  land,  but  rents  it  to  a  family  who  live  upon 
the  place  and  the  income  from  his  property  is 
sufficient  to  bring  him  the  comforts  of  life.  For 


many  years  he  successfully  conducted  a  dairy 
business,  milking  cows  and  making  butter,  and  he 
found  it  a  profitable  source  of  income. 

On  the  19th  of -March,  1863,  Mr.  Fisher  wedded 
Miss  Mary  E.  Skeel,  a  daughter  of  Linus 
B.  Skeel,  who  was  one  of  the  early  set- 
tlers of  Putnam  county.  Further  mention  is 
made  of  the  Skeel  family  in  connection  with  the 
history  of  Lewis  E.  Skeel  of  Hennepin  on  another 
page  of  this  work.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fisher 
have  been  born  five  children,  four  of  whom  are 
yet  living,  but  they  lost  their  first  born  in  infancy. 
The  others  are :  Arthur  L.,  Theresa  V.,  at  home ; 
Elmer  A.,  who  is  in  Britt,  Iowa ;  and  Estella  M., 
the  wife  of  Dr.  E.  L.  Fulton,  a  resident  of  Wich- 
ita, Kansas. 

Mr.  Fisher  and  his  family  are  members  of  the 
Congregational  church  and  take  an  active  and 
helpful  interest  in  its  work,  while  to  its  support 
they  are  generous  contributors.  In  1904  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Fisher  attended  the  fourth  world's  Sunday 
school  convention  held  at  Jerusalem  and  while 
abroad  visited  the  Madeira  Islands,  Egypt,  Rome, 
Athens,  Gibraltar  and  many  other  places  of  in- 
terest. While  on  the  trip  Mr.  Fisher  wrote  letters 
to  the  Granville  Echo,  which  were  probably  read 
by  more  people  than  anything  ever  published  in 
that  paper.  He  is  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary 
intelligence  and  education,  has  always  been  a 
broad  reader  and  has  kept  in  touch  with  the  trend 
of  modern  thought. 

In  his  political  views  he  is  a  stalwart  repub- 
lican and,  keeping  well  informed  on  the  issues  of 
the  day,  is  always  ready  to  support  his  position  by 
intelligent  argument.  He  has  served  as  road  com- 
missioner and  assessor  and  three  times  has  been 
a  delegate  to  the  state  convention  of  his  party. 
In  the  summer  of  1906  he  was  a  delegate  to  the 
senatorial  and  representative  convention  and  is 
recognized  as  one  of  the  strong  political  workers 
of  his  district,  desiring  rather  to  secure  political 
honors  for  others  than  to  obtain  office  himself. 
His  interest  is  that  of  a  public-spirited  citizen, 
who  recognizes  that  it  is  the  duty  as  well  as  the 
privilege  of  every  American  to  thus  uphold  the 
principles  in  which  he  believes.  He  cast  his  first 
presidential  ballot  for  John  C.  Fremont  and  has 
voted  for  each  republican  nominee  at  the  head 
of  the  ticket  since  that  time.  Viewed  in  a  per- 
sonal light  Mr.  Fisher  has  made  an  excellent  rec- 
ord as  a  man  and  citizen.  In  all  of  his  business 


PAST    AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


dealings  he  has  been  found  thoroughly  honorable 
and  reliable,  his  probity  standing  as  an  unques- 
tioned fact  in  his  career.  He  has  never  know- 
ingly wronged  any  man  nor  taken  advantage  of 
the  necessities  of  another  in  a  business  transac- 
tion. His  support  has  been  given  to  many  pro- 
gressive public  movements  and  the  community 
recognizes  in  him  a  man  of  worth  and  value,  whose 
influence  is  ever  found  on  the  side  of  right,  truth, 
justice  and  improvement.  Mr.  Fisher  is  also 
a  great  temperance  worker  and  is  in  hopes  of  the 
work  coming  to  a  completion  some  day  soon. 


GEORGE  E.  SPARLING. 

George  E.  Sparling,  who  follows  farming  on 
section  21,  Senachwine  township,  and  who  is 
proprietor  of  the  Undercliff  hotel,  was  bom  within 
a  half  mile  of  his  present  residence,  November 
1,  1843,  and  with  the  exception  of  three  years  and 
seven  months  spent  in  the  army  his  home  has  al- 
ways been  in  this  locality.  He  attended  the  coun- 
try schools  and  also  had  the  benefit  of  a  short 
course  of  instruction  in  the  seminary  at  Henry, 
Illinois.  When  quite  young  he  began  work  upon 
his  father's  farm  and  made  a  hand  at  plowing  or 
driving  a  horse  when  eight  years  old.  Since  that 
time  he  has  been  more  or  less  closely  connected 
with  agricultural  interests  and  at  the  age  of 
eighteen  years  he  enlisted  as  a  member  of  Com- 
pany C,  One  Hundred  and  Thirteenth  Illinois 
Infantry,  known  as  the  Board  of  Trade  regiment. 
He  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  sergeant  and  after 
serving  his  term  with  that  command  he  re-enlisted 
for  one  hundred  days'  service  as  a  member  of 
Company  B,  One  Hundred  and  Thirty-ninth  Illi- 
nois Infantry.  He  was  mustered  into  the  United 
States  service  with  the  latter  regiment,  October 
1,  1862,  and  his  enlistment  papers  bore  the  sig- 
nature of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  are  therefore 
highly  prized.  He  proved  a  faithful  soldier,  al- 
ways loyal  to  the  cause  which  he  espoused  and 
displayed  valor  upon  many  a  southern  battle- 
field. 

After  his  return  from  the  army  Mr.  Sparling 
worked  upon  the  home  farm  until  twenty-three 
years  of  age,  when,  desiring  that  his  labors  should 
more  directly  benefit  himself,  he  rented  land  and 
engaged  in  fanning  on  his  own  account  for  seven 
or  eight  years.  He  then  purchased  two  hundred 
acres  of  land,  where  he  still  lives,  known  as  the 
Silas  Lock  farm.  It  had  been  settled  in  a  very 


early  day,  and  the  old  house,  which  was  built  by 
Mr.  Lock,  still  stood  on  the  place  at  that  time, 
and  in  fact  remained  the  residence  of  Mr.  Spar- 
ling for  ten  years.  He  then  erected  a  beautiful 
frame  house,  one  of  the  finest  in  the  township, 
and  in  this  home  is  now  pleasantly  located.  In 
1882  he  erected  a  hotel  on  the  bank  of  Senach- 
wine lake,  and  for  eleven  years  was  proprietor 
of  and  conducted  the  Undercliff  hotel.  People 
came  from  long  distances  to  enjoy  an  outing 
here  and  to  engage  in  hunting  and  fishing  in  the 
district.  At  the  present  time  Mr.  Sparling  leases 
the  hotel  and  occupies  his  beautiful  country 
home.  That  he  has  prospered  in  his  undertakings 
is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  he  is  now  the  owner 
of  eight  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  land,  all  in 
one  body.  There  is  no  richer  or  more  productive 
soil  for  agricultural  purposes  than  is  to  be  found 
in  this  part  of  Illinois,  and  the  farm  of  Mr. 
Sparling  is  therefore  a  very  desirable  one,  re- 
sponding readily  to  the  care  and  labor  which  is 
bestowed  upon  it. 

On  the  1st  of  November,  1866,, was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  George  E.  Sparling  and  Miss 
Carrie  I.  Baglcy,  who  was  born  in  Fulton  county, 
Illinois,  September  3,  1848.  Her  father,  Nelson 
Bagley,  was  born  at  Crown  Point,  New  York,  in 
1807,  and  died  at  the  home  of  his  daughter,  Mrs. 
Sparling,  when  eighty-seven  years  of  age.  His 
wife  bore  the  maiden  name  of  Elizabeth  Moran, 
and  was  born  in  Baltimore,  in  1817,  while  her 
death  occurred  in  Springfield,  South  Dakota,  in 
1889.  They  were  married  in  Fulton  county,  Illi- 
nois, in  1837,  and  there  resided  until  1864,  when 
they  removed  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  where 
they  made  their  home  until  1872.  In  that  year 
they  removed  to  Springfield,  South  Dakota,  where 
the  mother  passed  away,  after  which  the  father 
came  to  make  his  home  with  Mrs.  Sparling.  There 
are  also  four  other  children  living :  Eveline,  who 
likewise  resides  with  Mrs.  Sparling;  Mrs.  J.  C. 
Houtton,  of  Illinois ;  J.  M.  Bagley,  of  South 
Dakota;  and  Mrs.  M.  G.  Cotney,  of  Oklahoma, 
whose  husband  was  an  old  settler  of  Marshall 
county.  When  a  boy  of  seven  years  Mrs.  Spar- 
ling's father  witnessed  the  sinking  of  the  ships 
on  Lake  Champlain  that  were  captured  by  the 
British  in  the  war  of  1812. 

Mrs.  Sparling  has  in  her  possession  many  in- 
teresting old  relics,  including  a  fine  collection  of 
Indian  relics,  of  geological  specimens  and  rare 


376 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


coins.  These  have  not  only  been  secured  from 
this  district,  but  have  been  sought  in  various 
parts  of  the  United  States.  Both  she  and  her 
husband  are  well  versed  in  geology,  and  have  in 
their  possession  many  valuable  and  rare  stones 
which  many  people  would  pass  by  without  notice. 
Mrs.  Sparling  is  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal church. 

For  twenty  years  Mr.  Sparling  has  been  iden- 
tified with  the  Masonic  fraternity,  and  he  also 
belongs  to  the  Grand  Army  post  at  Henry.  In 
politics  he  is  a  republican,  and  for  twenty-four 
years  has  filled  the  office  of  constable,  while  for 
eighteen  years  he  has  been  road  commissioner  and 
is  now  township  treasurer.  He  never  misses  at- 
tending a  term  of  court,  yet  he  has  never  had  a 
lawsuit.  In  manner  he  is  genial  and  jovial,  and 
has  gained  many  friends  during  the  long  years  of 
his  residence  in  this  county  and  among  those 
whom  he  has  entertained  as  guests  at  the  Under- 
cliff  Hotel. 


CLIFFORD  HAWS. 

Clifford  Haws,  a  capitalist  who  has  figured 
prominently  in  the  business  circles  of  Henry 
and  of  Marshall  county,  was  born  in  Magnolia, 
Putnam  county,  Illinois,  August  8,  1874.  He 
is  a  son  of  Captain  William  Haws,  who  was  born 
in  Orange  county,  Virginia,  September  23,  1800, 
and  who  in  1805  was  taken  by  his  parents  to 
Ohio,  where  he  remained  until  he  attained  his 
majority.  On  the  27th  of  August,  1821,  he 
became  a  pioneer  of  Sangamon  county,  Illinois, 
where  he  conducted  a  tannery  for  a  time,  and  in 
1826  he  went  to  Putnam  county,  settling  on 
section  26,  Magnolia  township,  which  was  at  that 
time,  however,  a  part  of  Tazewell  county.  He 
built  the  first  log  cabin  between  Ottawa  and 
Washington  in  1826  and  was  one  of  the  first 
residents  in  this  part  of  the  country.  His  life 
was  devoted  to  fanning  and  he  became  the  owner 
of  a  number  of  farms,  embracing  several  thousand 
acres  of  land.  He  also  contributed  in  substantial 
measure  to  the  reclamation  of  his  part  of  the 
state  from  the  dominion  of  the  red  race,  and  aided 
materially  in  converting  it  into  uses  of  civiliza- 
tion. He  was  a  man  of  benevolent  and  charitable 
spirit,  and  built  a  church  in  Magnolia  and  paid 
its  pastor  out  of  his  own  funds.  His  political 
allegiance  was  given  to  the  democracy.  He  won 
his  title  as  commander  of  a  volunteer  company 


in  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and  thus  he  aided  in 
the  subjugation  of  the  Indians  who  resented  the 
encroachments  of  the  white  man  upon  their  hunt- 
ing grounds.  At  his  house,  in  1831,  Putnam 
county  was  organized,  and  he  served  on  the  first 
grand  jury  that  here  convened,  the  first  term  of 
court  being  held  at  the  old  traveling  house  near 
Hennepin.  Governor  Ford  was  then  prosecuting 
attorney  of  the  district. 

Captain  Haws  was  twice  married.  He  first 
wedded  Lucinda  Southwick,  a  native  of  New- 
York,  who  was  a  typical  frontier  woman,  brave 
and  fearless,  and  shared  with  hei  husband  in  all 
the  trials  and  privations  of  pioneer  life  at  a 
time  when  Indians  were  more  numerous  than  the 
white  settlers  and  many  wild  animals  were  to 
be  seen  in  the  forest  or  on  the  prairies.  Her 
death  occurred  July  4,  1867,  and  Captain  Haws 
afterward  wedded  Mrs.  Louisa  Moffitt  (nee  Defen- 
baugh),  a  native  of  Illinois.  There  were  five 
children  by  this  marriage,  of  whom  two  are  liv- 
ing :  Clifford,  of  this  review ;  and  Joel,  who  is 
now  living  retired.  He  is  quite  active  in  local 
political  circles  and  is  serving  as  supervisor.  The 
father  died  in  December,  1884,  and  the  mother's 
death  occurred  in  1882. 

Clifford  Haws,  whose  name  introduces  this  rec- 
ord, acquired  his  early  education  in  the  public 
schools  of  Magnolia,  Illinois,  and  afterward  went 
to  the  east,  continuing  his  education  in  Boston 
and  in  Tufts  College  at  Medford,  Massachusetts. 
He  afterward  spent  two  years  and  a  half  in  the 
employ  of  the  Smith-Premier  Typewriter  Com- 
pany of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  and  then  came  to 
Illinois  to  supervise  his  property  interests,  hav- 
ing inherited  a  goodly  estate  from  his  father.  For 
five  years  he  resided  upon  a  stock  farm  near  Mag- 
nolia, where  he  was  engaged  in  the  breeding  and 
raising  of  pure  bred  cattle,  and  he  is  still  the 
owner  of  that  property  and  business.  He  is  now 
engaged  in  the  sale  of  automobiles  in  Henry  and 
has  a  fine  garage  here.  Personally  he  owns  a 
machine,  the  Rambler,  of  forty-five  horse  power, 
and  touring  over  the  country  is  to  him  a  chief 
source  of  delight  and  recreation.  In  the  man- 
agement of  his  business  affairs  he  has  ever  dis- 
played keen  discernment  and  ready  sagacity,  and 
his  investments,  being  judiciously  placed,  have 
brought  to  him  a  very  gratifying  annual  return, 
while  his  holdings  number  him  with  the  cap- 
italists of  Henrv. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES: 


377 


Mr.  Haws  was  married  in  1895  to  Miss  Roberta 
Chapin,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  and  they  have 
four  children,  Una  Louise,  Barbara  Vicher,  Ger- 
trude and  Roberta.  In  politics  Mr.  Haws  is  an 
independent  democrat.  He  belongs  to  the  Peoria 
Auto  Club  and  is  prominent  socially.  He  has 
had  time  and  opportunity  to  cultivate  the  social 
and  intellectual  graces  of  life  which,  owing  to 
the  stress  of  circumstances,  were  denied  the  pio- 
neer settlers  on  the  frontier,  and  is  one  in  whom 
learning  and  culture  have  vied  to  make  an  in- 
teresting and  entertaining  gentleman. 


HENRY  HARRISON  EDWARDS. 
Henry  Harrison  Edwards,  successfully  engaged 
in  general  agricultural  pursuits  in  Hennepin 
township,  is  one  of  the  native  sons  of  Putnam 
county,  having  been  born  in  Magnolia  township 
on  the  12th  of  March,  1842.  He  is  a  son  of  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  (Wiley)  Edwards,  both  of  whom 
were  native's  of  Ohio.  The  father,  who  was  born 
in  1800,  died  in  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  at  the 
age  of  seventy-four  years,  while  his  wife  passed 
away  July  20,  1870,  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven 
years.  Their  marriage  was  celebrated  in  the  Buck- 
eye state.  William  Edwards  was  a  carpenter  by 
trade  in  the  days  when  the  representatives  of  the 
occupation  went  into  the  woods  and  hewed  out 
the  timbers  which  they  used  for  building  pur- 
poses. Many  structures  in  Ohio  are  still  standing 
which  were  erected  by  him  long  years  ago — a 
fact  which  indicates  his  excellent  workmanship 
and  the  splendid  quality  of  the  timber  which  he 
used.  In  1841,  thinking  to  better  his  financial 
condition  in  the  middle  west,  he  brought  his 
family  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  and  purchased 
three  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land  in  Magnolia 
township.  This  land  was  unimproved,  and  he 
erected  thereon  the  first  dwelling.  He  then  began 
to  clear  and  cultivate  the  fields,  and  continued  to 
reside  upon  the  farm  until  his  death,  while  his 
wife  also  passed  away  there.  In  early  days  he 
walked  five  miles  to  Palatine  and  worked  at  his 
trade,  and  after  his  return  home  at  night  he  built 
a  barn  upon  his  own  place.  He  often  went  with- 
out his  dinner,  but  said  that  he  never  suffered 
any  inconvenience  on  this  account.  He  was  a 
most  industrious,  energetic  man,  and  allowed  no 
obstacle  to  brook  his  path  as  he  advanced  toward 
the  goal  of  prosperity.  His  political  support  was 
given  to  the  republican  party,  but  he  was  without 


aspiration  for  office.  His  wife  was  identified  with 
the  Society  of  Friends  or  Quakers  in  early  life. 
In  the  family  of  this  worthy  couple  were  six  chil- 
dren: George,  who  for  many  years  was  county 
clerk  of  Tama  county,  Iowa,  where  he  followed 
farming,  but  is  now  deceased;  Henry  Harrison; 
Joseph,  who  was  born  September  1,  1845,  and 
was  a  prominent  attorney  of  Iowa  City;  Anna, 
who  was  born  April  20,  1848,  and  is  the  wife 
of  William  Castle,  a  resident  of  Magnolia  town- 
ship; Luella,  who  was  born  October  4,  1850,  and 
is  the  deceased  wife  of  William  Eisenhour;  and 
Mary  J.,  the  wife  of  0.  W.  Allen,  a  resident  of 
Henry,  Illinois. 

Henry  Harrison  Edwards  spent  his  boyhood 
days  on  his  father's  farm,  amid  the  wild  scenes 
and  environments  of  pioneer  life,  and  pursued  his 
education  in  a  district  school,  where  the  pupils 
sat  upon  slab  seats  and  wrote  their  copies  upon 
a  desk  made  by  placing  a  board  upon  pins  driven 
into  the  wall.  He  afterward  had  the  advantage 
of  attending  Wheaton  College  for  a  short  time. 
His  training  at  farm  labor  was  not  meager,  and 
through  practical  experience  he  early  became  fa- 
miliar with  the  work  incident  to  the  cultivation  of 
the  crops.  He  remained  at  home  until  twenty- 
seven  years  of  age,  when  he  came  into  possession 
of  a  part  of  his  father's  farm  and  began  business 
on  his  own  account.  He  lived  upon  that  place 
until  about  eleven  years  ago,  when  he  purchased 
the  farm  upon  which  he  now  resides.  It  was  at 
that  time  an  improved  tract  of  land,  and  he  has 
since  added  to  it  many  more  modern  improve- 
ments. His  buildings  are  all  nicely  painted  and 
the  farm  presents  a  well  kept  appearance  in  every 
department.  The  dwelling  is  a  large  frame  resi- 
dence, richly  and  tastefully  furnished,  and  the 
fields  cover  one  hundred  and  ninety  acres  of  rich 
land  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation.  Here  Mr. 
Edwards  carries  on  general  agricultural  pursuits, 
raising  both  stock  and  grain,  and  each  branch  of 
his  business  is  proving  profitable  to  him. 

In  1869,  when  twenty-seven  years  of  age,  Mr. 
Edwards  was  married  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Studyvin, 
who  was  born  in  Putnam  county  and  died  about 
fifteen  years  after  her  marriage.  They  had  one 
child,  a  daughter,  Alice,  who  is  now  the  wife  of 
William  Kays,  a  resident  of  Tonica,  La  Salle 
county.  On  the  15th  of  August,  1883,  Mr.  Ed- 
wards wedded  Alice  Kays,  a  daughter  of  William 
A.  Kays,  who  is  mentioned  elsewhere  in  this  work. 


:i7S 


PAS']'   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Edwards  have  been  born  three 
children.  Jennie  V.,  born  May  7,  1884,  is  a 
graduate  of  the  Granville  high  school  of  the  class 
of  1902  and  has  taught  in  the  district  schools  for 
four  years.  She  is  now  devoting  her  attention  to 
music.  Helen,  born  November  1,  1888,  was  grad- 
uated from  the  Granville  high  school  with  the 
class  of  1906.  Joseph,  born  March  11,  1894,  is 
at  home. 

Mr.  Edwards  and  his  family  are  members  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and  take  a  helpful 
interest  in  its  various  activities.  In  politics  he  is 
a  republican,  without  aspiration  for  office,  and 
fraternally  he  is  connected  with  the  Modern  Wood- 
men of  America.  He  and  his  family  are  most 
pleasant  and  genial  people  and  the  family  is  one 
of  prominence  in  the  community,  while  the  hos- 
pitality of  their  home  is  greatly  enjoyed  by  their 
many  friends.  The  name  of  Edwards  has  figured 
upon  the  pages  of  history  in  Putnam  county 
through  almost  two-thirds  of  a  century,  and  for 
sixty-four  years  Henry  Harrison  Edwards  has 
resided  within  its  borders,  so  that  his  memory 
compasses  the  period  of  pioneer  development  as 
well  as  of  later  progress  and  improvement.  He 
can  remember  the  days  when  many  of  the  homes 
were  log  cabins,  when  much  of  the  land  was  still 
uncultivated  and  when  the  work  of  the  farm  was 
done  with  very  crude  machinery  as  compared  with 
the  agricultural  implements  of  the  present  day. 
He  has  kept  in  touch  with  the  trend  of  modern 
progress  and  is  now  a  prominent  representative 
of  agricultural  life  in  Putnam  county. 


ROBERT  F.  DOWNEY. 

Robert  F.  Downey,  a  retired  farmer  and  an  hon- 
ored veteran  of  the  Civil  war,  now  residing  in  the 
village  of  Magnolia,  is  a  native  of  Illinois,  his 
birth  having  occurred  in  the  northwestern  corner 
of  Livingston  county,  near  the  present  site  of 
Streator,  on  the  14th  of  February,  1840.  His 
father,  Elzy  Downey,  was  born  in  Greenbrier 
county,  West  Virginia,  while  his  mother,  who  bore 
the  maiden  name  of  Mary  Bethuren,  was  a  native 
of  Ohio  and  died  in  Livingston  county,  Illinois, 
when  our  subject  was  only  two  years  old.  The 
father  subsequently  wedded  Nancy  Johnson,  who 
passed  away  in  Magnolia  two  years  after  her  hus- 
band's death.  On  leaving  his  native  state  Elzy 
Downey  removed  to  Ohio  and  located  in  Logan 
countv,  but  in  1832  he  came  farther  west  and 


settled  in  Livingston  county,  Illinois,  on  the 
banks  of  the  Vermilion  river,  where  he  took  up  a 
tract  of  government  land  and  erected  thereon  a  log 
house.  At  that  time  the  Indians  were  still  very 
numerous  in  the  locality  and  there  were  only  six 
or  seven  families  living  along  the  river.  He  con- 
tinued to  make  his  home  there  until  1842,  when 
he  removed  to  Magnolia,  where  he  resided  until 
his  death,  which  occurred  about  1895,  when  he 
was  eighty-four  years  of  age.  By  his  first  mar- 
riage he  had  one  child,  a  daughter.  By  his  second 
marriage  he  had  three  children :  Sarah  Jane,  who 
died  in  1864;  Robert  F.,  whose  name  introduces 
this  sketch;  and  William  J.,  who  died  at  the  age 
of  one  year. 

Robert  F.  Downey  passed  the  days  of  his  boy- 
hood and  youth  in  Magnolia  and  attended  the 
common  schools,  pursuing  his  studies  in  an  old 
schoolhouse  where  the  seats  were  made  of  slabs. 
At  the  early  age  of  ten  years  he  began  earning 
his  own  livelihood  and  for  a  time  covered  corn 
with  a  hoe  at  twenty-five  cents  per  day.  At  that 
time  nearly  all  the  farm  work  was  done  by  hand, 
hay  was  mowed  with  a  scythe  and  then  raked.  In 
a  barn  which  stood  just  south  of  town  and  was 
recently  burned  our  subject  helped  thresh  wheat, 
driving  horses  over  the  grain  laid  on  the  floor.  It 
was  tramped  in  this  way  for  a  while  and  then 
turned  and  tramped  again.  Later  the  grain  was 
gathered  and  on  a  windy  day  it  was  winnowed  in 
the  wind. 

Mr.  Downey  continued  under  the  parental  roof 
until  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  war,  when 
in  1861  he  enlisted  at  Bloomington  in  the  First 
Illinois  cavalry.  At  the  battle  of  Lexington, 
Missouri,  he  was  captured  with  Mulligan's  men. 
At  that  time  the  Confederate  states  had  not  been 
recognized  as  a  belligerent  power  and  no  one 
knew  or  thought  that  the  war  would  last  long  and 
no  prisons  were  ready  for  the  captives,  so  that 
they  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  were  sent 
home.  Later  our  subject  tried  to  re-enlist,  but 
was  not  allowed  to  enter  the  service.  After  the 
war  he  worked  on  a  farm  by  the  month  for  a 
year  or  two  and  then  purchased  a  tract  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty-six  acres  of  land  on  section  3, 
Roberts  township,  Marshall  county,  a  part  of 
which  was  covered  with  timber,  but  the  remainder 
was  improved.  To  the  cultivation  of  that  place 
he  devoted  his  energies  for  many  years  and  is 
still  its  owner,  the  farm  now  comprising  one  hun- 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


381 


dred  and  sixty-four  acres,  and  besides  this  prop- 
erty he  has  a  nice  home  in  the  village  of  Mag- 
nolia, where  he  now  resides.  For  several  years 
past  he  has  rented  the  farm  and  has  practically 
lived  retired,  enjoying  a  well  earned  rest. 

Mr.  Downey  was  married  in  1867  to  Miss  Luella 
Parker,  who  was  born  in  Hancock  county,  Illi- 
nois, on  the  loth  of  February,  1852,  and  is  a 
daughter  of  William  L.  and  Rhoda  Parker,  both 
of  whom  are  now  deceased.  Her  parents  came 
originally  from  Virginia,  but  located  in  Illinois 
at  quite  an  early  day.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Downey 
were  born  eleven  children,  but  the  second  died  at 
the  age  of  one  year.  The  others  are  as  follows: 
William  E.,  a  merchant  of  West  Point,  Adams 
county,  Illinois;  Minnie  L.,  the  wife  of  Charles 
Danielson,  living  near  Granvillc,  Illinois;  Lilly 
M.,  wife  of  Allen  Coe,  who  now  lives  on  our  sub- 
ject's farm  in  Marshall  county ;  Mary  S.,  wife  of 
Jacob  Piper,  living  in  Magnolia;  Elzy,  who  is  a 
graduate  of  the  state  normal  and  now  principal 
of  the  schools  at  Clyde;  Laura,  wife  of  J.  B. 
Thornton,  living  at  Long  Beach,  California; 
Luella  F.,  wife  of  George  Ramsey,  whose  home  is 
in  Clyde,  Illinois;  Joseph  M.,  who  is  a  graduate 
of  the  Northwestern  Dental  College  of  Chicago 
and  is  now  engaged  in  practice  of  his  profession 
at  Magnolia;  and  Alva  Isabelle,  wife  of  Frank 
Peterson,  of  Seneca,  Illinois.  This  is  a  family 
of  which  the  parents  have  every  reason  to  be 
proud,  as  they  stand  high  in  the  various  com- 
munities in  which  they  reside.  Five  of  the  chil- 
dren are  college  graduates  and  every  one  was 
valedictorian  of  his  or  her  class. 

By  his  ballot  Mr.  Downey  supports  the  men 
and  measures  of  the  republican  party,  but  has 
never  been  a  politician  in  the  sense  of  office  seek- 
ing, though  he  takes  a  commendable  interest  in 
public  affairs.  He  is  a  member  of  Magnolia  post, 
G.  A.  R.,  which  is  still  in  existence,  although  the 
organization  holds  no  meetings,  as  only  six  or 
seven  of  the  members  are  now  left,  the  others  hav- 
ing gone  to  join  the  silent  majority.  Mr.  Downey 
has  quite  a  number  of  interesting  souvenirs  that 
he  has  picked  up  at  various  places,  including  a 
shell  that  was  fired  at  the  battle  of  Yorktown  in 
1862  and  never  exploded.  It  was  dug  up  in  the 
field  by  a  negro,  the  load  taken  out  and  brought 
to  Magnolia  by  B.  F.  Baker,  an  old  soldier,  and 
given  to  the  Grand  Army  post.  When  the  society 
dissolved  the  property  was  divided  and  it  fell 


into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Downey,  who  was  for  some 
time  commander  of  the  post.  He  also  has  a 
piece  of  granite  from  the  monument  erected  to 
the  soldiers  who  fought  at  Yorktown  during  the 
Revolutionary  war.  During  his  long  residence  in 
Putnam  county  he  has  become  widely  and  favor- 
ably known,  and  as  an.  old  soldier  and  honored 
pioneer  he  well  deserves  mention  in  this  volume. 


WILLIAM  BICKEL. 

The  neighboring  state  of  Indiana  has  furnished 
to  Marshall  county  this  worthy  citizen,  for  Wil- 
liam Bickel  was  born  in  Tippecanoe  county  of 
the  Hoosier  state  in  1847.  His  parents  were 
Samuel  and  Elizabeth  (Smith)  Bickel,  whose 
family  numbered  ten  children.  The  father  was 
born  in  Allegheny  county,  Pennsylvania,  April 
10,  1811,  and  died  in  the  year  1880.  His  son 
William  remembers  often  hearing  his  father  speak 
of  making  trips  across  the  mountains  on  foot,  for 
that  was  prior  to  the  era  of  railroad  travel,  when 
all  this  section  of  the  country  was  a  wild  frontier 
region.  He  came  to  Marshall  county  on  the  1st  of 
October,  1856,  locating  first  about  five  miles  east 
of  Lacon,  where  he  lived  for  twelve  years.  He 
then  removed  to  McLean  county,  Illinois,  where 
he  resided  continuously  from  1868  until  his  de- 
mise. While  his  political  views  were  in  harmony 
with  the  principles  of  democracy  he  did  not  con- 
sider himself  bound  by  party  ties  and  frequently 
cast  an  independent  ballot.  Both  he  and  his  wife 
were  consistent  and  faithful  members  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church.  Mrs.  Bickel  was 
born  in  Ohio  in  1817  and  died  in  Belle  Plain 
township,  Marshall  county,  on  the  8th  of  May, 
1887.  Their  children  were  Rebecca  Ann,  Barbara 
Ann,  Susie  Ann,  Elizabeth,  Henry,  Samuel,  Wil- 
liam, Mary,  David  and  George.  Of  these  Rebecca 
Ann  and  Elizabeth  are  now  deceased. 

William  Bickel  spent  the  first  ten  years  of  his 
life  in  the  state  of  his  nativity  and  began  his  edu- 
cation there,  but  largely  received  his  schooling  in 
Illinois.  He  attended  the  Strawn  school  for  three 
years  and  subsequently  was  a  student  in  the  Belle 
Plain  school.  When  not  busy  with  his  text-books 
he  aided  in  the  work  of  the  fields  and  remained 
upon  the  home  farm  until  the  time  of  his  mar- 
riage. On  the  30th  of  December,  1873,  he  wedded 
Miss  Diora  J.  Jones,  who  was  born  in  Beaver 
county,  Pennsylvania,  near  Freedom,  February  1, 
1852,  her  parents  being  Milo  and  Eleanor  Jones. 


382 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNT  IKS. 


Her  father,  who  was  a  farmer  by  occupation  and 
followed  that  pursuit  in  Marshall  county  for  some 
years,  died  in  1904.  His  wife,  who  bore  the 
maiden  name  of  Eleanor  Hamilton,  was  born  in 
1831  and  died  April  19,  1902.  She  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Bickel  have  but  one. child,  Earl,  who  married 
Agnes  Eickelbarner  and  lives  just  across  the  road 
from  his  father's  home.  They  farm  together, 
sharing  equally  with  each  other  in  all  things. 

At  the  time  of  their  marriage  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
William  Bickel  located  in  Belle  Plain  township 
and  their  entire  married  life  has  been  spent 
within  four  miles  of  their  present  home.  In  ad- 
dition to  general  farming  he  handles  large  num- 
bers of  cattle  and  hogs  each  year  and  his  place  is 
an  ideal  stock  farm,  located  in  the  edge  of  the 
timber.  Mr.  Bickel  took  up  his  abode  upon  this 
place  in  1887  and  the  years  have  since  been  de- 
voted to  its  further  improvement  and  development 
until  now  it  is  a  splendid  property.  He  started 
out  in  life  with  no  capital  save  a  practical  knowl- 
edge of  farming,  and  he  determined  to  win  and 
he  now  owns  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  acres 
of  excellent  land.  He  first  purchased  fifty  acres 
in  Belle  Plain  township  of  John  Cox,  whom  he 
claims  gave  him  his  first  start,  for  which  he  paid 
forty  dollars  per  acre.  After  selling  this  he 
bought  his  present  farm.  As  the  years  have  gone 
by  his  labors  have  brought  him  a  goodly  measure 
of  prosperity.  In  politics  Mr.  Bickel  is  a  demo- 
crat and  takes  an  active  interest  in  the  growth 
and  success  of  his  party.  He  has  been  elected 
and  served  as  assessor  of  Belle  Plain  township  for 
six  consecutive  years  and  for  a  long  period  has 
been  school  trustee.  The  greater  part  of  his  life 
has  been  passed  in  this  county  and  in  a  review  of 
his  history  there  will  be  found  much  that  is  com- 
mendable, his  strong  characteristics  being  in  har- 
mony with  the  requirements  of  good  citizenship 
and  of  honorable  manhood. 


JAMES  P.  HICKEY. 

In  financial  circles  in  Marshall  county  and  this 
part  of  the  state  James  P.  Hickey  is  widely  and 
favorably  known,  being  the  present  popular  and 
capable  cashier  of  the  Exchange  Bank  at  Camp 
Grove.  He  was  born  in  the  village  which  is  yet 
his  home,  his  natal  day  being  March  4,  1878.  His 
father,  David  Hickey,  a  native  of  County  Clare, 
Ireland,  was  reared  and  educated  in  that  country 


and  came  to  the  United  States  about  1858.  He 
traveled  extensively  before  makmg  permanent  set- 
tlement upon  a  farm  in  Marshall  county,  Illinois, 
in  18(S2.  He  secured  one  hundred  acres  of  land  in 
Saratoga  township,  spending  his  remaining  days 
thereon,  and  during  that  period  converting  his 
land  into  one  of  the  best  improved  and  productive 
tracts  of  this  part  of  the  state.  He  was  a  devout 
Catholic  and  a  stalwart  supporter  of  the  democ- 
racy. For  thirty  years  he  served  as  school  di- 
rector and  the  cause  of  public  instruction  benefited 
by  his  efforts  in  its  behalf.  He  was  numbered 
among  the  most  respected  pioneers  of  Saratoga 
township  and  his  efforts  along  many  lines  were  of 
direct  evidence  in  the  work  of  improvement  and 
upbuilding.  He  passed  away  July  5,  1903,  and 
is  now  numbered  among  Marshall  county's  hon- 
ored dead.  His  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden  name 
of  Mary  Day,  was  also  a  native  of  Ireland  and  a 
daughter  of  Jeremiah  and  Johanna  Day,  resident 
farmers  of  Saratoga  township.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Hickey  were  married  in  this  country  and  the 
latter  departed  this  life  April  18,  1884.  In  their 
family  were  eight  children,  of  whom  six  are  now 
living:  Katherine;  Minnie;  John,  a  fanner  of 
Saratoga  township,  who  wedded  Mary  Long  of 
the  same  township;  Nellie,  the  wife  of  Owen 
Sharkey,  who  follows  agricultural  pursuits  in 
Milo  township,  Bureau  county,  Illinois ;  James  P., 
of  this  review;  and  Nora,  the  wife  of  Robert 
Breen,  who  is  publisher  of  a  paper  at  Kewanee, 
Illinois.  The  two  who  passed  away  are  James, 
who  died  at  the  age  of  sixteen  months,  and 
Thomas,  who  died  when  but  three  months  old. 

James  P.  Hickey  pursued  his  preliminary  edu- 
cation in  the  district  schools  of  Saratoga  town- 
ship, Marshall  count}',  and  for  one  year  was  a  stu- 
dent in  Dixon  (Illinois)  Business  College, 
whereby  he  was  well  qualified  for  the  practical 
duties  of  life.  He  also  studied  at  home,  devoting 
many  leisure  hours  to  the  mastery  of  branches  of 
learning  which  have  been  of  benefit  to  him,  not 
only  in  general  mental  development  but  also  in 
his  business  career.  He  worked  upon  the  home 
farm  until  he  had  attained  his  majority,  after 
which  he  was  employed  for  a  short  time  as  a  sales- 
man in  a  clothing  store.  He  then  entered  the 
Camp  Grove  Exchange  Bank,  which  is  controlled 
by  the  owners  of  the  Bradford  Exchange  Bank. 
He  became  connected  with  this  institution  on  its 
establishment,  February  3,  1902.  This  is  a  pri- 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


:;s:S 


vate  bank,  of  which  he  is  cashier  and  manager, 
and  under  his  direction  a  successful  business  has 
been  established. 

On  the  14th  of  October  of  the  same  year  Mr. 
Hickey  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Herberger,  a 
daughter  of  Peter  and  Anna  Herberger,  who  were 
farming  people  of  Stark  county,  Illinois.  This 
marriage  has  been  blessed  with  two  children, 
Marie  and  Celestine,  aged  respectively  three  and 
one  years.  The  parents  are  prominent  socially, 
having  a  circle  of  friends  almost  co-extensive  with 
the  circle  of  their  acquaintance.  Mr.  Hickey  is 
a  member  of  the  Modern  Woodmen  camp  at  Camp 
Grove,  of  which  he  has  served  as  clerk  for  three 
years.  He  is  also  president  of  the  Fraternal  Re- 
serve and  his  political  allegiance  is  given  to  the 
democracy.  The  only  political  office  he  has  ever 
held  is  that  of  notary  public  and  he  belongs  to 
the  Catholic  church.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that 
his  interests  cover  a  wide  range,  making  him  a 
man  of  well  rounded  character.  His  efforts  in 
behalf  of  Camp  Grove  have  been  far-reaching  and 
beneficial.  This  is  a  new  town,  only  four  years 
old,  but  already  it  contains  good  business  houses, 
two  grain  elevators,  two  banks,  good  churches  and 
schools  and  other  modern  facilities.  Mr.  Hickey 
has  done  much  for  its  upbuilding  and  progress 
and  is  an  active,  popular  and  efficient  young  busi- 
ness man  with  a  host  of  friends. 


THEODORE  M.  CROFT. 

Theodore  M.  Croft,  extensively  engaged  in  buy- 
ing and  shipping  cattle  and  hogs  in  Roberts 
township,  was  born  in  this  township,  June  27, 
1851.  He  acquired  a  district  school  education 
and  worked  at  farm  labor  on  the  home  place 
until  nineteen  years  of  age,  after  which  he  was 
employed  as  a  farm  hand  by  others  for  several 
years.  He  then  purchased  his  present  farm,  com- 
prising one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land  that 
is  ricli  and  arable,  responding  readily  to  the  care 
and  cultivation  bestowed  upon  if.  The  fields  are 
now  well  tilled  and  bring  forth  good  crops.  In 
addition  to  the  care  of  the  grain  Mr.  Croft  is  also 
extensively  engaged  in  buying  and  shipping  cattle 
and  hogs,  and  this  branch  of  his  business  is  now 
very  profitable.  He  is  an  excellent  judge  of  stock 
and  therefore  makes  judicious  purchases  and  prof- 
itable sales. 

His  political  support  is  given  to  the  republican 
party,  and  he  \vas  elected  assessor  of  Roberts 


township  for  1905.  He  has  also  been  a  school 
director  for  twenty  years,  and  the  cause  of  edu- 
cation finds  in  him  a  warm  friend.  In  his  busi- 
ness affairs  he  is  strictly  reliable,  never  taking 
advantage  of  the  necessities  of  his  fellowmen  in 
any  trade  transaction,  and  in  the  community  he  is 
favorably  known  for  his  methods  and  his  merited 


MISS  NANCY  CLIFFORD. 

Miss  Nancy  Clifford  is  the  owner  of  valuable 
farming  property  in  Marshall  county,  her  home 
being 'on  section  10,  Evans  township,  where  she 
has  lived  since  1853.  She  was  born  at  Cadiz, 
Ohio,  about  four  miles  from  New  Athens,  in  1833. 
Her  father  was  Edward  Clifford,  who  was  born 
in  Brook  county,  Virginia,  in  1806,  and  was  the 
eldest  of  the  family  of  twelve  children,  of  whom 
only  one  survives,  Mrs.  Margaret  Thompson,  who 
is  living  in  Columbus,  Ohio.  In  1811  Mr.  Clifford 
accompanied  his  parents  on  their  removal  to  Har- 
rison county,  Ohio,  where  he  was  reared  to  man- 
hood, and  in  1831  married  Rebecca  Dunlap,  whose 
birth  occurred  in  Harrison  county  in  1807.  They 
became  the  parents  of  six  children :  Mrs.  Sarah 
Phillips,  who  is  living  at  Table  Rock,  Nebraska; 
Nancy;  Samuel,  who  died  in  1896;  Mrs.  Jane 
Dunlap,  whose  home  is  in  Wenona,  Illinois ;  Mar- 
garet, who  died  July  8,  1905;  and  Mrs.  Susan 
Hamilton,  also  living  in  Wenona.  The  parents 
were  regular  attendants  of  the  United  Presby- 
terian church  and  were  earnest  Christian  people. 
Mr.  Clifford  brought  his  family  to  Illinois  about 
1853,  locating  at  the  head  of  what  is  now  called 
Sandy  creek,  where  all  of  the  early  pioneers 
settled.  In  community  affairs  he  took  an  active 
and  helpful  interest  and  aided  in  the  early  de- 
velopment and  progress  of  the  county.  He  carried 
on  farming  for  a  long  period  and  became  the 
owner  of  three  hundred  and  twenty-seven  acres  of 
valuable  farming  land,  all  of  which  he  improved. 
As  the  years  passed,  through  his  own  exertions,  he 
reached  a  position  of  wealth  and  became  the  pos- 
sessor of  one  of  the  finest  farms  in  his  township. 
For  six  years  he  held  the  office  of  road  commis- 
sioner. 

Miss  Clifford,  of  this  review,  was  but  a  little 
girl  when  brought  by  her  parents  to  Illinois,  and 
on  the  home  farm  she  was  reared.  She  now  owns 
a  beautiful  residence  in  the  edge  of  the  timber, 


384 


PAST   AXD   PRESENT    OF  MARSHALL   AND   PUTXAM   COUNTIES. 


together  with  good  fanning  land,  having  three 
hundred  and  forty-five  acres  in  all.  Her  nephew 
and  his  wife  now  live  with  her.  Her  people  were 
among  the  earliest  settlers  here  and  her  father 
was  extensively  engaged  in  raising  cattle  and 
sheep,  owning  as  high  as  eighty  thoroughbreds  at 
a  time.  He  was  also  one  of  the  promoters  of  this 
industry  in  the  county,  and  in  his  farming  opera- 
tions he  prospered,  so  that  he  was  enabled  to  leave 
his  family  in  very  comfortable  circumstances 
when,  in  August,  1881,  he  was  called  from  this 
life.  He  was  not  a  member  of  any  church,  but 
he  gave  freely  and  generously  to  the  support  of 
different  denominations  and  for  the  building  of 
various  houses  of  worship  in  the  county.  In 
politics  he  was  a  democrat,  and  while  interested 
in  the  success  of  his  party,  he  never  placed  parti- 
sanship before  the  general  welfare.  His  wife  sur- 
vived him  for  about  twenty  years,  and  passed  away 
in  1901. 

Their  daughter,  Nancy  Clifford,  was  a  student 
in  the  public  schools  of  Evans  township.  She  re- 
mained with  her  parents  upon  the  home  farm  on 
which  they  located  in  1853,  and  eventually  she 
came  into  possession  of  this  property,  which  is 
now  splendidly  improved  and  very  valuable,  re- 
turning her  an  excellent  income.  Miss  Clifford 
has  intimate  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the 
county  through  many  years,  witnessing  its  growth 
and  progress  as  it  has  developed  from  wild  prairie, 
swampy  districts  and  timber  land  into  richly  im- 
proved farms,  while  here  and  there  in  their  midst 
have  been  built  thriving  towns  and  cities,  bringing 
to  the  county  all  of  the  comforts  and  conveniences 
of  civilization  known  to  the  older  east. 


GUSTAV  OTTO. 

Among  the  venerable  and  worthy  citizens  who 
in  former  years  were  actively  connected  with  the 
agricultural  development  of  Putnam  county  but 
are  now  living  in  honorable  retirement  is  num- 
bered Gustav  Otto,  who  owns  and  occupies  a 
beautiful  home  in  the  village  of  Magnolia,  en- 
joying in  well  earned  rest  the  fruits  of  his  former 
toil.  His  birth  occurred  in  Prussia,  Germany, 
July  29,  1838.  His  parents  were  Michael  and 
Rose  (Zeabel)  Otto,  who  were  likewise  natives  of 
the  fatherland,  and  the  former  died  when  our 
subject  was  a  little  lad  of  but  three  years.  The 
mother  was  afterward  married  again,  subsequent 
to  which  time  she  came  to  the  United  States  and 


settled  in  Magnolia,  where  her  death  occurred  in 
1875. 

Gustav  Otto  was  reared  in  his  native  country  to 
the  age  of  nineteen  years  and  was  there  educated. 
Having  heard  favorable  reports  of  the  United 
States  and  the  possibilities  to  be  enjoyed  by  young 
men  of  ambition  and  energy,  Mr.  Otto  decided  to 
try  his  fortune  in  the  new  country,  and  accord- 
ingly, in  1857,  took  passage  on  a  sailing  vessel 
bound  for  the  new  world,  which  was  six  weeks  in 
making  the  voyage.  When  he  boarded  the  vessel 
at  Hamburg,  Germany,  he  had  but  thirty  dollars 
in  money,  so  that  when  he  landed  in  America 
it  was  necessary  that  he  at  once  secure  employ- 
ment. He  had  learned  and  followed  the  wagon- 
maker's  trade  in  the  fatherland,  but  on  coming 
to  this  country  never  followed  that  pursuit.  Upon 
landing  in  New  York  he  at  once  made  his  way 
to  Chicago,  and  remained  in  that  city  for  six 
weeks,  subsequent  to  which  time  he  went  to  Mar- 
shall county,  Illinois,  where  he  was  employed  for 
one  month  by  Henry  Weir.  In  the  following 
spring  he  entered  the  employ  of  John  Meyers,  for 
whom  he  worked  during  that  season  and  then  came 
to  Putnam  county,  and  was  employed  at  farm 
labor  by  Captain  William  Haws,  who  lived  in 
Magnolia  township,  receiving  as  compensation  for 
his  services  ten  dollars  per  month.  He  continued 
in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Haws  from  1858  until  1865, 
when,  having  saved  his  earnings,  he  felt  justified 
in  starting  out  in  life  upon  an  independent  ven- 
ture, and  first  located  on  a  tract  of  land  which 
he  rented  from  a  Mr.  Phillips,  at  British  Lane, 
La  Salle  county,  this  state.  After  a  year  he 
leased  a  farm  of  George  Hildebrandt,  and  once 
more  took  up  his  abode  in  Magnolia  township, 
Putnam  county.  He  operated  that  farm  for  two 
years,  and  in  the  meantime,  having  saved  a  sum 
sufficient  to  purchase  land,  in  the  spring  of  1868 
he  came  into  possession  of  a  tract  of  eighty  acres, 
which  forms  a  part  of  the  farm  which  he  still 
owns,  and  which  was  known  as  the  Joel  Haws 
farm,  and  had  been  settled  in  1838.  With  per- 
sistent energy,  so  characteristic  of  the  German 
race,  Mr.  Otto  at  once  began  to  develop  and  im- 
prove his  farm,  following  only  the  most  practical 
methods  in  the  cultivation  of  his  field  and  the 
planting  of  his  crops.  As  the  years  passed  and  he 
prospered  in  his  undertakings  he  added  to  his 
land  from  time  to  time  until  he  now  owns  two 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  finely  improved  land. 


PAST    AND    PltKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    PIT  NAM    COUNTIES. 


385 


which  is  now  operated  by  his  son,  Joel,  and  from 
which  he  derives  an  income  sufficient  to  enable 
him  to  live  in  honorable  retirement  throughout 
liis  remaining  days.  He  also  owns  forty-six  acres 
of  timber  land  in  Marshall  county,  so  that  his 
landed  possessions  are  of  considerable  extent.  In 
former  years,  in  addition  to  his  general  fanning 
pursuits,  Mr.  Otto  also  engaged  quite  extensively 
in  stock-raising,  having  at  all  times  the  best  grades 
of  animals.  He  was  actively  engaged  in  farming 
and  stock-raising  until  eight  years  ago,  when  he 
retired  and  took  up  his  abode  in  the  village  of 
Magnolia,  where  he  bought  five  acres  of  land, 
whereon  he  has  a  commodious  residence,  which  is 
one  of  the  finest  homes  in  the  town,  and  here  he 
and  his  wife  are  spending  the  evening  of  their 
days. 

In  1862  Mr.  Otto  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Eunice  Haws,  a  daughter  of  Joel  Haws,  and 
a  native  of  Putnam  county,  born  in  1840.  Her 
education  was  acquired  in  the  public  schools  of 
Magnolia  township  and  she  was  early  trained  to 
the  duties  of  the  household,  so  that  she  was  well 
qualified  to  take  charge  of  a  home  of  her  own  at 
the  time  of  her  marriage  to  Mr.  Otto,  to  whom 
she  has  indeed  proved  a  faithful  and  able  assist- 
ant. Unto  our  subject  and  his  wife  have  been 
born  seven  children,  and  the  family  circle  yet  re- 
mains unbroken  by  the  hand  of  death.  The  rec- 
ord is  as  follows:  James  A.,  who  wedded  Miss 
Philbrook  and  resides  at  Independence,  Kansas; 
Helen  M.,  the  wife  of  I.  D.  Glenn,  a  resident 
farmer  of  this  township;  Joel  W.,  who  wedded 
Nellie  Simpson,  of  Hennepin,  and  is  operating 
the  old  homestead  farm;  Maud  M.,  the  wife  of 
Lawrence  Dugan,  and  a  resident  of  Camp  Grove, 
Illinois ;  Bessie,  the  wife  of  Rev.  Schacht,  a  resi- 
dent of  London  Mills,  Illinois;  Alice,  the  wife  of 
George  Boyestede ;  and  Lulu,  who  is  at  home. 

In  politics  Mr.  Otto  has  always  been  a  democrat 
and  has  taken  a  deep  and  active  interest  in  the 
work  of  his  party.  Recognizing  his  ability  and 
worth  he  has  frequently  been  called  upon  to  fill 
positions  of  public  honor  and  trust,  having  served 
for  twenty-four  years  as  school  director,  one  year 
as  collector,  three  years  as  highway  commissioner, 
and  for  eight  years  was  supervisor,  and  for  three 
years  of  the  time  acted  as  chairman  of  the  board. 
Although  Magnolia  township  is  a  republican 
stronghold  Mr.  Otto  has  never  been  defeated  for 
any  office,  thus  showing  his  popularity  and  prom- 


inence in  this  community.  He  was  reared  in  the 
faith  of  the  Lutheran  church,  and  has  always  been 
identified  with  the  church  of  that  denomination, 
while  fraternally  he  holds  membership  with  the 
blue  lodge  of  Masons  at  Magnolia,  acting  as  treas- 
urer of  the  organization  for  many  years,  and  he 
also  served  in  a  number  of  other  offices  in  the 
lodge. 

When  Mr.  Otto  arrived  in  America  he  was  in 
debt  to  the  amount  of  seventy-five  dollars,  but 
he  immediately  secured  employment,  and  in  a 
short  time  earned  money  sufficient  to  liquidate 
this  indebtedness,  after  which  he  saved  his  earn- 
ings, which  he  judiciously  invested  in  land,  and 
through  his  close  application  and  capable  manage- 
ment prospered  in  his  undertakings,  thus  adding 
to  his  possessions  from  time  to  time  until  he  is 
now  one  of  the  wealthy  land-owners  of  Putnam 
county,  and  is  Known  as  a  reliable  and  trustworthy 
citizen  who  has  acquired  his  property  through  hon- 
est and  straightforward  methods.  L'pon  the  death 
of  Captain  William  Haws,  many  years  ago,  our 
subject  was  appointed  one  of  the  administrators 
of  the  estate,  the  duties  of  which  he  discharged 
with  the  same  loyalty  that  has  ever  been  mani- 
fest in  the  conduct  of  his  own  personal  interests. 
He  has  been  a  trustee  of  the  Mutual  Fire  Insur- 
ance Company  for  about  twenty  years.  He  and 
his  wife  are  highly  esteemed  in  the  community  in 
which  they  have  so  long  lived  and  labored,  and 
their  own  beautiful  home  is  a  favorite  resort  for 
their  numerous  friends  and  acquaintances. 


WILLIAM  W.   T\VIST. 

William  W.  Twist  is  one  of  the  oldest  native 
sons  of  Marshall  county,  having  been  born  in 
Roberts  township  in  1842,  so  that  he  has  been  a 
resident  of  the  county  for  more  than  six  decades. 
He  now  resides  in  Toluca,  his  home  being  the 
most  beautiful  residence  of  the  town,  and  he 
derives  his  income  from  real  estate,  which  is  the 
safest  of  all  investments,  having  four  hundred 
and  fifty  acres  of  valuable  land  in  this  county. 
He  was  born  in  Roberts  township,  April  2,  1842. 
His  father,  John  W.  Twist,  was  born  in  London, 
England,  and  came  to  New  York  in  1832.  He 
was  a  cabinet  maker  by  trade  and  after  residing 
in  the  east  for  several  years  took  up  his  abode  in 
Roberts  township,  Marshall  county,  Illinois,  in 
1841.  The  present  county  division,  however,  was 
then  unknown  and  the  district  formed  a  part  of 


386 


PAST    AM)    PKKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    PVTXAM    COUNTIES. 


Putnam  county.  After  coming  to  the  new  world 
Mr.  Twist  followed  the  occupation  of  farming 
and  was  numbered  among  the  substantial  agricul- 
turists of  Roberts  township.  He  wedded  Mary 
Davidson,  who  was  born  in  New  York  city,  and 
is  still  living  at  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-four 
years.  She  makes  her  home  with  her  son  William 
and  spends  the  summer  seasons  with  her  sister 
in  Kansas.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Christian 
church  and  is  a  most  estimable  lady,  whose  life 
in  its  various  phases  has  won  her  the  respect  and 
confidence  of  those  with  whom  she  has  been 
brought  in  contact.  In  the  family  were  three 
children:  William  W. ;  James  P.,  who  was  born 
in  1846  and  died  in  1894;  and  Mary,  the  wife  of 
Leander  Burns,  who  follows  farming  near  Osage 
City,  Kansas.  The  second  son,  James  Twist, 
served  as  sheriff  of  Marshall  county  for  four 
years  and  was  also  county  treasurer  for  four  years. 
He  proved  a  most  capable  and  reliable  official  and 
the  trust  reposed  in  him  was  well  merited.  He 
was  also  a  man  of  excellent  business  capacity  and 
in  his  death  the  community  lost  one  of  its  valued 
citizens. 

William  W.  Twist  in  his  boyhood  days  attended 
the  old  Shaw  school  and  acquired  a  fair  English 
education.  He  started  out  in  life  for  himself  in 
1866  when  a  young  man  of  twenty-four  years, 
having  up  to  this  time  aided  in  the  work  of  the 
home  farm.  On  leaving  the  old  homestead  he  en- 
gaged in  farming  where  the  town  of  Toluca  now 
stands,  but  eventually  sold  his  land  to  the  coal 
company.  The  discovery  of  the  rich  coal  veins 
of  this  district  greatly  enhanced  the  value  of  his 
property  and  he  disposed  of  it  at  a  high  figure. 

Mr.  Twist  has  been  married  twice.  He  first 
wedded  Louisa  Palmer,  who  was  born  in  1843  and 
died  in  1886.  In  1896  he  wedded  Mrs.  Mae  Mof- 
fett,  who  was  born  in  the  state  of  New  York. 
They  have  one  child,  Erma  Mae  Twist,  now 
eight  years  of  age.  Their  beautiful  home  is  cele- 
brated for  its  gracioiis  and  warm  hearted  hospi- 
tality and  is  the  scene  of  many  a  delightful  so- 
cial function.  Mr.  Twist  is  now  living  retired, 
his  possessions  being  sufficient  to  supply  him  with 
a  good  income  without  further  recourse  to  labor 
save  for  the  supervision  of  his  landed  interests. 
He  has  filled  various  offices,  including  those  of 
assessor,  collector  and  school  treasurer,  and  could 
undoubtedly  have  had  other  political  honors  had 
he  so  desired.  Spending  his  entire  life  in  Mar- 


shall county,  he  is  largely  familiar  with  its  his- 
tory, having  been  a  witness  of  its  development 
from  an  early  day,  and  the  fact  that  many  of  his 
stanchest  friends  are  those  who  have  known  him 
from  his  boyhood  is  an  indication  that  his  has 
been  an  honorable  and  upright  career. 


EGBERT  TURNBULL. 

The  home  farm  of  Robert  Turnbull  is  pleas- 
antly and  conveniently  located  on  section  28,  La 
Prairie  township,  not  far  from  the  village  of 
Speer,  and  for  many  years  the  owner  of  this 
valuable  property  has  been  accorded  recognition 
as  one  of  the  leading  farmers  and  stock-raisers 
of  this  part  of  the  state.  He  was  born  in  Rox- 
burghshire, S.cotland,  on  the  10th  of  December, 
1827.  His  parents  were  John  and  Beatrice 
(Scoon)  Turnbull,  who  were  likewise  natives  of 
the  same  country.  The  father,  who  was  born 
April  30,  1782,  came  to  the  United  States  with 
his  family  in  1851,  landing  at  New  York  city, 
after  which  he  located  at  Geneva.,  New  York, 
where  he  remained  for  three  years.  In  1854  he 
came  to  Illinois,  settling  on  the  southeast  part  of 
La  Prairie  township.  For  a  long  period  he  was 
engaged  in  farming  here  and  passed  away  on  the 
3d  of  February,  1870,  at  the  venerable  age  of 
eighty-eight  years.  In  the  old  cemetery  in  Scot- 
land where  the  ancestors  of  the  family  lie  buried 
there  are  gravestones  bearing  date  back  to  1622. 
In  the  family  of  John  and  Beatrice  Turnbull 
were  three  children :  John,  who  died  in  Scot- 
land at  the  age  of  sixteen  or  seventeen  years; 
Robert,  of  this  review ;  and  Jeanette,  the  wife  of 
Robert  Pringle,  who  is  the  oldest  man  in  the  town- 
ship, and  whose  sketch  appears  elsewhere  in  this 
work. 

Robert  Turnbull  was  reared  to  manhood  in  his 
native  country,  his*  education  being  acquired  in 
the  common  schools  prior  to  his  sixteenth  year, 
at  which  time  he  entered  upon  an  apprenticeship 
to  the  carpenter's  trade.  His  term  of  indenture 
extended  to  the  time  when  he  attained  his  ma- 
jority^ during  which  period  he  was  given  his 
board  and  at  the  end  of  that  time  was  paid  five 
pounds  sterling  or  about  twenty-five  dollnrs.  In 
addition  to  house  carpentering  he  learned  the 
trade  of  cabinet-making,  everything  in  that  day 
being  done  by  hand.  After  serving  his  term  he 
continued  with  his  old  employer  as  a  journey- 
man and  acted  in  that  capacity  for  two  years 


EGBERT  TURNBULL. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


389 


at  a  salary  of  four  dollars  per  week.  He  did  his 
duty  faithfully  and  cheerfully  and  was  thus  in 
the  line  of  promotion,  but  the  new  world  witli 
its  business  opportunities  and  advantages  seemed 
to  him  to  offer  a  better  field  of  labor  and  in  com- 
pany with  his  parents  and  his  sister  he  crossed 
the  Atlantic  to  New  York  city. 

For  three  years  he  worked  at  the  carpenter's 
trade  in  Geneva,  New  York,  save  for  a  brief 
period  of  five  months  spent  in  Canada.  His  pref- 
erence, however,  was  for  the  United  States  and, 
believing  his  chances  to  be  much  better  in  the 
republic,  he  returned.  In  1854  the  family  came 
to  Illinois,  settling  in  the  southeast  part  of  La 
Prairie  township,  where  Mr.  Turnbull  purchased  a 
tract  of  land  as  a  home  for  his  father  and  mother. 
They  removed  to  that  farm  but  for  three  years 
thereafter  he  continued  to  work  at  his  trade.  He 
determined,  however,  to  make  general  farming 
his  life  occupation  and  took  up  the  task  of  im- 
proving and  clearing  his  land.  When  he  began 
his  farm  work  he  had  but  a  single  horse.  Soon, 
however,  he  purchased  a  yoke  of  oven  with  which 
he  broke  the  prairie.  He  had  about  one  hundred 
dollars  when  he  came  to  the  new  world,  which  was 
increased  to  six  hundred  dollars  by  the  time  he 
reached  Illinois.  This  sum  he  invested  in  land 
and  upon  the  farm  he  lived  for  ten  years,  en- 
gaged in  its  ciiltivation  and  also  making  some 
improvements  there. 

It  was  while  living  upon  his  father's  farm 
that  Mr.  Turnbull  was  married  to  Miss  Mary 
Smith,  whom  he  wedded  February  26,  1858.  They 
became  the  parents  of  six  children :  Minnie  is  now 
the  wife  of  R.  W.  Hall,  of  Chicago.  John,  who  is 
represented  on  another  page  of  this  volume,  is 
living  on  his  farm  adjoining  his  father's.  Wil- 
liam, who  was  born  September  4,  1862,  and  died 
July  12,  1866;  Robert,  who  was  born  July  18, 
1864,  and  has  carried  on  farming  on  the  old 
home  place,  where  he  lives  with  his  wife,  who 
bore  the  maiden  name  of  Mary  E.  Scott  and  to 
whom  he  was  married  in  1896.  She  is  a  daughter 
of  William  Scott,  a  well  known  resident  of  the 
county.  Robert  Turnbull,  Jr.,  is  a  breeder  of 
full  blooded  Hereford  cattle.  Beatrice  died  Feb- 
ruary 10,  1905.  William  is  in  the  live  stock  com- 
mission business  in  Chicago.  Mrs.  Turnbull 
passed  away  September  1,  1877,  and  was  laid  to 
rest  in  the  United  Presbyterian  cemetery  in  La 
Prairie  township.  She  was  devoted  to  the  welfare 


and  happiness  of  her  family  and  counted  no  per- 
sonal sacrifice  on  her  part  too  great  if  it  would 
promote  the  interests  of  her  husband  and  chil- 
dren. 

Mr.  Turnbull  has  always  been  an  industrious, 
energetic  man  and  in  his  farming  and  stock-rais- 
ing operations  he  has  become  well  known.  He 
has  made  very  judicious  purchases,  buying  land 
which  has  increased  in  value,  owing  to  the 
rapid  settlement  of  the  county  as  well  as  to  the 
improvements  which  have  been  placed  upon  it. 
His  home  farm  is  splendidly  improved  with  all 
modern  accessories  and  conveniences  and  every- 
thing about  the  farm  is  indicative  of  the  careful 
supervision  and  enterprising  spirit  of  the  owner. 
For  many  years  he  has  engaged  in  raising  and 
breeding  thoroughbred  Hereford  cattle  and  has 
owned  some  very  fine  animals.  He  has  also  fed 
large  numbers  of  cattle.  Whatever  he  has  under- 
taken he  has  carried  forward  to  successful  com- 
pletion, manifesting  a  keen  business  discernment 
that  has  enabled  him  to  readily  determine  the 
outcome  of  any  business  proposition.  He  is  now 
to  a  large  extent  leaving  the  active  work  of  the 
farm  to  others,  for  he  has  passed  the  seventy- 
eighth  milestone  on  life's  journey  and  well 
merits  rest  from  further  toil. 

In  polities  Mr.  Turnbull  is  a  republican,  having 
supported  the  party  since  becoming  a  naturalized 
citizen.  He  has  frequently  attended  its  conven- 
tions and  has  held  a  number  of  local  offices,  to 
which  he  has  been  called  by  the  vote  of  his  fellow 
townsmen,  who  recognize  his  worth  and  ability. 
He  was  reared  in  the  faith  of  the  Presbyterian 
church  but  is  now  a  member  of  the  Congregational 
church  and  has  been  an  active  worker  in  its 
behalf.  He  is  also  an  advocate  of  the  cause  of 
temperance  and  in  fact  is  a  champion  of  all  those 
interests  which  tend  to  uplift  humanity  and  bene- 
fit the  race.  His  name  is  honored  by  all  because 
of  his  upright  life  and  his  good  qualities  far  over- 
balance the  mistakes  which  all  men  make,  gain- 
ing for  him  the  respect  and  good  will  of  all  with 
whom  he  has  come  in  contact  during  the  years-  of 
his  residence  in  this  county. 


RANSOM  E.  GREGORY. 
Ransom  E.  Gregory  is  a  retired  farmer  residing 
in   Henry,   but   for  many  years   he   was   closely, 
actively   and   honorably   associated   with   agricul- 
tural interests,  thus  making  for  himself  a  cred- 


390 


PAST    AND    PKKSKNT    <>K    MARSHALL    AND    PUTNAM    COUNT  IKS. 


itable  place  in  business  circles  in  Marshall  county. 
Moreover,  he  is  entitled  to  representation  in  this 
volume  as  one  of  the  honored  veterans  of  the  Civil 
war,  who  loyally  defended  the  Union  cause 
through  the  darkest  hour  in  our  country's  his- 
tory. He  was  born  in  Auglaize  county,  Ohio, 
August  16,  1839.  His  father,  Harrison  Gregory, 
was  a  native  of  Ashtabula  county,  Ohio,  born  May 
25,  1813.  He  was  both  a  farmer  and  merchant. 
About  1837  he  removed  with  his  family  to  Au- 
glaize county,  Ohio,  where  he  remained  for  six 
years  and  thence  drove  across  the  country  to  Illi- 
nois, settling  upon  a  farm  in  Kickapoo  township, 
Peoria  county,  in  1843.  This  place  was  about 
twelve  miles  west  of  the  city  of  Peoria.  As  he 
had  little  capital  at  the  time  of  his  arrival  he  had 
to  incur  indebtedness  in  order  to  make  the  pur- 
chase, but  he  soon  discharged  his  financial  obli- 
gation and  devoted  ten  years  to  the  improvement 
and  cultivation  of  the  farm,  after  which  he  re- 
moved to  Henry,  where  he  spent  the  succeeding 
three  years.  He  next  took  up  his  abode  in  White- 
field  township,  seven  miles  west  of  Henry,  where 
he  purchased  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land, 
this  farm  being  his  home  throughout  his  remain- 
ing days.  In  his  earlier  manhood  he  had  also 
engaged  in  teaching  school  through  the  winter 
months  for  many  years,  and  thus  added  to  his  in- 
come. Becoming  ill  in  1882  he  went  to  California 
for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  but  died  in  Los 
Angeles,  four  weeks  after  his  arrival,  on  the  3d 
of  October,  1882,  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine  years. 
His  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden  name  of  Mary 
Sivers,  was  a  native  of  Maryland,  born  October 
29,  1812,  and  her  death  occurred  July  28,  1876. 
In  the  family  were  ten  children,  of  whom  four 
are  now  living:  Ransom  E.,  of  this  review;  Fan- 
nie, who  was  born  August  3,  1841,  and  is  now 
the  wife  of  Cyrus  Hutchins,  of  Los  Angeles,  Cali- 
fornia ;  Laura,  who  was  born  February  25,  1854, 
and  is  the  wife  of  Charles  Jenkins,  of  Prospect 
Park,  California ;  and  Harry,  who  was  born  Febru- 
ary 9,  1857,  and  is  proprietor  of  a  department 
store  at  Vincennes,  Indiana.  One  brother,  Mark 
G.,  who  for  many  years  was  identified  with  agri- 
cultural interests  in  this  county,  has  now  passed 
away. 

Ransom  E.  Gregory  acquired  his  early  education 
in  the  schools  of  Kickapoo  and  in  the  district 
schools  near  Henry.  He  enlisted  in  the  Union 
army  on  the  16th  of  August,  1861 — his  twenty- 


second  birthday — as  a  member  of  Company  D, 
Forty-seventh  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  under 
Captain  John  C.  Townsend  and  Colonel  John 
Bryner.  He  joined  the  army  for  three  years  and 
was  mustered  out  on  the  16th  of  August,  1864, 
while  on  duty  as  chief  clerk  to  Colonel  A.  J. 
Meyer,  chief  signal  officer  of  the  United  States 
Army  and  chief  of  staff  to  General  E.  R.  S.  Canby, 
then  stationed  at  New  Orleans,  Louisiana.  Mr. 
Gregory  participated  in  the  siege  of  Vicksburg  and 
was  afterward  transferred  to  the  signal  corps,  act- 
ing as  orderly  sergeant  of  the  company  and  rank- 
ing as  first  sergeant  in  the  signal  corps.  There 
were  multitudinous  delicate  and  hazardous  duties 
to  be  performed  in  that  connection,  and  Mr.  Greg- 
ory was  always  found  faithfully  at  his  post.  He 
was  detailed  at  General  Sherman's  headquarters 
and  was  on  duty  all  night  previous  to  the  battle 
of  Mission  Ridge,  receiving  and  sending  messages 
for  "Uncle  Billy."  He  was  in  the  battle  of  Cor- 
inth on  the  3d  and  4th  of  October,  1862;  in  the 
battle  of  luka,  Mississippi,  in  September,  1862; 
and  also  in  the  engagement  of  Jackson  prior  to 
the  siege  of  Vicksburg,  besides  many  other  minor 
engagements.  He  thus  saw  considerable  arduous 
field  service. 

Following  his  return  home  Mr.  Gregory  was 
married  on  the  1st  of  January,  1866,  to  Miss 
Ellen  Maria  White;  of  Whitefield  township,  Mar- 
shall county,  a  daughter  of  John  B.  White,  in 
whose  honor  the  township  was  named,  being  elect- 
ed its  first  supervisor.  He  was  one  of  the  prom- 
inent pioneer  residents  of  the  county  and  aided 
largely  in  its  upbuilding  and  development  at  an 
early  day.  His  birth  occurred  in  Vermont  and 
his  last  years  were  spent  in  Henry,  where  he  was 
engaged  in  the  lumber  business  at  the  time  of  his 
demise.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gregory  have  been 
born  three  children,  of  whom  two  are  living: 
Carrie  B.,  now  the  wife  'of  F.  G.  Smith,  of  Chi- 
cago, by  whom  she  has  one  child,  Fay  Gregory 
Smith;  and  Elmer  B.,  who  is  living  in  Los  An- 
geles, California.  The  deceased  child  was  Marion 
Bradshaw,  who  passed  away  at  the  age  of  nine 
years. 

Mr.  Gregory  was  at  one  time  identified  with 
farming  interests  in  Marshall  county,  and  in  the 
fall  of  1866,  at  the  age  of  twenty-six  years,  he 
was  elected  sheriff  of  the  county  and  removed  to 
the  county  seat,  filling  the  office  for  one  term. 
His  election  occurred  the  same  year  of  his  mar- 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


riage,  and  the  young  couple  did  their  first  house- 
keeping in  the  old  jail.  In  1884  Mr.  Gregory  re- 
moved from  Illinois  to  Pierre,  South  Dakota, 
where  he  was  engaged  in  the  real-estate  business, 
handling  considerable  property  there.  He  was 
also  very  prominent  and  influential  in  public  af- 
fairs, spending  fourteen  years  in  the  state,  during 
which  time  he  did  effective  service  in  behalf  of 
general  progress  and  improvement.  He  served  as 
a  member  of  the  board  of  education,  and  the  cause 
of  the  schools  found  in  him  a  stalwart  champion 
and  supporter.  He  was  also  deputy  county  treas- 
urer, city  assessor  and  chief  of  the  fire  department 
of  Pierre.  He  likewise  acted  as  postmaster  under 
President  Harrison  there,  and  over  the  record  of 
his  public  career  there  falls  no  shadow  of  wrong 
or  suspicion  of  evil,  his  duties  being  discharged 
with  the  utmost  fidelity  and  promptness.  In  1887 
Mr.  Gregory  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  lived 
three  years,  being  employed  as  collector  for  the 
firm  of  Rittenhouse  &  Embree  Company,  one  of 
the  largest  lumber  firms  in  the  city. 

In  1900  Mr.  Gregory  returned  to  Marshall  coun- 
ty and  is  now  living  retired  in  Henry,  enjoying 
in  well  earned  ease  the  fruits  of  his  former  toil. 
He  holds  membersip  with  the  Grand  Army  post  at 
Pierre  and  in  politics  he  is  a  republican  where 
national  issues  are  involved  but  casts  an  inde- 
pendent local  ballot.  All  who  know  him  respect 
him  for  his  genuine  worth  and  many  good  traits 
of  character,  for  in  all  life's  relations,  whether  in 
business,  in  public  office  or  upon  the  field  of  battle, 
he  has  made  a  creditable  and  commendable  record. 


FRANK  LEO  KLINE. 

Frank  Leo  Kline  is  now  practically  living  re- 
tired upon  a  farm  in  Saratoga  township,  where 
he  has  made  his  home  since  1889.  He  was  in 
former  years  actively  associated  with  the  work  of 
tilling  the  soil  and  raising  crops,  and  the  measure 
of  his  success  is  proof  of  his  life  of  activity  and 
diligence.  One  of  Marshall  county's  native  sons, 
he  was  born  in  AVhitefield  township,  October  10, 
1864,  his  parents  being  Peter  Paul  and  Mary  Ann 
(Bryer)  Kline,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of 
Germany.  The  father's  birth  occurred  in  Prussia, 
and  on  coming  to  the  United  States  he  settled 
first  in  Chicago,  where  he  worked  at  his  trade 
of  blacksmithing.  He  also  owned  many  houses 
and  lots  in  that  city  in  earlier  years  and  he  is 
now  living  retired  in  Henry,  for  his  labor  at  a 


previous  date  brought  to  him  a  handsome  com- 
petence that  now  enables  him  to  rest  from  further 
labor  and  yet  enjoy  the  comforts  and  some  of  the 
luxuries  of  life.  He  has  reached  the  age  of  eighty- 
two  years,  while  his  wife  is  now  seventy-five  years 
of  age.  In  their  family  were  ten  children,  of 
whom  seven  are  living:  John  B.,  a  resident 
farmer  of  Whitefield  township,  who  is  cultivating 
one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land;  Mrs.  Fran- 
ces Kneip,  of  Henry,  Illinois;  Maggie,  who  is 
with  her  parents  in  Henry ;  Mrs.  Katherine  Hofer, 
whose  husband  is  a  farmer  of  Whitefield  town- 
ship; Frank  L.,  of  this  review;  Joseph,  who  is 
living  in  Pekin,  Illinois ;  Mary  Matilda,  a  trained 
nurse  in  a  Chicago  hospital. 

Frank  Leo  Kline,  educated  in  the  district 
schools  near  his  father's  farm  and  in  the  public 
schools  of  Henry,  devoted  the  periods  of  vacation 
to  the  work  of  the  fields  and  early  became  fa- 
miliar with  agricultural  life  in  every  detail.  He 
continued  with  his  father  until  twenty-three  years 
of  age.  Desiring  that  his  labors  should  more  di- 
rectly benefit  himself,  he  began  farming  on  his 
own  account  on  the  Betz  farm  in  Whitefield  town- 
ship, Marshall  county,  where  he  remained  for  a 
year.  He  then  removed  to  his  present  farm,  which 
he  purchased  in  1889.  It  is  a  valuable  and  pro- 
ductive tract  of  land  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  on  section  27,  Saratoga  township,  and  Mr. 
Kline  gave  his  personal  attention  to  its  super- 
vision and  cultivation  for  a  number  of  years,  but 
on  account  of  ill  health  during  the  past  three 
years  has  rented  his  land.  In  the  fall  of  1906  he 
expects  to  remove  to  Henry,  and  will  there  live 
retired,  for  his  property  and  other  interests  are 
sufficient  to  provide  him  with  a  good  annual  in- 
come. 

Mr.  Kline  was  married  in  1889  tc  Miss  Emily 
R.  Darby,  of  Saratoga  township,  who  died  in 
1892,  while  their  only  child  died  in  infancy.  In 
1894  Mr.  Kline  was  again  married,  his  second 
union  being  with  Bertha  Irene  Baker,  of  La  Prai- 
rie township,  a  daughter  of  William  and  Louisa 
(Scruggs)  Baker,  the  former  a  farmer  of  Henry. 
They  now  have  two  interesting  children :  Lou  F., 
born  March  16,  1898;  and  Ora  May,  born  Au- 
gust 4,  1900. 

Mr.  Kline  is  a  republican  and  is  a  communicant 
of  the  Catholic  church.  He  has  ever  been  a  broa,l 
reader  and  is  thoroughly  posted  on  matters  of 
general  interest.  He  represents  a  prominent  and 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF  MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


honored  pioneer  family  and  is  one  of  the  worthy 
native  sons,  whose  life  record  reflects  credit  upon 
the  county  of  his  birth,  for  he  is  classed  with  those 
who  uphold  the  legal  and  political  status  of  the 
community  and  stand  for  intellectual  and  moral 
progress. 


NEWTON  J.  MATHIS. 

The  farming  interests  of  Putnam  county  have 
a  worthy  representative  in  Newton  J.  Mathis,  who 
is  successfully  carrying  on  operations  in  his  chosen 
field  of  labor  on  section  30,  Magnolia  township. 
His  early  home  was  in  Ohio,  for  he  was  born  in 
Champaign  county,  that  state,  on  the  22d  of 
November,  1837,  and  is  a  son  of  Caleb  and  Mar- 
garet (Home)  Mathis,  both  of  whom  were  natives 
of  New  Jersey,  the  former  bom  March  3,  1793, 
and  the  latter  July  15,  1795.  The  parents  were 
reared  and  married  in  their  native  state  and  from 
there  removed  to  Champaign  county,  Ohio,  soon 
afterward.  In  1843  they  came  to  Champaign 
county,  Illinois,  and  one  year  later  took  up  their 
residence  in  Putnam  county,  settling  on  a  farm  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  which  at  that  time 
was  but  slightly  improved.  It  was  partially  cov- 
ered with  timber,  while  the  rest  was  prairie  land. 
Upon  his  place  the  father  erected  a  good  brick 
residence,  which  is  still  standing,  and  made  many 
other  useful  and  valued  improvements  which 
added  to  the  attractive  appearance  of  the  place. 
On  the  old  homestead  he  died  in  1875  and  his  wife 
passed  away  at  the  age  of  seventy-nine  years.  She 
was  an  earnest  and  consistent  member  of  the 
Methodist  church,  while  he  was  connected  with 
the  Society  of  Friends.  His  political  support 
was  given  to  the  republican  party,  but  he  took 
no  active  part  in  public  affairs.  In  his  family 
were  twelve  children,  but  only  our  subject  and 
his  sister,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Jane  Hoyt,  of  Lacon, 
Illinois,  are  now  living. 

Being  the  youngest  son  in  his  father's  family, 
Newton  J.  Mathis  remained  under  the  parental 
roof  during  his  boyhood  and  youth  and  acquired 
a  good  practical  education  in  the  common  schools 
of  the  neighborhood.  After  reaching  man's  estate 
he  purchased  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  the 
old  homestead,  upon  which  he  still  resides.  All 
of  the  buildings  and  improvements  found  thereon 
are  first  class  and  have  been  put  there  by  our 
subject.  As  time  has  passed  he  has  added  to  his 
property  and  is  now  the  owner  of  an  excellent 


farm  of  two  hundred  acres  where  he  resides,  and 
also  has  eighty  acres  one  mile  north,  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  near  Magnolia,  and  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  in  South  Dakota.  For  twenty 
years  he  has  devoted  considerable  attention  to  the 
feeding  of  cattle,  but  not  on  a  very  extensive 
scale.  In  all  his  undertakings  he  has  met  with 
marked  success  and  is  accounted  one  of  the  most 
enterprising  and  progressive  farmers  of  his  com- 
munity. 

It  was  on  the  23d  of  September,  1858,  that  Mr. 
Mathis  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Mary 
Jane  Seybold,  a  native  of  Knox  county,  Illinois, 
and  five  children  bless  their  union,  namely:  Wil- 
liam Leslie,  who  married  Ora  Norris  and  died 
November  23,  1906;  George  E.,  who  died  at  the 
age  of  two  years;  Edward  A.,  who  wedded  Mary 
Hiltebrand  and  resides  in  Magnolia;  James  N., 
who  died  at  the  age  of  twelve  years;  and  Vernon, 
who  is  still  at  home  with  his  parents.  He  is  a 
graduate  of  the  Magnolia  schools  and  now  aids 
his  father  in  the  operation  of  the  home  farm. 

Mr.  Mathis  and  his  wife  hold  membership  in 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and  stand  high  in 
public  regard.  He  votes  with  the  republican  party, 
and  for  the  long  period  of  thirty  years  has  effi- 
ciently served  as  school  director,  but  has  never 
sought  or  desired  to  hold  other  office.  His  wife 
is  well  known  as  a  splendid  cook  and  excellent 
housekeeper,  and  the  many  friends  of  the  family 
are  always  sure  to  find  a  hearty  welcome  at  their 
hospitable  door. 


WILLIAM  LEMUEL  BALL. 

Throughout  life  this  gentleman  was  identified 
with  the  agricultural  interests  of  Marshall  county 
and  won  a  place  among  the  prosperous  and  well- 
to-do  farmers  of  the  community  in  which  he  made 
his  home.  He  was  born  in  Lacon  on  the  19th  of 
November,  1848,  and  was  a  son  of  Jonas  L.  and 
Elizabeth  C.  (Fetter)  Ball.  For  many  years  the 
father  was  engaged  in  general  merchandising  in 
Lacon,  but  when  our  subject  was  twelve  years  of 
age  removed  to  a  farm  in  Belle  Plain  township, 
on  which  he  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits 
throughout  the  greater  part  of  his  life.  He  died 
on  the  7th  of  April,  1888,  honored  and  respected 
by  all  who  knew  him. 

During  his  boyhood  and  youth  William  L.  Ball 
pursued  his  studies  in  the  public  schools  of  Mar- 
shall county,  being  a  student  in  the  schools  of 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


393 


Wenona  for  a  time,  but  he  completed  his  education 
at  Eureka  College,  which  he  attended  for  several 
years.  On  starting  out  upon  his  business  career 
he  engaged  in  clerking  in  a  drug  store  in  Lacon 
and  afterward  read  medicine,  but  at  the  end  of  a 
year  decided  to  abandon  that  profession  and 
turned  his  attention  to  agricultural  pursuits. 
After  his  marriage  he  located  on  a  farm  of  two 
hundred  acres  given  him  by  his  father,  which  at 
that  time  was  improved,  but  to  its  cultivation 
and  further  development  he  turned  his  attention, 
finally  transforming  it  into  one  of  the  finest  farms 
of  Bennington  township. 

Mr.  Ball  was  married  February  22,  1871,  to 
Miss  Euth  A.  Stratton,  a  native  of  Vanderburg 
county,  Indiana,  born  August  10,  1848,  and  a 
daughter  of  James  and  Marcia  (Chalcraft)  Strat- 
ton. Four  children  blessed  the  union  of  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Ball,  who  in  order  of  birth  were  as  follows : 
Gertrude,  born  on  the  home  farm  January  3,  1872, 
was  married  on  the  21st  of  November,  1894,  to 
Roscoe  Bayne,  D.  D.,  at  Henry.  Cora  E.,  born 
September"  13,  1873,  is  now  the  wife  of  H.  H. 
Beckwith,  who  is  operating  the  old  home  farm, 
and  they  have  one  child,  Harold,  born  September 
26,  1903.  Frank  D.,  born  November  5,  1875, 
now  conducting  a  livery  stable  in  Toluca,  married 
Miss  Nellie  Mathis,  daughter  of  the  postmaster  at 
that  place,  and  they  have  three  children,  Ruth 
Irene,  James  William  and  Floyd  Raymond.  Wil 
Ham  J.,  born  August  24,  1881,  died  on  the  20th 
of  April,  1902.  The  children  were  given  good 
educational  privileges,  Cora  having  attended  the 
normal  college  and  also  Eureka  College,  while 
Frank  was  for  two  years  a  student  in  Eureka  Col- 
lege and  afterward  pursued  his  studies  for  one 
year  at  Galesburg. 

Mr.  Ball  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  en- 
terprising and  progressive  men  of  his  community, 
and  was  called  upon  to  take  an  active  part  in 
public  affairs.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  which 
occurred  on  his  farm  in  Bennington  township, 
August  12,  1884,  he  was  filling  the  position  of 
vice  president  of  the  Wenona  Union  Fair  Asso- 
ciation and  had  for  several  years  been  actively 
identified  with  its  prosperity.  At  an  early  age  he 
united  with  the  Christian  church,  to  which  his 
wife  and  family  also  belong,  and  throughout  life 
gave  a  liberal  support  to  all -measures  which  he 
believed  would  prove  of  public  benefit  or  would 
advance  the  moral  and  material  welfare  of  his 


native  county.  By  his  ballot  he  always  supported 
the  men  and  measures  of  the  democratic  party, 
and  was  honored  with  several  local  offices,  serving 
many  years  as  supervisor  of  Bennington  township, 
and  was  chairman  of  the  board  for  four  years, 
being  one  of  the  leading  members  of  the  board  at 
the  time  of  his  death.  He  was  several  times 
spoken  of  as  a  candidate  for  the  legislature,  and 
had  he  lived  would  undoubtedly  have  been  nom- 
inated and  elected.  After  a  useful  and  well  spent 
life  of  forty  years  he  passed  away,  honored  and 
respected  by  all  who  knew  him,  and  in  his  death 
the  community  realized  that  it  had  lost  a  valued 
citizen. 

CLEMENT  W.  RANSOM. 

Clement  W.  Ransom  is  a  young  man  of  good 
business  ability,  who  is  now  successfully  conduct- 
ing general  agricultural  pursuits  upon  a  farm  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  in  Henry  township. 
His  birth  occurred  on  Christmas  day  of  1876  in 
Magnolia  township,  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  and 
he  is  a  son  of  Benjamin  F.  and  Augusta  (Shields) 
Ransom.  Both  are  representatives  of  old  families 
of  the  state,  having  been  born  in  Putnam  county, 
the  father  on  the  29th  of  January,  1857,  and  the 
mother  on  the  27th  of  February,  1857,  and  there 
they  still  reside.  The  father  devotes  his  time  and 
energies  to  general  farming  and  the  live-stock 
business.  Fraternally  he  is  a  member  of  Marshall 
lodge,  No.  63,  I.  0.  0.  F.  In  his  family  were 
ten  children,  and  with  one  exception  all  are  yet 
living.  The  record  is  as  follows :  Clement  W.  is 
the  oldest.  James  C.,  born  December  30,  1878, 
follows  farming  on  the  Peter  Schmitt  farm  in 
Henry  township,  Marshall  county,  and  is  also  a 
member  of  Marshall  lodge,  No.  63,  I.  0.  0.  F. 
He  wedded  Miss  Myrtle  Smith,  by  whom  he  has 
one  son,  Eugene.  Roy  F.,  born  December  13, 
1880,  is  carrying  on  agricultural  pursuits  upon 
the  farm  generally  known  as  the  Dry  Hollow 
farm,  in  Putnam  county.  He  married  Miss  Min- 
nie Smith  and  they  have  one  child,  Lawrence. 
Edna  B.,  born  February  12,  1883,  is  the  wife 
of  Chauncey  Peters,  of  Whitefield  township,  by 
whom  she  has  two  children,  Benjamin  and  Nellie. 
Mabel  S.,  born  March  3,  1885,  Bertha  M.,  born 
February  22,  1889,  and  Irl  B.,  born  May  1,  189», 
are  all  at  home.  Myrtle  is  deceased.  Henry  W., 
born  May  15,  1896,  and  Guy  C.,  born  September 
7,  1901,  are  also  at  home  with  their  parents. 

Clement  W.  Ransom  acquired  his  education  in 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL    AND   P1TXAM   COUNTIES. 


the  district  schools  of  La  Salle  county  and  was 
reared  to  the  work  of  the  farm,  assisting  his  father 
through  the  period  of  his  boyhood  and  youth.  He 
has  desired  no  other  occupation  and  is  now  giving 
his  time  and  energies  to  the  operation  of  a  farm 
of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  belonging  to  Mrs. 
James  Giltner.  The  entire  place  is  under  cultiva- 
tion and  responds  readily  to  the  care  and  labor 
he  bestows  upon  the  fields,  so  that  he  is  now 
conducting  a  prosperous  business,  meeting  with  a 
measure  of  success  that  many  an  older  man  might 
well  envy. 

In  1899  Mr.  Ransom  was  united  in  marriage 
to  Miss  Grace  MeBride,  a  daughter  of  Michael 
McBride,  of  Henry.  This  union  was  blessed  with 
three  children:  Marjorie,  who  died  in  infancy; 
Mildred,  three  and  a  half  years  of  age ;  and  Clara, 
deceased.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ransom  hold  membership 
in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  and  in  the 
community  where  they  reside  they  have  a  large 
circle  of  warm  friends.  Mr.  Ransom  belongs  to 
Marshall  lodge,  No.  63,  I.  0.  0.  F.,  and  he  gives 
his  political  support  to  the  democracy,  having  ad- 
vocated its  cause  since  age  conferred  upon  him 
the  right  of  franchise. 


JASPER  CECIL. 

Jasper  Cecil,  the  present  efficient  sheriff  of  Put- 
nam county,  and  a  representative  of  the  industrial 
interests  of  Hennepin,  where  for  many  years  he 
has  engaged  in  blacksmi  thing,  was  born  here  on 
the  22d  of  October,  1843.  His  father,  Isaac  Cecil 
was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  born  April  16,  1807, 
and  in  1835  he  came  to  Hennepin,  where  he  estab- 
lished a  shop  and  engaged  in  blacksmithing.  He 
was  an  expert  workman  at  any  kind  of  iron  work 
and  for  years  was  the  leading  blacksmith  of  this 
part  of  the  county.  He  was  also  a  crack  shot  with 
the  rifle  and  could  hit  a  turkey  in  the  head  at 
each  shot,  though  he  often  missed  one  intention- 
ally in  order  to  prevent  him  from  being  barred 
from  the  shooting  contests.  He  was  a  very  tem- 
perate man  in  all  his  habits,  never  using  liquor 
nor  tobacco  in  any  form  nor  using  profane  lan- 
guage. Well  developed  both  physically  and  men- 
tally, there  was  not  an  ounce  of  superfluous  flesh 
on  him,  though  he  weighed  two  hundred  and  ten 
pounds.  His  great  strength  made  him  alwayc 
captain  of  a  gang  at  log  rollings  in  the  early  day? 
and  it  is  said  that  he  could  shoulder  a  log  twelve 
feet  long  and  a  foot  thick.  In  his  later  years,  how- 


ever, the  effects  of  the  hard  work  which  he  did  in 
earlier  life  were  evident.  He  resided  almost  con- 
tinuously in  Hennepin  from  the  time  of  his  ar- 
rival in  Illinois  until  his  death,  save  for  the  period 
between  the  years  184!*  and  1862,  which  he  spent 
in  Peru,  Illinois,  where  he  was  engaged  in  black- 
smithing.  In  the  latter  year  he  returned  to  Henne- 
pin, where  he  continued  to  reside  until  called 
to  his  final  rest  on  the  loth  of  July,  1871.  His 
political  allegiance  was  given  to  the  democracy 
but  he  never  aspired  to  nor  held  office. 

Isaac  Cecil  was  twice  married,  his  first  wife 
being  killed  by  lightning  in  Hennepin.  On  the 
20th  of  November,  1842,  he  wedded  Amanda 
Zenor,  who  was  born  February  27,  1823,  and 
passed  away  February  10,  1895.  They  became  the 
parents  of  eight  children,  of  whom  four  died  in 
infancy,  the  others  being  Jasper  Stephen,  who 
was  born  September  21,  1854,  and  is  now  working 
in  the  car  shops  at  Plattsmouth,  Nebraska ;  Isaac, 
who  was  born  September  17,  1857,  and  is  a  boiler- 
maker  at  Plattsmouth;  and  Anna,  who  was  born 
October  15,  1864,  and  is  now  the  wife  of  Virgil 
Mullis,  of  Plattsmouth. 

Jasper  Cecil,  reared  under  the  parental  roof, 
spent  his  early  life  in  Hennepin  and  in  Peru,  re- 
turning to  the  latter  city  in  1862  when  in  his 
eighteenth  year.  He  has  since  made  his  home 
here.  His  education  was  acquired  in  the  public 
schools  and  he  learned  the  blacksmith's  trade  un- 
der the  direction  of  his  father,  since  which  time 
he  has  followed  that  pursuit,  becoming  an  expert 
workman.  He  has  lived  a  life  of  industry  and 
enterprise  and  whatever  success  he  has  achieved  is 
attributable  entirely  to  his  own  efforts.  Never 
ambitious  to  attain  wealth  he  has,  however,  pro- 
vided a  comfortable  living  for  his  family  and  has 
taken  time  to  enjoy  life  and  its  social  relations. 

In  1866  Mr.  Cecil  was  married  to  Miss  Jennie 
Mullin,  a  native  of  Ohio  and  a  daughter  of  Joseph 
Mullin,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Putnam  county. 
They  now  have  a  beautiful  home  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  city  which  was  erected  by  Mr.  Cecil 
and  is  always  kept  in  a  state  of  good  repair,  be- 
ing one  of  the  attractive  residences  here.  Two 
children  have  been  born  of  this  marriage:  Mar- 
zella,  who  is  the  widow  of  F.  B.  Neal  and  lived 
in  Peoria  until  her  husband's  death,  May  19, 
1906,  but  is  now  making  her  home  in  Hennepin : 
and  Florence,  now  the  wife  of  John  P.  Church, 
proprietor  of  the  Cecil  Hotel  of  Hennepin,  by 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


397 


whom  she  has  two  interesting  children,  Cecil  and 
Jennie. 

Mr.  Cecil  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  prominent 
representatives  of  the  republican  party  in  Henne- 
pin.  He  served  for  several  years  on  the  village 
board  and  always  worked  faithfully  and  inde- 
fatigably  for  improvements  which  have  benefited 
the  city.  He  was  a  member  of  the  board  at  the 
time  the  artesian  well  was  dug  and  was  termed 
the  father  of  the  project,  so  zealously  did  he  labor 
for  its  adoption.  He  served  for  the  second  year 
as  president  of  the  board,  a  place  which  he  filled 
with  credit  to  himself  and  satisfaction  to  his  con- 
stituents. In  the  fall  of  1906  he  was  the  candi- 
date for  county  sheriff  on  the  republican  ticket 
and  was  elected  by  a  large  majority.  He  deserves 
this  honor  at  the  hands  of  his  fellow  citizens, 
for  he  has  always  been  most  loyal  to  the  public 
good  and  has  contributed  in  substantial  measure 
to  the  improvement  and  progress  of  the  county. 


JAMES  N.  BENNINGTON. 
In  pioneer  times  a  resident  of  this  portion  of 
Illinois,  James  N.  Bennington  has  been  an  inter- 
ested witness  of  the  progress  that  has  been  carried 
forward  by  the  pioneer  settlers  and  the  later  resi- 
dents of  the  county  and  at  all  times  has  borne  his 
full  share  in  the  work  of  general  improvement  and 
advancement.  He  has  intimate  knowledge  of  events 
which  have  shaped  the  history  of  the  county,  and 
his  memory  constitutes  a  connecting  link  between 
the  primitive  past  and  the  progressive  present. 
His  life  record  therefore  cannot  fail  to  prove  a 
source  of  interest  to  our  readers,  many  of  whom 
he  claims  among  his  friends.  Born  in  what  is 
now  Peoria  county,  between  Peoria  and  Washing- 
ton, Illinois,  his  natal  day  was  September  22, 
1831.  His  father,  Thomas  Bennington,  was  born 
August  22,  1803,  in  Boone  county,  Kentucky,  near 
Big  Bone  lake.  He  became  a  farmer  by  occupa- 
tion, and,  removing  to  Illinois  in  pioneer  times,  he 
lived  for  a  period  in  Peoria  county  and  afterward 
took  up  his  abode  in  a  pioneer  cabin  which  stood 
upon  the  farm  which  is  now  the  home  and  prop- 
erty of  his  son  James.  Here  he  owned  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  acres  of  good  land,  which  he  con- 
verted into  productive  fields  through  methods 
which  showed  him  to  be  one  of  the  progressive 
farmers  of  his  day.  His  political  support  was 
given  to  the  republican  party  at  the  polls,  but  he 
was  not  an  active  politician  as  regards  office  seek- 


ing. His  religious  faith  was  indicated  by  his 
membership  in  the  Christian  church.  In  early 
manhood  he  wedded  Cynthia  Mason,  who  was  born 
December  11,  1807.  She  too  was  a  member  of  the 
Christian  church.  Their  marriage,  which  was  cel- 
ebrated March  5,  1829,  was  blessed  with  ten  chil- 
dren. Parthena  B.,  who  was  born  February  6, 
1830,  and  is  now  deceased;  James,  of  this  review; 
Nancy  Jane,  who  was  born  March  22,  1834,  and 
has  passed  away;  Margaret,  who  was  born  June 
22,  1836,  and  is  deceased;  John  F.,  who  was  born 
December  27,  1834,  and  has  departed  this  life, 
William,  born  November  7,  1840;  Cynthia  Ann, 
born  May  2,  1842,  and  is  now  deceased;  Louisa; 
Mary,  who  died  in  Portland,  Oregon ;  and  Martha, 
who  completed  the  family. 

James  N.  Bennington  spent  his  childhood  days 
upon  a  farm  in  the  same  locality  in  which  he  now 
lives,  having  been  brought  by  his  parents  to  Put- 
nam county  in  his  early  childhood  days.  He  pur- 
sued his  education  in  the  Belle  Plain  district 
school,  conning  his  lessons  while  seated  upon  a  slab 
bench  in  a  log  schoolhouse.  He  now  has  in  his  pos- 
session one  of  the  slabs  which  was  used  in  the  stick 
chimney  and  which  is  a  mute  reminder  of  the 
early  days  and  the  methods  of  instruction  whicn 
were  followed  in  that  early  schoolroom.  In  his 
youth  he  broke  many  acres  of  wild  prairie  and 
performed  other  arduous  work  in  connection  with 
the  development  of  a  new  farm.  There  were  many 
deer  in  the  county  and  wolves  were  quite  numerous 
in  his  boyhood  days.  He  remained  under  the 
parental  roof  up  to  the  time  of  his  marriage.  Dur- 
ing the  Civil  war  he  was  drafted  for  service  and 
went  to  Peoria  in  1862,  but  it  was  not  necessary 
that  he  should  go  to  the  front.  Throughout  his 
entire  business  career  he  has  carried  on  general 
agricultural  pursuits,  and  is  now  the  owner  of 
two  hundred  and  eighty  acres  in  Bennington  and 
Belle  Plain  townships.  His  home  is  a  beautiful 
residence  situated  at  the  western  boundary  ol  a 
little  village  called  Belle  Plain. 

On  the  6th  of  May,  1858,  occurred  the  mar- 
riage of  James  N.  Bennington  and  Miss  Amanda 
Hollenback,  who  was  born  in  Ohio,  June  13,  1838, 
a  daughter  of  Harrison  and  Margaret  Hollenback. 
Her  father  lost  his  life  at  the  hand  of  an  as- 
sassin in  1847.  Her  mother,  who  was  born  in 
Perry  county,  Ohio,  November  26,  1815,  died  at 
Dana,  Illinois,  July  10,  1895.  She  became  the 
wife,  of  Harrison  Hollenback  March  31,  1835, 


PAST    AND    1'KKSKXT    OF   MARSHALL    AXD    PCTXAM    COrXTIKS. 


and  removing  to  Illinois,  located  in  Woodf ord 
county  near  the  town  of  Belle  Plain.  In  the 
family  were  five  children:  Mrs.  Mary  Weaver, 
who  died  in  1864;  Mrs.  Amanda  Bennington; 
Daniel;  Samuel,  who  died  in  1878;  and  Mrs. 
Rebecca  Rickey.  The  mother,  Mrs.  Hollenback, 
spent  the  last  twenty  years  of  her  life  in  Roanoke, 
Illinois.  She  was  for  many  years  a  devoted  mem- 
ber of  the  Methodist  church  and  an  earnest  Chris- 
tion  woman,  while  her  good  traits  of  heart  and 
mind  endeared  her  to  all  with  whom  she  came 
in  contact. 

The  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Bennington  has  been 
blessed  with  two  sons  and  three  daughters.  Sam- 
uel F.,  the  eldest,  born  March  22,  1859,  is  now 
engaged  in  farming  in  Bennington  township.  He 
wedded  Maggie  Nelson  and  they  have  five  chil- 
dren, two  sons  and  three  daughters.  Flora  E. 
Benson,  born  August  29,  1861,  is  the  wife  of  C. 
M.  McChesney,  who  is  living  near  Packwood, 
Iowa.  Mary  S.,  born  December  6,  1865,  is  the 
wife  of  Arthur  Hayden,  a  resident  of  Jacksonville, 
Illinois.  James  F.,  born  May  7,  1868,  died  No- 
vember 23,  1871.  Ida,  born  April  20,  1870,  is 
the  wife  of  C.  A.  Burnham,  living  in  Ashton,  Lee 
county,  Illinois.  The  parents  are  a  most  estimable 
couple,  having  the  warm  regard  and  admiration 
of  all  who  know  them.  They  are  members  of  the 
Christian  church  and  their  lives  are  in  harmony 
with  its  teachings.  Considerate  of  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  others,  of  kindly  spirit  and  generous 
disposition,  they  have  gained  the  confidence  and 
good  will  of  all  with  whom  they  have  been  asso- 
ciated. Mr.  Bennington  is  a  republican  in  his 
political  views  but  has  never  been  an  office  seeker, 
preferring  to  concentrate  his  energies  upon  his 
business  affairs,  which  have  been  well  directed 
and  have  brought  him  a  goodly  measure  of  use- 
cess. 

JOHN  TURNBULL. 

John  Turnbull,  a  representative  of  the  agricul- 
tural interests  of  La  Prairie  township,  his  farm 
comprising  two  hundred  and  ninety-three  acres  of 
well  improved  land  on  section  21,  was  born  in 
this  township  in  1861  and  is  a  son  of  Robert  and 
Mary  (Smith)  Turnbull,  whose  sketch  appears 
elsewhere  in  this  volume.  Upon  the  old  home 
farm  John  Turnbull  was  reared  and  the  district 
schools  afforded  him  his  early  education,  which 
was  supplemented  by  a  course  of  study  in  Brown's 


College  at  Peoria.  Ho  entered  business 
life  on  his  own  account  in  1884  and  has  always 
engaged  in  general  agricultural  pursuits  and  stock- 
raising.  That  he  has  prospered  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  he  is  now  the  owner  of  two  hundred 
and  ninety-three  acres  of  well  improved  land. 
Upon  his  place  are  good  buildings  that  in  turn 
are  surrounded  by  richly  tilled  fields,  and  every- 
thing about  the  farm  is  indicative  of  the  spirit  of 
thrift  and  enterprise  displayed  by  the  owner,  who 
not  only  carefully  cultivates  his  fields,  but  is  also 
a  successful  breeder  of  full  blooded  Hereford  cat- 
tle, having  at  the  head  of  his  herd  a  fine  bull, 
Soldier  Boy,  which  he  purchased  of  Gudgell  & 
Simpson,  of  Independence,  Missouri,  and  which 
bears  the  register  number  228527.  Mr.  Turnbull 
makes  a  specialty  of  the  business  of  feeding  cattle 
and  hogs,  and  always  has  fine  stock  upon  his  place, 
for  which  he  secured  a  ready  sale  on  the  market. 
He  is  likewise  president  of  the  Mutual  Fire  In- 
surance Company  of  La  Prairie  township. 

On  September  9,  1886,  in  Lacon,  Illinois,  oc- 
curred the  marriage  of  Mr.  Turnbull  and  Miss 
Clara  Noel,  who  was  born  in  Ogle  county,  Illinois, 
July  21,  1863,  and  was  educated  in  Mount  Morris 
College.  She  is  a  daughter  of  M.  F.  Noel,  whose 
birth  occurred  in  Adams  county,  Pennsylvania, 
in  1834.  He  was  a  shoemaker  by  trade  and  in 
1855,  when  a  young  man  of  twenty-one  years, 
came  to  Illinois.  In  his  political  views  he  was 
a  democrat.  He  married  Margaret  Householder, 
who  was  born  in  Montgomery  county,  Ohio,  in 
1837,  and  who  came  to  Illinois  in  1845,- her  edu- 
cation being  largely  acquired  in  Ogle  county.  In 
1856  she  gave  her  hand  in  marriage  to  Mr.  Noel 
and  in  1881  they  removed  to  Marshall  county, 
settling  at  Lacon,  where  he  engaged  in  the  shoe 
business.  In  their  family  were  four  children: 
Mrs.  M.  M.  Mallery,  of  Pontiac,  Illinois;  Mrs. 
Nettie  Cleveland,  who  is  living  in  Aurora,  Illi- 
nois; John,  a  resident  of  Lacon;  and  Mrs.  Turn- 
bull. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Turnbull  began  their  domestic 
life  upon  a  farm  and  have  always  been  interested 
in  general  agricultural  pursuits.  Their  home  has 
been  blessed  with  three  children :  Robert  N.,  An- 
drew and  Lawrence,  all  of  whom  are  under  the 
parental  roof.  Mrs.  Turnbull  is  a  member  of  the 
United  Presbyterian  church  and  is  a  most  estima- 
ble lady,  possessing  many  good  traits  of  heart  and 
mind.  Mr.  Turnbull  votes  with  the  republican 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


party  and  has  served  as  assessor  for  two  years  and 
filled  other  local  offices.  He,  too,  is  a  member  of 
the  United  Presbyterian  church  and  his  influence 
is  ever  given  on  the  side  of  right,  progress  and 
improvement.  Having  always  lived  in  this  part 
of  the  state,  he  is  widely  known  and  his  salient 
characteristics  are  such  as  have  gained  him  rank 
with  the  worthy,  influential  and  prosperous  resi- 
dents of  La  Prairie  township. 


JOHN  E.  MONAHAN. 

John  E.  Monahan,  who  throughout  his  entire 
life  has  followed  the  occupation  of  farming  and 
now  owns  and  operates  the  old  family  homestead 
comprising  two  hundred  and  ninety-two  and  a  half 
acres  of  land  in  Belle  Plain  township,  Marshall 
county,  was  born  in  1870.  His  father,  Edward 
Monahan,  was  a  native  of  Ireland  and  when  a 
young  man  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  the  new  world, 
hoping  that  he  might  provide  a  better  home  in 
this  country  than  he  could  secure  on  the  Emerald 
isle.  He  came  alone  and  worked  first  for  John 
Wire,  while  later  he  took  up  his  abode  in  Belle 
Plain  township  and  eventually  became  the  owner 
of  four  hundred  and  twenty-seven  acres  of  valu- 
able land,  on  which  he  carried  on  general  farm- 
ing and  stock-raising.  His  political  allegiance 
was  given  to  the  democracy  and  he  was  a  com- 
municant of  the  Catholic  church.  His  wife,  Mrs. 
Bridget  Monahan,  was  also  a  native  of  the  Em- 
erald isle  and  came  to  America  with  her  parents, 
who  settled  in  Lacon,  Illinois,  and  soon  afterward 
located  on  Crow  creek,  Riehland  township.  She 
too  was  a  communicant  of  the  Catholic  church. 
Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Monahan  were  born  eleven 
children:  Mary,  who  is  now  the  wife  of  James 
Donley  and  resides  in  Bureau  county;  Anna,  who 
is  acting  as  housekeeper  for  her  brother  John; 
Charles,  who  wedded  Mary  Welsh  and  is  living 
at  Minonk ;  Katie,  who  married  John  Schaell ; 
John  E.,  of  this  review;  Martin,  who  has  passed 
away;  Ella,  the  wife  of  William  Manley  of  Min- 
onk; Lizzie,  the  wife  of  John  Mertall,  who  is  liv- 
ing in  Bureau  county;  Tressie,  the  wife  of  Ed 
Harney,  of  Bradford,  Illinois;  Rosa,  who  is  a 
school  teacher  and  makes  her  home  with  her 
brother  John;  and  Veronica,  who  is  a  milliner. 

John  E.  Monahan  spent  his  childhood  days 
where  he  now  resides  and  aided  more  and  more 
largely  in  the  work  of  the  fields  as  his  age  and 
strength  permitted.  He  attended  the  Sulphur 


Springs  school  through  the  winter  months  when 
the  work  of  the  farm  was  practically  over  for  the 
year  and  in  the  summer  seasons  aided  in  the  task 
of  plowing,  planting  and  harvesting.  He  has 
always  continued  upon  the  old  homestead,  which 
he  yet  owns  and  which  comprises  two  hundred  and 
ninety-two  and  a  half  acres  of  land.  His  political 
allegiance  is  given  to  the  democracy  and  he  keeps 
well  informed  on  the  questions  and  issues  of  the 
day,  although  he  never  seeks  or  desires  office.  He 
is  a  very  devout  member  of  the  Catholic  church, 
contributes  generously  to  its  support  and  rejoices 
in  its  growth  and  progress.  In  his  business  affairs 
he  shows  keen  discrimination  and  thorough  un- 
derstanding of  the  work  to  which  he  gives  his 
time  and  energies  and  has  a  well  improved  farm 
property  which  shows  in  its  splendid  appearance 
the  care  and  labor  which  has  been  bestowed  upon 
it  for  many  years. 


PETER  WEST. 

Peter  West,  who  owns  a  half  interest  in  valu- 
able land  holdings  aggregating  six  hundred  and 
fifty-eight  acres,  is  located  on  section  11,  Lacon 
township,  and  is  there  carefully  conducting  his 
farming  interests.  He  was  born  near  Spring  Bay, 
Woodford  county,  Illinois,  in  1885.  His  father, 
James  West,  was  born  in  Illinois  in  1868  and 
made  his  home  on  the  farm  now  owned  and  occu- 
pied by  our  subject  and  which  was  formerly  the 
property  of  Nicholas  Snyder,  the  maternal  grand- 
father of  Peter  West.  The  father  and  mother 
of  the  latter  both  died  prior  to  the  death  of  Nich- 
olas Snyder  and  when  the  grandfather  passed 
away  he  left  his  farm  to  his  two  grandsons,  Peter 
and  Willie  West,  the  latter  being  a  minor.  Mr. 
Snyder  was  born  in  1837  and  died  in  1900.  He 
was  a  very  active,  enterprising  and  prosperous  man 
and  at  his  death  he  owned  nineteen  hundred  acres 
of  valuable  land  beside  property  in  Spring  Bay, 
Illinois,  comprising  several  lots  and  houses.  He 
had  two  children:  Mrs.  Anna  West  and  Emma 
Snyder.  The  elder  was  born  at  Spring  Bay  in 
1869  and  died  on  the  28th  of  May,  1895,  leaving 
three  children :  Mrs.  Emma  Thompson,  whose 
husband  is  engaged  in  farming  in  Lacon  town- 
ship, Marshall  county ;  Peter ;  and  Willie. 

In  taking  up  the  personal  history  of  Peter  West 
we  present  to  our  readers  the  life  record  of  one 
of  the  most  enterprising  young  farmers  of  the 


400 


PAST    AND    TRKSFAT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    PUTXAM    COUXTlKri. 


county.  He  acquired  his  education  at  the  South 
Lacon  school  and  in  1901  began  farming  on  his 
own  account,  operating  the  land  which  was  left 
to  him  and  his  brother  by  their  grandfather. 
The  place  comprises  six  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
acres  and  is  very  valuable  and  productive,  so  that 
Mr.  West  is  very  comfortably  situated  in  life. 
On  the  5th  of  May,  1901,  he  wedded  Miss  Stella 
Dalrymple,  who  was  born  in  Marshall  county,  Illi- 
nois, in  1884,  a  daughter  of  Charles  Dalrymple, 
a  farmer  of  Hopewell  township.  Their  children 
are  Pearley  and  Howard.  Mr.  West  votes  with 
the  democracy,  but  does  not  seek  nor  desire  pub- 
lic office,  preferring  to  concentrate  his  energies 
upon  his  business  affairs,  which  he  is  now  capably 
conducting  and  which  claim  his  entire  time  and 
attention. 

DAVID  E.  BLACKWELL. 
The  farming  interests,  which  are  the  chief 
source  of  revenue  in  Marshall  county,  as  "well  as 
in  other  districts  in  Illinois,  find  a  worthy  repre- 
sentative in  David  B.  Blackwell,  who  owns  and 
operates  an  excellent  tract  of  land  on  section  16, 
Steuben  township.  He  is  one  of  the  native  sons 
of  Illinois  and  is  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  enter- 
prise and  progress  which  have  been  the  dominant 
factors  in  the  substantial  and  rapid  upbuilding 
of  the  state.  His  birth  occurred  in  Mount  Ver- 
non  on  the  3d  of  July,  1848.  His  father,  the 
Kev.  David  Blackwell,  was  born  in  Kentucky  and 
for  many  years  devoted  his  life  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church.  He 
became  a  member  of  the  Illinois  conference  and 
at  one  time  was  pastor  of  the  Methodist  church 
at  Lacon.  He  died  near  Mount  Vernon  when 
forty  years  of  age,  his  son  and  namesake  being 
then  but  two  weeks  old.  His  wife  bore  the  maiden 
name  of  Lucinda  Watkins  and  was  born  in  Ohio. 
Following  her  husband's  death  she  and  her  two 
children  went  to  live  with  his  brother's  family 
near  Mount  Vernon.  Her  elder  son  is  William 
B.  Blackwell,  now  a  minister  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church.  Mrs.  Blackwell  and  her  chil- 
dren made  their  home  with  her  husband's  broth- 
er's family  for  about  four  and  a  half  years  and 
then  removed  to  Marshall  county,  where  she  had 
formerly  resided.  She  afterward  became  the  wife 
of  James  Tanquary,  who  gave  a  home  to  the  two 
fatherless  boys  and  bestowed  upon  them  a  father's 
care  and  attention.  The  elder,  William  E,  Black- 


well,  was  graduated  from  Wesleyan  University  at 
Bloomington,  Illinois,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
eight  began  teaching  the  gospel  as  a  minister  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  since  which  time 
he  has  become  well  known  in  connection  with 
Christian  work  in  northern  Illinois. 

David  E.  Blackwell  was  reared  to  manhood  upon 
the  farm  of  his  stepfather  and  attended  school  at 
Bethel,  completing  his  education,  however,  at 
Sparland.  He  remained  with  Mr.  Tanquary  un- 
til twenty-one  years  of  age,  when  he  began  farm- 
ing on  his  own  account,  spending  one  year  near 
Wenona.  He  then  rented  a  farm  near  Pontiac, 
Livingston  county,  where  he  resided  for  one  year, 
after  which  he  went  to  Adair  county,  Iowa,  but 
on  account  of  failing  health  returned  to  Illinois 
and  located  in  Steuben  township  upon  his  father- 
in-law's  place.  He  later  purchased  the  property 
and  resided  thereon  for  fourteen  years,  when  he 
sold  out  and  bought  the  farm  which  is  now  his 
place  of  residence  on  section  16,  Steuben  township. 
Here  he  has  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  ex- 
cellent farm  land  which  yields  to  him  large  har- 
vests in  return  for  the  care  and  labor  he  bestows 
upon  the  fields. 

On  the  llth  of  August,  1872,  Mr.  Blackwell  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Eebecca  Hoskins,  who 
was  born  in  Steuben  township,  January  10,  1853, 
and  is  a  daughter  of  John  and  Eliza  (Bonham) 
Hoskins.  Her  father  was  a  native  of  Pickaway 
county,  Ohio,  and  following  his  marriage,  which 
was  celebrated  there,  he  started  for  Illinois  in 
company  with  his  wife's  parents,  Warford  and 
Eebecca  (Mason)  Bonham.  The  Bonhams  settled 
in  Whitefield  township,  three  miles  north  of  Spar- 
land,  while  Mr.  Hoskins  took  up  his  abode  in  the 
bottom  land  and  later  removed  to  the  prairie. 
He  died  in  1879,  while  his  widow  removed  to 
Iowa  to  be  with  her  children  and  later  to  Ne- 
braska, where  her  death  occurred  August  21,  1904, 
at  the  advanced  age  of  ninety-one  years. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blackwell  have  been  born 
eight  children:  William,  born  in  1873,  who  at- 
tended the  Western  Normal  College  at  Bushnell, 
Illinois,  in  1896  and  for  two  years  was  a  student 
in  the  University  of  Wisconsin  in  the  summer 
sessions,  afterward  became  a  student  in  Morning- 
side  College  at  Sioux  City,  Iowa,  graduated  with 
the  degree  of  bachelor  of  philosophy  in  1905.  He 
is  at  this  writing,  in  1906,  a  professor  in  the  col- 
lege at  Lemars,  Iowa.  Edson,  born  in  1876,  is 


PAST   AND   PKESBNT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


401 


now  engaged  in  farming  in  Steuben  township  and 
married  Stella  Suft.  Lillian,  born  in  1878,  is  the 
wife  of  Arthur  Kehelenbach,  a  resident  farmer  of 
Steuben  township.  Lucinda  is  the  wife  of  Christie 
Reynolds,  of  Denver,  Colorado.  Leslie,  born  in 
1883,  died  in  1900.  Holland,  born  in  1885,  James 
Quinn,  in  1887,  and  Fred,  in  1890,  are  all  at 
home.  The  family  are  members  of  the  Bethel 
Methodist  Episcopal  church,  in  which  Mr.  Black- 
well  has  held  office,  while  his  political  views  are 
in  accord  with  the  principles  of  the  republican 
party.  Almost  his  entire  life  has  been  spent  in 
this  portion  of  the  state  and  he  is  one  who,  through 
the  natural  advantages  offered  by  Illinois  and 
through  the  utilization  of  its  business  opportuni- 
ties, has  worked  his  way  upward  and  is  now  a 
prosperous  farmer  with  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres  of  valuable  land  to  show  as  proof  of  his  life 
of  industry  and  thrift. 


MATTHEW  VAN  PETTEN. 

Matthew  Van  Petten  is  the  owner  of  a  beautiful 
home  in  Washburn,  together  with  fine  farming 
property  situated  on  the  boundary  line  between 
Woodford  and  Marshall  counties.  For  many  years 
he  was  actively  associated  with  general  agricultural 
pursuits,  but  now,  leaving  the  work  of  the  farm 
to  others,  is  living  retired,  surrounded  by  many  of 
the  comforts  and  luxuries  that  go  to  make  life 
worth  living.  His  birth  occurred  in  Cayuga 
county,  New  York,  August  5,  1846.  His  father, 
Peter  Van  Petten,  was  also  a  native  of  the  Em- 
pire state  and  was  a  cabinet-maker  and  contractor. 
Thinking  to  enjoy  better  business  opportunities 
in  the  middle  west,  he  came  to  Illinois  and  in 
1850  settled  at  Lawn  Ridge,  purchasing  land  in 
Marshall  county.  He  was  for  some  years  there- 
after actively  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits 
but  at  length  retired  from  active  life  and  removed 
to  Kansas,  spending  his  last  days  with  his  son 
Solomon  in  Peabody,  that  state.  His  wife,  who 
bore  the  maiden  name  of  Naomi  Rosette  Van 
Petten,  died  when  her  son  Matthew  was  only  six 
months  old.  The  father  afterward  wedded  Martha 
Van  Auken,  who  died  in  Marshall  county,  Illinois. 
There  were  eight  children  by  the  second  marriage, 
five  sons  and  three  daughters,  namely:  Solomon, 
Veder,  Robert,  Seward,  Floyd,  Eleanor,  Naomi 
and  Ruby. 

Matthew  Van  Petten  acquired  his  preliminary 
education  in  the  district  schools  and  was  after- 


ward a  student  in  the  high  schools  of  Toulon 
and  Lacon.  He  devoted  twenty  years  of  his  life 
to  teaching  and  became  widely  recognized  as  a 
most  capable  and  successful  educator,  doing  much 
to  promote  the  interests  of  public  instruction  in 
this  part  of  the  state.  He  taught  in  Peoria, 
Stark,  Marshall  and  La  Salle  counties  and  also 
in  Kansas,  imparting  with  clearness  and  readiness 
to  others  the  knowledge  that  he  had  acquired  and 
stimulating  his  pupils  to  put  forth  strong  and 
effective  effort  in  mastering  those  branches  of 
learning  which  constitute  a  most  excellent  prepa- 
ration for  life's  practical  and  responsible  duties. 
In  1876  he  settled  upon  a  farm  in  La  Prairie 
township,  but  has  spent  most  of  his  life  in  Belle 
Plain  township.  In  1880  he  purchased  an  excel- 
lent tract  of  land  in  the  latter  township  and  con- 
tinued to  engage'  actively  in  farming  thereon  un- 
til March,  1905,  when  he  retired  to  his  beautiful 
home  in  Washburn,  Illinois.  He  still  owns  two 
excellent  farms,  comprising  two  hundred  and 
sixty-five  acres  of  land  in  Belle  Plain  township, 
lying  on  the  boundary  line  between  Woodford  and 
Marshall  counties.  He  employs  a  man  to  take 
charge  of  and  operate  these  farms  and  he  derives 
therefrom  a  good  income. 

Mr.  Van  Petten  was  married  on  the  22d  of 
June,  1876,  to  Miss  Lucy  Remley,  of  Marshall 
county,  Illinois.  They  were  married  in  Woodford 
county,  however,  and  they  now  occupy  a  most 
beautiful  residence  in  Washburn.  It  is  the  center 
of  a  cultured  society  circle,  as  well  as  being  one 
of  the  most  attractive  homes  of  this  part  of  the 
county.  Washburn  is  a  most  beautiful  little  town 
of  one  thousand  inhabitants,  celebrated  for  its 
lovely  homes  and  its  air  of  culture,  and  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Van  Petten  are  accorded  a  leading  social 
position  here. 

Mr.  Van  Petten  belongs  to  the  Masonic  fra- 
ternity, having  been  initiated  into  the  lodge  at 
Rutland,  while  he  now  affiliates  with  Washburn 
lodge.  His  political  allegiance  is  given  to  the  re- 
publican party  and  he  keeps  well  informed  on  the 
great  questions  which  divide  the  two  leading  politi- 
cal organizations.  He  has  served  as  road  commis- 
sioner and  assessor  of  Belle  Plain  township  and 
is  now  assessor  of  Richland  township.  He  was 
elected  to  this  office  on  the  republican  ticket,  al- 
though the  democracy  is  the  stronger  party  in 
this  locality.  This  fact  is  certainly  indicative  of 
his  personal  popularity  and  the  confidence  reposed 


4<V> 


PAST    AM)    I'HKSKXT    OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


in  him  by  his  fellow  townsmen.  A  gentleman  of 
strong  mentality  and  broad  general  information, 
he  stands  as  a  representative  of  a  high  type  of 
American  manhood,  continually  broadening  his 
knowledge  through  reading  and  investigation  and 
looking  at  life  from  a  humanitarian  standpoint, 
which  tolerates  not  the  sordidness  of  wealth  and 
yet  delights  in  the  culture  and  refining  influences 
which  a  competence  may  secure.  Nature  and 
learning  have  vied  in  making  him  a  genial,  cul- 
tured gentleman,  who  has  a  host  of  warm  friends. 


OTTO     HALBLEIB. 

Otto  Halbleib,  owning  a  farm  of  two  hundred 
and  forty-two  acres,  situated  on  section  11,  Henne- 
pin  township,  was  born  in  Bavaria,  Germany, 
October  11,  1828.  His  parents,  Casper  and  Ann 
Elizabeth  (Kemp)  Halbleib,  emigrated  from  Ger- 
many to  the  United  States  in  1837.  Landing  in 
New  York  they  made  their  way  at  once  to  Illinois, 
going  to  Dorchester  on  the  first  steamer — Pioneer 
— that  plied  on  the  Illinois  river.  From  there  they 
drove  across  the  country  to  Peru,  this  being  previ- 
ous to  the  era  of  railroad  transportation.  The 
father  entered  a  tract  of  land  near  Peru,  and  in 
order  to  secure  ready  money  with  which  to  provide 
for  his  family,  he  split  rails  during  the  winter, 
and  the  year  following  their  arrival  in  this  state 
he  went  to  La  Salle,  where  he  secured  work  on  the 
construction  of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal. 
Returning  to  his  home  he  passed  away  in  August, 
1838,  so  that  he  was  not  long  permitted  to  enjoy 
his  new  home  in  the  United  States.  After  the 
father's  death  the  mother  was  again  married,  her 
second  union  being  with  Joseph  Reginold,  who 
owned  the  farm  which  is  the  present  home  of  our 
subject.  Here  the  mother  passed  away  March  12, 
1849. 

After  the  death  of  his  father  Otto  Halbleib  re- 
mained with  his  mother  until  after  her  marriage 
to  Mr.  Reginold,  when  he  went  to  work  on  a  farm, 
being  employed  by  the  month,  and  during  the  win- 
ter seasons  he  attended  the  district  schools,  being 
thus  engaged  until  after  he  had  attained  his  ma- 
jority. Starting  out  in  life  on  his  own  account  he 
first  purchased  a  tract  of  forty  acres  of  land,  which 
belonged  to  his  step-father,  and  which  is  a  part  of 
his  present  possessions.  He  engaged  in  general 
agricultural  pursuits,  and,  meeting  with  success 
in  his  undertakings,  was  from  time  to  time  enabled 


to  add  to  his  original  purchase  until  he  now  owns 
two  hundred  and  forty-two  acres.  He  has  also 
aided  his  sons  in  purchasing  farms  or  establishing 
themselves  in  business.  In  addition  to  his  farm- 
ing interests,  Mr.  Halbleib  was  also  at  one  time 
the  owner  of  quite  an  extensive  apiary  but  at  the 
present  time  has  only  fifty  hives  and  soon  expects 
to  abandon  that  pursuit.  He  has  found  this  a 
profitable  source  of  income,  for  the  products  of  his 
apiary  always  find  a  ready  sale  on  the  market, 
owing  to  the  excellent  quality.  He  has  frequently 
made  exhibits  of  his  honey  at  the  various  fairs, 
where  he  has  been  awarded  many  premiums.  He 
has  also  grown  apples  to  quite  an  extent  and  has 
been  instrumental  in  grafting  and  propagating 
several  fine  varieties,  and  he  has  exhibited  the 
products  of  his  orchard  at  different  fairs  where 
he  has  received  many  premiums.  His  various  pur- 
suits have  been  carefully  managed,  so  that  his 
labors  have  brought  the  best  possible  results,  and 
he  is  today  numbered  among  the  well-to-do  citizens 
of-  Putnam  county. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1852,  Mr.  Halbleib  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Catherine  Har- 
tenbower,  also  a  native  of  Germany,  where  her 
birth  occurred  October  2,  1834.  Her  parents, 
Christian  and  Catherine  (Snyder)  Hartenbower, 
emigrated  to  the  new  world  in  1838.  The  father 
was  a  shoemaker  by  trade  following  that  business 
in  his  native  land,  and  he  continued  his  operations 
along  that  line  after  his  removal  to  this  country. 
The  family  remained  in  New  York  for  a  time  and 
later  made  their  way  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois, 
where  both  the  father  and  mother  passed  away. 
Unto  our  subject  and  his  wife  have  been  born 
nine  children,  of  whom  one  is  now  deceased : 
Victoria,  the  eldest,  has  acted  as  housekeeper  for 
R.  E.  Hills,  at  Henry,  for  many  years ;  Adam,  who 
is  a  farmer  of  Magnolia  township ;  John,  a  farmer 
of  Hennepin  township ;  George,  a  resident  of 
Henry;  Frank,  who  was  drowned  in  the  Illinois 
river  when  he  was  twenty-three  years  of  age ;  Clara, 
the  wife  of  Eli  Wright,  a  barber  of  Henry;  Cas- 
per, also  of  Henry;  Annie,  the  wife  of  George 
Theil,  of  Hennepin  township;  and  William,  who 
is  at  home. 

Mr.  Halbleib  was  raised  in  the  Catholic  faith 
but  is  not  now  identified  with  any  denomination, 
but  is  independent  in  his  belief.  He  is  independ- 
ent in  politics  with  democratic  tendencies,  but  usu- 
ally casts  his  vote  for  the  men  whom  he  thinks 


OTTO  HALBLEIB. 


MRS.   OTTO  HALBLEIB. 


PAST   AND    PKESENT    OP   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


407 


best  qualified  for  office  without  regard  to  party 
affiliation.  He  has  served  as  school  director  for 
many  years  but  aside  from  this  has  never  been 
active  in  public  office.  He  is  one  of  the  oldest 
settlers  in  Putnam  county  and  is  thoroughly  famil- 
iar with  the  pioneer  conditions  which  existed  when 
he  first  came  to  the  state.  He  has  aided  in  many 
movements  for  the  progress  and  upbuilding  of  his 
county  and  has  been  especially  interested  in  the 
agricultural  development  of  this  section  of  the 
state.  He  and  his  wife  are'  hale  and  hearty  old 
people  and  are  duly  classed  with  the  highly  re- 
spected German  citizens  of  this  community. 


JOHN  MALONE. 

The  history  of  John  Malone  should  find  a  place 
upon  the  pages  of  the  annals  of  Marshall  county, 
for  his  life  record  was  at  all  times  creditable  and 
honorable  and  proved  that  energy  and  diligence 
may  win  success  in  this  land  where  labor  is  not 
hampered  by  caste  or  class.  He  was  born  in 
County  Down,  Ireland,  about  fifty-four  years  ago 
and  lived  on  the  Emerald  isle  until  his  eighth 
year,  when  he  went  to  Scotland.  He  acquired 
his  education  in  that  country  and  continued  a 
resident  of  the  land  of  hills  and  heather  until 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  when  thinking  that  he 
might  have  more  advantageous  opportunities  in 
the  new  world  he  sailed  for  the  United  States,  go- 
ing first  to  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  where  for 
some  time  he  worked  in  the  mines.  After  a  few 
years,  however,  he  came  to  Illinois  and  was  em- 
ployed in  the  mines  on  Spoon  river.  Later,  in  con- 
nection with  his  brother  Samuel,  he  purchased  a 
farm  on  section  30,  Saratoga  township,  just  north- 
west of  the  present  town  of  Camp  Grove.  His  pa- 
rents were  Owen  and  Jane  Malone.  The  father 
continued  a  resident  of  Scotland  until  called  to  his 
final  home,  and  the  mother  afterward  came  to  the 
Unted  States  and  had  made  her  home  with  our 
subject,  but  died  at  her  daughter's,  Mrs.  John 
King,  in  La  Prairie.  John  Malone,  with  a  clear 
conception  of  the  opportunities  offered  by  the 
new  world,  came  to  the  United  States  and  here 
made  steady  progress  in  business  life. 

On  the  3d  of  July,  1858,  in  Peoria,  Mr.  Malone 
was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Mar- 
shall, a  native  of  Northumberland,  England,  and 
a  sister  of  Henry  and  Frank  Marshall.  In  1839 
she  came  to  America  with  her  parents,  Francis 
and  Jane  (Wilson)  Marshall,  also  natives  of  Eng- 


land. The  young  couple  began  their  domestic  life 
upon  a  farm  which  had  been  purchased  by  Mr. 
Malone  and  his  brother,  but  afterward  sold  that 
property  and  purchased  the  present  home  place 
on  section  31,  Saratoga  township,  comprising  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres,  constituting  a  fine  farm 
about  a  mile  from  Camp  Grove.  The  farm  is  now 
being  operated  by  two  unmarried  sons  and  the 
mother  makes  her  home  with  them,  the  property 
being  owned  by  her.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Malone 
were  born  eleven  children:  Jane  Elizabeth,  the 
eldest,  is  now  the  wife  of  G.  A.  Wolfe,  a  farmer 
and  stock-raiser  of  Page  county,  Iowa,  who  owns 
several  fine  farms  in  that  state.  They  have  four 
children :  John,  Leona,  Eldon  and  Harry.  Henry 
Malone,  who  died  about  three  years  ago,  left  a 
widow,  who  bore  the  maiden  name  of  Willetta 
King,  and  four  children,  Glenn,  John,  Harry  and 
Vera.  William  Francis,  who  married  Ada  Bocock, 
is  living  upon  his  own  farm  in  Saratoga  township. 
John  is  now  operating  the  home  farm  and  is  joint 
owner  with  Samuel  Malone,  Mrs.  Eiel  and  Mrs. 
Seley,  his  brother  and  sisters,  of  a  sixty-six  acre 
farm  near  the  old  homestead.  James,  who  is  en- 
gaged in  farming  west  of  Wyoming,  Illinois,  and 
also  practices  veterinary  surgery,  married  Sally 
Hochstrasser  and  has  one  child,  Vivian.  Mary 
Ann  is  the  wife  of  John  Doran  of  Peoria,  and 
has  two  children,  Mary  Celestine  and  Ellen  Edna. 
Samuel  is  also  living  on  the  old  homestead. 
Joseph,  who  follows  farming  four  miles  north  of 
the  home  place  in  Saratoga  township,  wedded 
Mary  Faulkner  and  has  two  children,  John  Farrel 
and  Addaline  Elizabeth.  Thomas,  who  is  a  me- 
chanic and  lives  at  Wyoming,  Illinois,  married 
Carrie  Faulkner  and  has  two  children,  Irma  and" 
Pauline.  Marguerite  is  the  wife  of  a  Mr.  Seley, 
a  resident  farmer  of  Saratoga  township,  and  they 
have  one  son,  Kenneth.  Lavina  Isabelle  is  the 
wife  of  Theodore  Eiel  of  Wyoming,  Illinois,  and 
they  have  two  children,  Frank  and  Vorris. 

Mr.  Malone  was  a  man  of  prominence  in  Sara- 
toga township.  He  possessed  a  kindly  nature  and 
a  friendly  and  genial  disposition,  which  made  him 
popular  and  gained  him  many  warm  friends.  He 
was  an  enterprising  farmer,  a  good  husband  and 
father  and  his  devotion  to  his  family  was  so 
marked  that  he  considered  no  personal  sacrifice 
on  his  part  too  great  if  it  would  enhance  the  wel- 
fare or  happiness  of  his  wife  and  children.  He 
held  friendship  inviolable  and  was  ever  faithful 


408 


PAST    AN' I.)    PUKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    Pl'TNAM    COUNTIES. 


to  the  trust  that  was  reposed  in  him.  His  political 
support  was  given  to  the  democracy  and  lie  was 
a  devoted  and  consistent  member  of  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  church,  in  the  faith  of  which  he 
passed  away,  his  remains  being  interred  in  the 
cemetery  at  Wyoming,  Illinois.  Mrs.  Malone  still 
survives  her  husband  and  is  a  most  intelligent 
lady,  who  has  done  a  mother's  full  part  by  her 
family.  She,  too,  has  a  large  circle  of  warm 
friends  in  this  county  and  is  much  esteemed 
wherever  known. 


OSCAE  BKENNEMANN. 

The  world  is  largely  indebted  to  the  Teutonic 
race,  which  has  sent  its  sons  into  all  parts  of  the 
world,  carrying  with  them  the  civilizing  influences 
which  have  been  important  elements  for  good  citi- 
zenship wherever  found.  Oscar  Brennemann  is  a 
representative  of  the  fatherland,  having  been  born 
in  Hesse-Darmstadt  on  the  6th  of  December,  1848. 
He  is  now  numbered  among  the  energetic  and 
successful  farmers  of  Hennepin  township,  his 
home  being  on  section  25.  His  parents  were 
Joseph  and  Elizabeth  (Unsiker)  Brennemann, 
also  natives  of  Germany.  The  father  was  born 
in  Hesse-Darmstadt,  December  4,  1807,  and  died 
in  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  in  April,  1890,  while 
his  wife  was  born  August  4,  1816,  and  passed 
away  in  the  same  county  October  29,  1853.  The 
ancestry  of  the  family,  however,  can  be  traced 
back  to  a  still  more  remote  period,  for  Jacob 
Brennemann,  the  grandfather  of  our  subject,  was 
born  in  Germany  in  1788.  His  father  was  one 
of  four  brothers  who  were  born  in  Switzerland. 
One  of  them  died  when  young,  another  settled  in 
Germany  and  the  other  was  never  heard  from 
afterward. 

Joseph  Brennemann,  father  of  our  subject,  fol- 
lowed the  occupation  of  farming  in  his  native 
country,  renting  land  which  belonged  to  the  gov- 
ernment. About  1852  he  came  to  America  with 
his  family.  Oscar  Brennemann,  who  was  then  but 
four  years  of  age,  remembers  only  one  incident 
about  the  voyage  and  that  was  seeing  some  large 
fish,  presumably  porpoises,  that  followed  the  ship. 
The  voyage  was  made  on  a  sailing  vessel  and  con- 
sumed thirty-two  days.  After  landing  at  New 
York  the  family  went  by  rail  to  Chicago,  thence 
by  canal  and  the  Illinois  river  to  Peoria  and  up 
the  river  to  Hennepin.  Joseph  Brennemann  lo- 
cated on  a  farm  in  Granville  township,  Putnam 


county,  north  of  the  village  of  Granville,  and  al- 
though he  was  in  limited  financial  circumstances 
at  the  time  of  his  arrival,  within  three  years  he 
had  purchased  three  hundred  acres  of  land.  This 
was  nearly  all  covered  with  timber,  although  some 
small  buildings  had  been  erected  thereon.  In  later 
years  he  replaced  these  by  more  modern,  com- 
modious and  substantial  buildings  and  he  made  his 
home  there  until  his  death.  As  the  years  passed 
he  met  with  gratifying  success  through  his  per- 
sistency of  purpose  and  well  directed  labor  and 
at  his  death  left  an  estate  of  more  than  six  hun- 
dred acres.  He  was  frugal  and  honest,  extremely 
industrious,  and  was  esteemed  by  all  for  his  many 
good  qualities.  Both  he  and  his  wife  were  Men- 
nonites  in  religious  faith.  In  his  political  views 
he  was  a  stalwart  republican  and  voted  for  Abra- 
ham Lincoln,  and  upon  the  assassination  of  Lin- 
coln declared  that  he  would  never  vote  again  and 
never  did.  Unto  him  and  his  wife  were  born  six 
'children,  of  whom  one  died  in  infancy  in  Ger- 
many. The  others  were :  Eliza,  the  deceased  wife 
of  Charles  Buttefwick,  a  farmer  residing  in  Hen- 
nepin township,  Putnam  county;  Bertha,  the  wife 
of  Theodore  Holly,  living  near  St.  Paul,  Minne- 
sota ;  Oscar,  of  this  review ;  Julius,  who  married 
Emma  Keinhart  and  is  a  stock  dealer  in  Peru, 
Illinois,  while  in  Granville  township  he  owns  the 
old  home  farm ;  and  an  infant  who  was  born  and 
died  in  this  county. 

Oscar  Brennemann,  brought  to  Illinois  when 
only  about  four  years  of  age,  spent  his  life  on  the 
old  home  farm  until  he  reached  the  age  of  twenty- 
seven  years,  after  which  he  was  connected  with 
business  interests  in  Peru  for  six  years.  He  then 
resumed  agricultural  pursuits  and  purchased  one 
hundred  and  eighty  acres  of  land,,  upon  which  he 
now  resides.  He  has  since  added  to  his  property 
until  his  holdings  comprise  three  hundred  and 
twenty  acres.  He  has  upon  the  place  first-class 
buildings  and  his  is  one  of  the  best  farms  in  the 
county. 

In  1875  Mr.  Brennemann  was  married  to  Miss 
Elizabeth  Holly,  who  was  born  in  Putnam  county, 
March  27, 1850,  and  is  a  daughter  of  Daniel  Holly, 
who  was  born  in  Germany  in  1816  and  came  to 
America  in  1832,  settling  in  Putnam  county  in 
1848.  He  married  Miss  Helen  Bender,  also  a 
native  of  Germany,  whence  she  came  to  the  United 
States  on  the  same  vessel  with  her  husband. 
Daniel  Holly  located  on  a  farm  in  Granville  town- 


PAST    AM)    1MJKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


409 


ship,  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  and  after  some  years 
retired  from  business  life,  making  his  home  in 
Peru  for  two  years.  He  passed  away,  however,  at 
the  home  of  his  daughter  in  La  Salle  county, 
Illinois,  when  seventy  years  of  age,  and  his  wife 
died  in  the  same  county  at  the  age  of  eighty-six 
years.  Daniel  Holly  was  a  self-made  man,  his 
prosperity  being  attributable  entirely  to  his  earn- 
est labor  and  capable  management.  He  "left  an 
estate  embracing  five  hundred  acres  of  valuable 
farming  land.  His  son,  William  Holly,  is  presi- 
dent of  the  Peru  Plow  &  Wheel  Company  at 
Peru,  Illinois,  while  the  other  members  of  the 
Holly  family  are  John,  also  a  resident  of  Peru; 
Theodore,  a  farmer  of  Minnesota;  Gustaf,  a 
farmer  of  Nebraska ;  Mary,  the  wife  of  Chris 
Brennemann,  of  La  Salle  county ;  and  Elizabeth, 
the  wife  of  our  subject. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Oscar  Brennemann  have 
been  born  six  children:  Paul;  George,  at  home; 
Lillian,  who  is  a  graduate  of  the  Knox  Conserva- 
tory of  Music  at  Galesburg,  Illinois;  Erna,  who 
is  a  graduate  of  the  De  Kalb  (Illinois)  normal 
school  and  is  now  teaching  in  Chicago  Heights; 
Daniel,  at  home;  and  Elsie,  who  is  a  student  in 
De  Kalb  normal.  George  and  Daniel  attended 
school  in  Princeton  for  one  year.  There  was  one 
child  that  died  in  infancy  while  living  in  Peru. 

Oscar  Brennemann  has  throughout  the  period 
of  his  manhood  carried  on  general  farming  and 
is  engaged  quite  extensively  in  feeding  cattle. 
He  is  now  one  of  the  more  prosperous  representa- 
tives of  agricultural  life  in  Hennepin  township 
and  his  business  interests  have  been  most  capably 
conducted,  showing  his  keen  discernment  and 
judgment,  which  is  rarely,  if  ever,  at  fault  in 
matters  relating  to  agriculture.  He  has  always 
been  a  republican,  but  without  aspiration  for 
office.  He  comes  of  a  family  which  has  a  cred- 
itable record  and  his  lines  of  life  have  been  cast 
in  harmony  therewith.  All  who  know  him  esteem 
him  and  he  has  a  wide  acquaintance. 


II.  I.  LITCHFIELD. 

U.  I.  Litchfield,  who  follows  farming  in  Ben- 
nington  township,  is  a  native  son  of  Marshall 
county,  his  birth  having  occurred  in  that  town- 
ship May  24,  1864.  His  father,  John  Litchfield, 
was  born  in  Ciiinbridgi'sliire,  England,  in  1821 
and  was  a  son  of  Richard  L.  and  Sarah  Litchfield, 
also  natives  of  that  count rv.  In  1847  tin-  .trraixl- 


fathcr  came  to  America  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven 
years,  there  being  ten  in  the  party,  and  located 
on  a  farm  in  Indiana,  where  he  spent  his  remain- 
ing days.  His  wife,  who  was  an  earnest  and  con- 
sistent member  of  the  Baptist  church,  died  at  the 
age  of  sixty-seven  years.  In  his  family  were  nine 
children,  all  of  whom  came  to  America,  with  the 
exception  of  the  eldest  daughter  who  spent  her 
entire  life  in  England. 

In  the  schools  of  his  native  country  John  Litch- 
field acquired  a  limited  education  and  at  the  age 
of  fifteen  years  came  to  the  new  world,  being 
thirteen  weeks  upon  the  water  and  landing  on 
New  Year's  day  of  1837.  The  voyage  was  made 
in  a  sailing  vessel,  the  St.  Lawrence,  of  an  Ameri- 
can line  belonging  to  a  company  at  Richmond, 
Virginia.  Mr.  Litchfield  first  set  foot  on  Ameri- 
can soil  at  New  Orleans  and,  proceeding  up  the 
Mississippi  river,  settled  in  Indiana,  where  he 
made  his  home  until  1849,  when  he  removed  to 
Macomb,  McDonough  county,  Illinois,  where  for 
two  years  he  was  engaged  in  teaming.  It  was  in 
1851  that  he  took  up  his  residence  in  Bennington 
township,  Marshall  county,  where  the  year  pre- 
vious he  had  entered  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
of  land.  As  time  passed  he  prospered  in  his  farm- 
ing operations  and  became  the  owner  of  over  three 
hundred  acres  of  land,  two  hundred  acres  of  which 
constitutes  the  old  homestead.  For  the  past  six 
years,  however,  he  has  made  his  home  in  Toluca, 
where  he  is  now  practically  living  retired,  enjoy- 
ing a  well  earned  rest.  His  political  support  is 
given  the  men  and  measures  of  the  democracy. 
Near  Evansville,  Indiana,  he  was  married  in  1853 
to  Miss  Emily  Palmer,  who  was  born  in  England 
in  1832  and  is  still  living.  This  worthy  couple 
are  now  the  parents  of  ten  children, 

In  early  life  R.  I.  Litchfield  pursued  his  studies 
in  the  Palmer  school,  which  was  named  for  his 
maternal  grandfather,  and  he  early  became  fa- 
miliar with  all  the  duties  that  fall  to  the  lot  of 
the  agriculturist.  In  1882  he  commenced  farming 
on  his  own  account  on  the  old  home  place  and 
has  since  met  with  excellent  success  in  his  chosen 
field  of  operation.  For  the  past  six  years  he  has 
operated  the  home  farm,  but  in  the  meantime  he 
lived  just  across  the  road  for  some  time,  having 
lived  for  five  years  upon  a  farm  belonging  to  his 
mother,  which  is  now  a  part  of  the  village  of 
Toluca.  He  next  removed  to  Belle  Plain  town- 
ship, where  he  lived  on  a  place  belonging  to  his 


410 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF  MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


father  for  six  years  and  then  returned  to  the  old 
homestead  in  Bennington  township.  In  connec- 
tion with  farming  he  devoted  considerable  atten- 
tion to  stock-raising,  making  a  specialty  of  polled 
Durham  cattle  for  the  past  ten  years  and  has  a 
fine  registered  bull  at  the  head  of  his  herd. 

In  1888  Mr.  Litchfield  married  Miss  Naomi 
Stratton,  who  was  born  in  Bennington  township, 
Marshall  county,  in  1868  and  is  a  daughter  of 
James  and  Marcia  Stratton,  farming  people  of 
that  township.  The  parents  were  both  born  in 
England  and  are  now  deceased.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Litchfield  have  become  the  parents  of  six  children, 
namely:  Emily  M.,  who  was  born  in  1889  and 
is  now  attending  normal  school;  Ray  B.,  born  in 
1892;  Ruth  I.,  in  1894;  Orville  L.,  in  1896; 
Esther,  in  1900;  and  Mildred,  in  1904.  Mr. 
Litchfield  takes  quite  an  active  and  influential 
part  in  local  politics  and  has  been  called  upon  to 
serve  as  road  commissioner  for  two  years  in  Ben- 
nington township  and  also  two  years  in  Belle  Plain 
township.  He  is  an  enterprising,  wide-awake 
business  man  of  known  reliability,  and  as  a  citizen 
stands  high  in  public  regard. 


ADAM  W.  SHRIVER. 

Each  community  has  its  citizens  who  stand  as 
leaders  in  business  life  and  in  the  upbuilding  of 
the  community,  and  in  Bradford  Adam  W. 
Shriver  is  so  classed.  He  was  born  in  Greene 
county,  Pennsylvania,  October  12,  1866,  and  is 
one  of  the  four  children  of  Adam  B.  and  Malinda 
(Dawson)  Shriver,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of 
the  Keystone  state,  the  mother's  birth  having  oc- 
curred in  Greene  county.  The  father,  a  farmer 
by  occupation,  died  when  his  son  Adam  was  only 
three  months  of  age  and  was  laid  to  rest  in  Greene 
county,  Pennsylvania.  The  mother,  however,  still 
survives  and  is  now  living  in  Milo,  Illinois.  Of  the 
children  three  are  living,  Francis  Marion,  the 
second  member  of  the  family,  having  died  when 
twelve  years  of  age.  The  sisters  of  Mr.  Shriver 
are  Mrs.  Emma  Johnson;  and  Mrs.  Catherine 
Hay,  of  Milo,  with  whom  the  mother  is  now  re- 
siding. 

Adam  W.  Shriver  was  only  one  year  old  when 
brought  by  his  mother  to  Illinois  and  he  com- 
pleted his  education  by  study  in  the  schools  of 
Milo.  When  a  youth  of  eighteen  years  he  went 
to  Iowa  and  pursued  a  commercial  course  in  the 


C.  H.  Pierce  business  college  of  Keokuk.  Fol- 
lowing his  graduation  from  that  institution, 
whereby  he  was  well  fitted  for  life's  practical  and 
responsible  duties,  he  returned  to  Milo,  where 
he  conducted  a  general  mercantile  store  for  thir- 
teen years,  meeting  with  good  success  in  the  un- 
dertaking. In  1902  he  removed  to  Broadmoor,  a 
little  place  on  the  Chicago  &  Northwestern  Rail- 
road and  the  center  of  a  fine  farming  district 
and  also  a  shipping  point  for  grain  and  cattle. 
He  bought  a  tract  of  land  here  and  erected  a 
splendid  store  building,  two  stories  in  height  and 
twenty-four  by  sixty  feet.  In  it  he  carries  a  very 
complete  line  of  groceries  and  general  merchan- 
dise such  as  is  in  demand  by  the  rural  trade.  He 
also  built  a  large  store  room  in  the  rear  of  the 
original  block  and  he  has  a  very  large  stock  and 
is  enjoying  a  constantly  increasing  patronage. 
His  business  methods  are  such  as  neither  seek 
nor  require  disguise  and  his  straightforward 
dealing  and  reasonable  prices,  combined  with  his 
efforts  to  please  his  customers,  constitute  the 
strong  elements  in  his  growing  prosperity.  Mr. 
Shriver  is  also  a  lover  of  the  horse  and  is  one 
of  the  stockholders  and  directors  of  the  Bradford 
Trotting  Park  Association,  which  owns  a  fine  track 
and  grounds  at  Bradford  and  holds  various  suc- 
cessful meets  there. 

Mr.  Shriver  was  married  October  19,  1891,  to 
Miss  Sylvia  Ada  Sutherland,  a  daughter  of  Joseph 
and  Matilda  Sutherland,  now  of  Milo,  Illinois,  her 
father  being  a  prominent  farmer  of  that  locality. 
Mr.  Shriver  votes  with  the  democracy  and  has 
been  honored  with  a  number  of  local  offices.  He 
acted  as  town  clerk  in  Milo  for  eleven  years,  was 
school  treasurer  there  for  three  years  and  has  been 
assessor  of  Saratoga  township  for  two  terms.  He 
also  belongs  to  the  Christian  church.  He  is  a  man 
of  influence  and  standing  in  the  community  and 
liis  wife  is  an  accomplished  and  popular  lady, 
while  in  social  circles  they  occupy  a  very  enviable 
position. 

HERMAN  J.  BASSLER. 
Herman  J.  Bassler,  superintendent  of  the  public 
schools  of  Wenona,  is  a  native  of  Forsyth,  Illinois, 
born  July  2,  1876,  and  is  a  son  of  John  G.  and 
Emma  J.  (Cox)  Bassler.  The  father  was  a  native 
of  Stuttgart,  of  the  province  of  Wurtemberg,  Ger- 
many, and  came  to  the  United  States  when  fifteen 
years  of  age.  He  was  a  farmer  by  occupation 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


411 


and  became  a  resident  of  Forsyth,  Illinois,  where 
his  last  years  were  passed.  His  widow  still  sur- 
vives him.  In  their  family  were  seven  children: 
Louis  D.,  Albert,  Bessie,  Ada,  Herman  J.,  and 
Edgar  and  Edna,  twins. 

Herman  J.  Bassler  was  afforded  liberal  educa- 
tional advantages,  which  he  improved,  manifesting 
special  aptitude  in  his  studies.  Subsequent  to  at- 
tending the  public  schools  he  attended  the  Normal 
University,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in  the 
class  of  1902.  Prior  to  this  time  he  had  engaged 
in  teaching  for  several  terms  in  the  country 
schools  and  had  demonstrated  his  ability  to  impart 
readily,  clearly  and  concisely  to  others  the  knowl- 
edge that  he  had  acquired.  In  September,  1902, 
he  came  to  Wenona  to  accept  the  principalship  of 
the  high  school,  in  which  capacity  he  served  for 
two  years,  when  he  was  elected  superintendent  of 
the  city  schools,  including  the  primary,  grammar 
and  high  schools.  There  are  twelve  grades  in  all. 
including  a  four  years'  high  school  course,  where- 
by pupils  are  prepared  for  the  university.  There 
are  seven  teachers  and  about  two  hundred  and 
twenty-five  pupils.  Professor  Bassler  is  well  fitted 
for  the  responsible  position  which  he  fills  and  is 
generally  liked  by  the  public,  while  his  ability  is 
widely  acknowledged  in  educational  circles.  He  is 
yet  a  young  man  and  has  attained  a  position  which 
is  indeed  creditable  for  one  of  his  years. 

On  the  30th  of  November,  1905,  Professor  Bass- 
ler was  married  to  Miss  Anna  M.  Hoge.  They 
are  members  of  the  Methodist  church  and  ave 
very  prominent  and  popular  socially  in  the  circles 
of  society  where  true  worth  and  intelligence  are 
accepted  as  passports. 


LEWIS  V.  SMITH. 

Lewis  V.  Smith,  residing  in  Henry,  was  born 
in  Peoria  county,  Illinois,  March  14,  1851,  and 
is  a  son  of  John  T.  and  Anne  (Bates)  Smith. 
The  father  was  born  in  Frenchtown,  New  Jersey, 
May  11,  1819,  and  in  his  youth  accompanied  his 
parents  on  their  removal  to  Bucks  county,  Penn- 
sylvania, where  he  met  and  married  Miss  Bates, 
who  was  born  at  Bristol,  Bucks  county,  July  15, 
1818.  The  wedding  was  celebrated  October  9, 
1838,  and  eight  years  later  they  removed  with 
their  family  to  Brimfield,  Peoria  county,  Illinois, 
where  they  spent  a  decade  and  then  came  to  Mar- 
shall county.  For  twenty-one  years  Mr.  Smith 


owned  and  occupied  a  large  farm  on  section  9, 
Whitefield  township,  save  that  for  a  few  years 
he  lived  in  Henry  for  the  purpose  of  affording  his 
children  better  educational  privileges.  He  was  a 
prosperous  farmer,  giving  personal  attention  to 
every  detail  of  his  work.  In  1877  he  sold  his 
place  to  his  son-in-law,  Thomas  Monier,  and  re- 
moved to  Henry,  where  he  practically  lived  re- 
tired. In  later  years,  however,  he  again  invested 
a  portion  of  his  means  in  farm  lands  and  gave 
his  attention  to  the  supervision  of  his  property. 
Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Smith  were  long  devoted  and 
faithful  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church,  assisting  earnestly  in  its  work  and  doing 
everything  in  their  power  to  promote  its  growth 
and  upbuilding. 

In  their  family  were  nine  children :  William 
N.,  who  is  now  living  retired  in  Topeka,  Kansas ; 
Elwood,  who  was  a  prosperous  farmer  of  White- 
field  township  and  is  now  deceased;  Charles  C., 
who  is  living  retired  in  Henry;  Angeline,  who 
died  at  the  age  of  eleven  years;  Arabella  G.,  the 
wife  of  John  H.  Clift,  of  Fairbury,  Illinois; 
Lewis,  of  this  review ;  Brooks,  deceased ;  Charlotta 
S.,  the  wife  of  Thomas  Monier,  of  Henry;  and 
Jennie,  the  wife  of  Luke  Gregory,  of  High  Prai- 
rie, Whitefield  township.  The  death  of  the  father 
occurred  December  3,  1893,  while  his  wife  sur- 
vived until  April  17,  1895,  and  thus  passed  away 
two  most  worthy  people  who  made  the  world  better 
by  their  having  lived  because  of  their  Christian 
influence  and  their  good  works. 

Lewis  V.  Smith,  of  this  review,  pursued  his 
education  in  the  schools  of  Marshall  county,  at- 
tending first  in  Whitefield  township  and  after- 
ward in  Henry.  For  twenty  years  he  devoted  his 
life  to  general  agricultural  pursuits,  purchasing  a 
farm  in  McLean  county  of  one  hundred  acres 
which  he  improved,  bringing  it  under  a  high  state 
of  cultivation.  Removing  to  Henry  in  1881,  he 
is  now  engaged  in  dealing  in  live  stock  and  is  a 
prosperous  business  man  of  the  town. 

In  1873  occurred  the  marriage  of  Mr.  Smith 
and  Miss  Lizzie  Duffield,  formerly  of  Fulton 
county,  Illinois.  Unto  them  have  been  born  four 
children:  William  T.,  who  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
two  years  is  engaged  in  fanning  in  Henry  town- 
ship; Lea  L.,  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  who  is  a 
traveling  salesman  living  in  Peoria;  and  Pearl 
V.  and  Ivan,  aged  respectively  twenty-four  and 
eighteen  years  and  both  now  at  home. 


11-.' 


PAST    AM)    I'RKSKXT    OF    MAUSFLU.L    AND    IMTXA.U    COUNTIES. 


Mr.  Smith  belongs  to  Henry  lodge,  No.  119,  A. 
P.  &  A.  M.,  and  has  attained  high  rank  in  Ma- 
sonry, being  now  connected  with  the  Mystic 
Shrine.  He  is  a  republican  and  for  twelve  years 
has  served  as  assessor  of  Henry.  He  has  held  va- 
rious official  positions  in  the  township  and  county 
and  over  the  record  of  his  public  career  and  pri- 
vate life  there  falls  no  shadow  of  wrong  or  sus- 
picion of  evil.  He  and  his  family  are  connected 
with  the  Christian  church  and  in  Henry  and 
throughout  the  county  wherever  they  are  known 
they  have  warm  friends  who  hold  them  in  the 
highest  regard. 


CHARLES  E.  BARNARD. 

Charles  E.  Barnard,  who  is  meeting  with  suc- 
cess in  his  undertakings  as  a  farmer,  his  home 
being  a  beautiful  and  commodious  residence  which 
stands  in  the  midst  of  a  finely  cultivated  tract  of 
land  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  in  Granville 
township  about  two  miles  east  of  the  village  of 
Granville,  was  born  on  a  farm  near  Peru,  Ver- 
mont, September  28,  1822.  He  has  therefore  long 
since  passed  the  Psalmist's  span  of  three  score 
years  and  ten,  but  posssesses  the  vigor  and  energy 
of  a  man  of  much  younger  years  and  in  spirit 
and  interest  seems  yet  in  his  prime.  His  parents 
were  Benjamin  and  Hepson  (Filbrook)  Barnard 
natives  of  Massachusetts.  After  their  marriage 
they  removed  to  the  Green  Mountain  state,  where 
the  father  purchased  a  farm,  upon  which  he  and 
his  wife  spent  their  remaining  days,  the  former 
passing  away  at  the  age  of  eighty-one  years,  while 
Mrs.  Barnard  died  at  the  advanced  age  of  ninety 
years. 

Charles  E.  Barnard  of  this  review  is  the  only 
survivor  of  a  family  of  nine  children  and  is  the 
only  one  who  ever  came  to  Illinois.  In  his  youth 
he  remained  upon  the  old  homestead  and  later  he 
cared  for  his  parents  until  their  deafh,  operating 
the  old  homestead  farm  in  Vermont.  He  was  mar- 
ried in  that  state  to  Miss  Harriet  Holton,  -who  was 
born  in  Vermont  in  October,  1824,  and  thus  for 
many  years  they  have  traveled  life's  journey  to- 
gether, sharing  with  each  other  its  joys  and  sor- 
rows, its  adversity  and  prosperity. 

Eight  children  had  been  born  unto  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Barnard  when  in  1865  they  left  their  old 
home  in  New  England  and  came  to  Putnam 
county,  Illinois,  where  Mr.  Barnard  purchased  a 
tract  of  land  north  of  Granville.  He  there  lived 


for  two  years,  after  which  he  sold  that  property 
and  purchased  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  where 
he  now  resides  about  two  miles  east  of  Granville. 
This  was  an  improved  farm  but  he  has  since  made 
many  changes  and  it  is  now  equipped  with  all  the 
accessories  and  evidences  of  progress  along  agri- 
cultural lines.  In  addition  to  the  large  and  beau- 
tiful residence  which  is  standing  in  its  midst  there 
are  good  barns  and  outbuildings  for  the  shelter 
of  grain  and  stock,  together  with  the  latest  im- 
proved machinery  to  facilitate  the  work  of  the 
fields. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Barnard  have  been  born  nine 
children,  of  whom  seven  are  living:  Mary,  now 
the  wife  of  George  Dunn,  of  Nebraska;  Anna,  the 
wife  of  William  Bowers,  of  Kentucky;  Ella,  the 
wife  of  A.  J.  Robson,  of  Granville;  Fred,  who  died 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years;  Frank,  who  is 
living  upon  a  farm  adjoining  his  father's  place; 
Hattie,  the  wife  of  E.  B.  Coulter,  a  resident  of 
Iowa;  John,  of  Omaha,  Nebraska;  James,  of 
Hennepin  township ;  and  Harriet,  who  died  at  the 
age  of  four  years.  Mr.  Barnard  has  given  his 
children  excellent  educational  privileges  and  has 
assisted  his  sons  in  piirchasing  farms. 

From  the  age  of  fourteen  years  he  has  been  a 
church  member  and  is  now  identified  with  the 
Congregational  church  in  Granville.  He  is  an  in- 
dependent republican,  voting  for  the  men  whom 
he  thinks  best  qualified  for  office  at  local  elections 
nor  has  he  ever  aspired  to  political  honors  or 
emoluments  for  himself.  He  has  lived  an  upright 
life  characterized  by  activity  and  diligence  in 
business,  by  honor  in  his  relations  with  his  fel- 
lowmen  and  by  fidelity  to  a  high  standard  of 
conduct,  and  now  in  the  evening  of  life  he  re- 
ceives the  respect  and  veneration  of  all  with  whom 
he  has  been  brought  in  contact. 


DAVID  D.  OWEN. 

No*  history  of  Marshall  county  would  be  com- 
ptete  without  mention  of  the  various  representa- 
tives of  the  Owen  family,  for  they  have  been 
most  closely  associated  with  its  development  and 
have  been  helpful  factors  in  its  upbuilding  and 
progress.  David  D.  Owen  was  born  April  26, 
1837,  on  the  farm  which  he  still  owns  on  section 
9,  Richland  township,  his  parents  being  Timothy 
and  Jane  (Dever)  Owen.  He  was  reared  to  farm 
life  and  pursued  a  district  school  education.  Hav- 


PAST    AND    I'ltHSKNT    OF    MARSHALL   AND    1TTNAM    COUNTIES. 


415 


ing  reached  adult  age  he  was  married  November 
18,  1868,  to  Miss  Emma  L.  Bequeaith,  a  native  of 
Tazewell  county,  Illinois,  and  a  daughter  of  John 
and  Elizabeth  (King)  Bequeaith,  both  of  whom 
were  natives  of  Ohio,  the  former  born  November 
1,  1820,  and  the  latter  January  7,  1821.  Her 
parents  removed  from  Ohio  to  Indiana  at  a  very 
early  day  and  in  1832  came  to  Illinois,  establish- 
ing their  home  about  four  miles  southwest  of 
Pekin,  in  Tazewell  county,  where  they  continued 
to  reside  until  1881,  when,  retiring  from  the  work 
of  the  farm,  the  father  purchased  a  home  in  Pekin, 
where  he  resided  until  his  death,  on  the  29th  of 
September,  1893. 

Mrs.  Owen  was  born  March  11,  1851,  and  was 
educated  in  the  public  schools  of  Pekin.  At  the 
time  of  her  marriage  she  went  with  her  husband 
to  the  farm  upon  which  they  resided  until  1901, 
when  they  removed  to  Lacon,  where  they  now  live. 
Mr.  Owen  still  owns  the  farm,  which  comprises 
three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  rich  and  arable 
land,  constituting  one  of  the  best  farm  properties 
of  the  locality.  Mr.  Owen  also  owns  city  real 
estate  in  Chicago,  while  his  wife  has  a  beautiful 
residence  property  on  Buena  Vista  avenue  in 
Pekin  and  a  farm  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres 
about  three  and  a  half  miles  from  that  city. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  David  D.  Owen  have  been 
born  five  children:  Louis  R.,  Jay  J.,  Walter  D. 
and  James  K.,  all  yet  living,  while  Timothy  D. 
died  in  childhood. 

Mr.  Owen  votes  with  the  republican  party,  which 
he  supported  in  1860  when  Lincoln  was  first  can- 
didate for  president,  while  in  1858  he  also  voted 
for  republican  candidates  for  state  and  local  offices. 
He  has  held  some  local  positions  of  political  pre- 
ferment and  yet  cannot  be  said  to  be  a  politician 
in  the  sense  of  office  seeking,  preferring  always  to 
concentrate  his  energies  upon  his  business  affairs, 
wherein  he  has  prospered  as  the  years  have 
gone  by. 


WILLIAM  SCHWARTZ. 

William  Schwartz,  a  prosperous  and  enterpris- 
ing citizen  of  Belle  Plain  township,  Marshall 
county,  where  he  owns  a  fine  farm  of  two  hundred 
and  twenty-five  acres,  is  a  native  son  of  Illinois, 
his  birth  having  occurred  in  Peoria,  Peoria  county, 
in  1854,  and,  as  the  name  indicates,  is  of  German 
ancestry.  His  father,  Henry  Schwartz,  was  born 


in  the  fatherland  in  1824,  being  there  reared  and 
educated.  In  1845,  when  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
one  years,  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  a  sailing 
vessel  bound  for  the  United  States,  and  at  once 
made  his  way  to  Peoria  county,  where  he  followed 
farming  for  about  ten  years,  after  which  he  re- 
moved to  a  farm  west  of  Washburn,  in  Woodford 
county,  this  state.  He  had  formed  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Caroline  Sandmyers  in  the  old  country, 
where  her  birth  occurred  in  1826,  and  she  likewise 
made  her  way  to  the  United  States,  locating  in 
Peoria  county,  where  their  acquaintance  was  re- 
newed, and  they  were  afterward  married.  They 
were  worthy  pioneer  people  of  that  part  of  the 
state,  but  both  are  now  deceased,  both  dying  in 
1898,  only  three  days  apart,  the  father  passing 
away  during  the  hour  of  the  funeral  service  of 
his  wife.  Their  family  numbered  five  sons  and 
one  daughter,  as  follows:  William,  whose  name 
introduces  this  record;  George,  deceased;  Mary, 
the  wife  of  John  Kanive,  living  in  Belle  Plain 
township;  John,  who  makes  his  home  with  his 
sister,  Mrs.  Kanive;  Henry,  a  real-estate  dealer 
of  Peoria ;  and  August,  a  resident  of  Williams- 
field,  Knox  county,  Illinois.  The  father  was  a 
democrat  in  his-  political  views  and  both  he  and 
his  wife  were  devoted  members  of  the  German  Re- 
formed  church,  in  the  faith  of  which  they  died. 

William  Schwartz  was  reared  in  Peoria  and 
Woodford  counties,  and  acquired  his  education 
in  the  Garrison  district  school  in  the  latter  county. 
He  was  early  trained  to  the  duties  of  the  farm, 
which  fitted  him  to  carry  on  business  on  his  own 
account,  when  he  began  life  on  his  own  respon- 
sibility. He  took  up  his  abode  in  Marshall 
county  in  the  fall  of  1890,  at  which  time  he  lo- 
cated in  Belle  Plain  township,  since  which  time 
he  has  carried  on  general  farming.  That  he  has 
prospered  in  his  undertakings  is  indicated  by  the 
fine  farm  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  acres 
which  came  into  his  possession  three  years  ago, 
and  on  which  he  has  since  made  his  home. 
He  has  here  made  many  valuable  improvements 
in  the  way  of  buildings  and  his  farm  is  one  of 
the  best  country  homes  of  Belle  Plain  township. 
On  his  place  are  found  all  the  equipments  and 
accessories  necessary  for  the  successful  conduct 
of  farming  interests,  and  Mr.  Schwartz  follows 
only  the  most  practical  and  modern  methods  in 
the  prosecution  of  his  labors. 

Mr.  Schwartz  chose  as  a  companion  and  help- 


416 


PAST    AM)    1'KESENT   OF   MAESHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


mate  for  life's  journey  Miss  Amelia  Wagner,  who 
was  born  in  Richland  township,  this  county,  a 
daughter  of  John  V.  Wagner,  and  by  her  mar- 
riage she  has  become  the  mother  of  five  children, 
all  of  whom  are  still  under  the  parental  roof, 
namelv :  John  H.,  Dora  Elizabeth,  George 
Walter,  Raymond  William  and  Ida  Amelia.  In 
his  political  views  Mr.  Schwartz  is  a  democrat 
and  has  served  as  road  commissioner  of  Richland 
township,  but  aside  from  this  has  not  been  active 
in  public  afiairs,  preferring  rather  to  give  his 
time  and  energies  to  his  own  private  interests, 
which  claim  his  entire  attention.  He  holds  mem- 
bership with  the  Modern  Woodmen  of  America, 
belonging  to  the  camp  at  Washburn,  and  both 
he  and  his  wife  are  members  of  the  German  Re- 
formed church.  Mr.  Schwartz  gives  hearty  sup- 
port to  any  movement  or  measure  which  he  deems 
will  prove  of  benefit  to  his  community  and  by  his 
careful  management  and  well  directed  labors  in 
his  business  affairs  he  has  accumulated,  through 
the  able  assistance  of  his  estimable  wife,  a  fine 
farm  property,  and  both  are  highly  esteemed  in 
this  part  of  Marshall  county,  where  they  enjoy 
the  hospitality  of  the  best  homes. 


LEWIS  R.  OWEN. 

Lewis  R.  Owen,  a  prominent  representative  of 
the  business  interests  of  Lacon,  was  bom  in  this 
county,  October  2,  1869,  a  son  of  David  D.  Owen, 
whose  sketch  appears  elsewhere  in  this  volume. 
His  early  education  was  acquired  in  the  public 
schools  of  Dixon,  Illinois,  and  he  afterward  at- 
tended the  Northwestern  College  there,  in  which 
he  studied  music  and  harmony  and  also  pursued 
the  commercial  and  literary  courses.  In  early  life 
he  engaged  in  farming  south  of  Pekin,  Illinois, 
and  subsequently  removed  to  Moravia,  Iowa, 
where  he  remained  for  three  years.  On  the  ex- 
piration of  that  period  he  returned  to  Marshall 
county  and  settled  in  Lacon,  where  he  purchased 
a  half  interest  in  a  grocery  and  hardware  busi- 
ness. In  January,  1905,  he  became  sole  proprietor 
and  has  since  had  entire  charge,  successfully 
conducting  the  store,  in  which  he  carries  a  well 
selected  line  of  goods,  meeting  with  a  very  de- 
sirable patronage. 

On  the  27th  of  January,  1898,  Lewis  R.  Owen 
was  married  to  Miss  Dora  Johnston,  a  daughter 
of  James  H.  and  Sarah  J.  (Bott)  Johnston,  the 


former  a  native  of  Woodford  county,  Kentucky, 
and  the  latter  of  Salem,  Roanoke  county,  Vir- 
ginia. Mr.  and  Mrs.  Owen  now  have  two  chil- 
dren: Mildred  M.,  born  May  21,  1899;  and  Dale 
D.,  December  7,  1901. 

Mr.  Owen  is  a  republican  in  politics  and  frater- 
nally is  connected  with  Lacon  lodge,  No.  61,  A. 
F.  &  A.  M.  His  wife  belongs  to  the  Methodist 
church  and  is  a  member  of  its  ladies'  aid  society, 
while  in  other  departments  of  the  church  activity 
she  takes  a  helpful  interest.  Both  are  highly 
esteemed  people,  enjoying  in  large  measure  the 
friendship  of  those  with  whom  they  have  been 
brought  in  contact. 


JONAS  T.  BALL. 

Jonas  T.  Ball,  whose  sterling  worth  of  char- 
acter has  won  him  political  honors,  while  his 
business  discernment  and  keen  sagacity  have 
gained  him  a  goodly  measure  of  success  in  his 
farming  operations,  is  a  native  son  of  Marshall 
county.  He  was  born  at JLacon,  February  6,  1853. 
"HTsTatherTJonas  L.  Ball,  a  "native  "of  Massachu- 
setts, came  from  Hamilton,  Ohio,  to  Marshall 
county,  Illinois,  making  the  journey  on  horse- 
back. He  settled  here  at  a  pioneer  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  county,  taking  up  his  abode  just 
west  of  Toluca,  where  G.  W.  Thomas  now  resides 
on  a  part  of  the  old  homestead.  Mr.  Ball  be- 
came a  very  extensive  land  owner,  having  at  one 
time  fifteen  hundred  acres,  bnt  he  divided  his 
property  among  his  children,  giving  to  each  two 
hundred  acres  when  they  attained  their  majority. 
He  ever  utilized  his  opportunities  to  the  best 
advantage,  was  quick  to  recognize  a  chance  for 
good  investment  and  moreover  in  his  daily  life 
displayed  a  spirit  of  industry  and  capable  man- 
agement that  constituted  the  strongest  elements 
in  his  success.  His  political  views  were  in  accord 
with  the  principles  of  democracy  and  he  was 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  Antioch  Christian 
church,  which  was  afterward  removed  to  Toluca. 
His  land  lay  just  west  of  Toluca  about  a  half  mile 
and  extended  into  Belle  Plain  township.  For 
four  years  he  served  as  supervisor  and  his  devo- 
tion to  the  public  good  stood  as  an  unques- 
tioned fact  in  his  life.  He  contributed  to  the  ma- 
terial, intellectual  and  moral  progress  of  the  com- 
munity through  his  cooperation  in  affairs  that  had 
direct  bearing  upon  the  welfare  of  the  county 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


417 


along  those  lines,  and  he  passed  away  in  1888,  re- 
spected and  honored  by  all  who  knew  him.  His 
wife,  who  bore  the  maiden  name  of  Elizabeth  C. 
Fetter,  was  born  in  Pennsylvania  in  1823  and 
was  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Fetter.  She  too  held  mem- 
bership in  the  Christian  church  and  was  a  most 
estimable  lady.  In  the  family  of  this  worthy 
couple  were  seven  children:  Alice,  who  died  in 
infancy;  William  L.,  also  deceased;  Charles,  who 
died  at  the  age  of  two  years;  Jonas  T.,  of  this  re- 
view ;  John  D. ;  Gertrude,  the  wife  of  Sain  Welty, 
a  lawyer  of  Bloom ington ;  and  George  L.,  who  was 
drowned  in  Senachwine  lake  while  in  bathing  on 
a  pleasure  trip  at  the  age  of  thirty-three  years. 
He  left  a  wife  and  four  children,  the  wife  being 
now  Mrs.  Maria  E.  Ball,  who  is  educating  her 
children  in  Eureka. 

/T5o~Tevent  of  special  importance  occurred  to 
vary  the  routine  of  farm  life  for  Jonas  T.  Ball 
in  his  boyhood  days.  He  acquired  his  early  edu- 
cation in  the  public  schools  and  afterward  had  the 
privilege  of  attending  Eureka  College  at  Eureka, 
Illinois.  He  early  became  familiar  with  the  task 
of  tilling  the  soil  and  cultivating  the  crops  and 
he  began  farming  for  himself  in  1874  upon  the 
place  where  he  yet  resides.  He  has  extensive  land 
interests  and  the  fields  are  rich  and  productive, 
owing  to  the  care  and  labor  which  he  bestows 
upon  them,  his  generous  use  of  fertilizers  and  the 
rotation  of  crops.  He  has  upon  his  place  the 
latest  improved  farm  machinery,  together  with 
good  buildings  and  other  modern  accessories  and 
equipments. 

Mr.  Ball  was  married  in  1874  to  Miss  Mary  E. 
Beckwith,  who  was  born  in  Magnolia,  Illinois,  in 
1853,  a  daughter  of  Zera  P.  and  Mary  Ann 
(Gay lord)  Beckwith,  who  lived  upon  a  farm  near 
Magnolia  and  afterward  removed  to  Wenona,  Illi- 
nois, where  their  last  days  were  passed.  Mrs. 
Ball  is  a  member  of  the  Christian  church  and  is  a 
lady  of  many  excellent  traits  of  heart  and  mind. 
The  children  of  the  household  are:  Edna  G., 
now  the  wife  of  Snow  Van  Netta,  living  at  Chi- 
cago Heights ;  Gaylord,  who  has  recently  returned 
from  a  trip  to  Europe;  Chauncey  P.,  at  home; 
Ralph  T.,  who  is  attending  school  in  Eureka,  Illi- 
nois: and  Rollo  D.,  who  is  a  student  in  the  schools 
ill  Chicago  Heights. 

Mr.  Ball  votes  with  the  democracy  and  is  recog- 
nised as  one  of  its  local  leaders,  his  opinions  fre- 
quently proving  decisive  factors  in  the  councils 


of  the  party.  He  has  been  assessor  and  super- 
visor and  has  also  represented  his  district  in  the 
state  legislature.  Proving  an  able  member  of  the 
house,  he  took  an  active  part  in  constructive  legis- 
lation and  gave  to  each  question  which  came  up 
for  settlement  his  earnest  and  thoughtful  con- 
sideration. In  the  Masonic  fraternity  he  has  at- 
tained the  Knight  Templar  degree  and  he  is  also 
connected  with  the  Modern  Woodmen  of  America. 
In  manner  Mr.  Ball  is  entirely  free  from  ostenta- 
tion and  display,  but  his  fellow  townsmen  recog- 
nize his  genuine  worth  and  have  delighted  to 
honor  him  with  political  office,  while  in  private 
life  they  entertain  for  him  warm  friendship. 


GEORGE  HENRY  SHAW. 
George  Henry  Shaw  resides  upon  a  fafm  in 
Roberts  township  but  largely  leaves  the  active 
work  of  the  fields  to  others,  while  he  is  enjoying 
a  well  merited  rest.  He  was  born  April  3,  1840, 
in  a  log  cabin  which  occupied  the  site  'of  his 
present  fine  brick  residence  on  his  farm  in  the 
southwestern  corner  of  the  township.  Hie  father, 
George  Henry  Shaw,  was  a  native  of  Kentucky, 
born  about  1798.  He  there  grew  to  manhood 
and  acquired  a  liberal  education  for  that  day, 
being  a  fellow  student  of  Buchanan.  About  1828 
he  came  to  Illinois,  making  the  journey  on  horse- 
back to  Marshall  county,  where  he  selected  the 
present  farm  of  his  son  George.  He  then  taught 
school  at  Washington,  Illinois,  for  a  few  terms, 
after  which  he  returned  to  his  Kentucky  home. 
In  1831,  however,  he  brought  his  family  to  Mar- 
shall county  and  took  up  his  residence  upon  the 
farm  which  he  had  selected  on  first  coming  to 
Illinois  and  which  is  now  the  home  of  George  H. 
Shaw  of  this  review.  He  continued  to  carry  on 
farming  throughout  his  active  business  career  and 
died  in  1877,  at  the  age  of  eighty  years.  On  the 
5th  of  August,  1828,  he  wedded  Penelope  R.  Ed- 
wards, also  a  native  of  Kentucky,  in  which  state 
the  marriage  was  celebrated.  Their  first  home  in 
this  county  was  what  was  known  as  an  open  faced 
tent,  in  which  they  lived  for  a  short  time,  or  until 
the  erection  of  a  very  substantial  log  cabin,  which 
was  the  family  home  until  1844,  when  Mr.  Shaw 
erected  a  brick  residence.  His  wife  died  in  May, 
1840,  during  the  infancy  of  their  son  George  H., 
and  the  father  afterward  married  Emma  Edwards, 
who  departed  this  life  in  1871.  By  his  first  mar- 
riage he  had  seven  children :  Stoughton,  who  was 


418 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


killed  by  falling  from  a  tree  in  early  manhood; 
Elizabeth  Ann,  who  is  the  widow  of  Dr.  Henry 
Tesmer  and  resides  in  Sparland,  Illinois;  Pene- 
lope R.,  the  deceased  wife  of  Fielding  Miles,  of 
Kansas;  Thomas  M.r  who  was  judge  of  the  cir- 
cuit court  of  this  district,  but  is  now  deceased; 
Mary,  the  wife  of  H.  D.  Whitcomb,  a  resident  of 
Bloomington,  Illinois;  Almira,  who  died  in  in- 
fancy; and  George  H.,  of  this  review. 

During  the  first  decade  of  the  history  of  Mar- 
shall county  George  Henry  Shaw,  the  father,  was 
a  prominent  figure.  He  served  as  a  private  soldier 
in  the  Black  Hawk  war  and  in  the  establishment 
of  the  present  school  system  he  took  a  lively  in- 
terest and  assisted  in  organizing  many  of  the 
school  districts  of  the  county.  Politically  he  was 
a  democrat,  with  firm  belief  in  the  principles  of 
the  party.  For  several  years  he  served  as  su- 
pervisor and  also  as  collector  of  Roberts  town- 
ship. In  religious  belief  he  was  a  Universalist, 
though  never  a  member  of  the  church.  His  house 
was  one  of  the  early  landmarks  of  the  county  and 
was  the  temporary  home  of  many  of  the  early 
settlers  of  this  locality.  Before  coming  to  the 
county  he  had  learned  surveying  and  his  services 
in  this  direction  were  often  in  demand.  As  a 
pioneer  settler  he  took  a  most  active  and  helpful 
part  in  laying  the  foundation  for  the  present 
progress  and  prosperity  of  the  county  and  in 
promoting  the  material,  intellectual  and  moral 
welfare  of  the  community. 

George  H.  Shaw,  whose  name  introduces  this 
record,  spent  the  days  of  his  boyhood  and  youth 
upon  the  old  home  farm  which  is  still  his  home, 
and  he  supplemented  his  preliminary  education, 
acquired  in  the  district  schools,  by  a  year's  study 
in  Lacon  and  as  a  pupil  in  Lombard  College  at 
Galesburg,  Illinois.  He  afterward  engaged  in 
teaching  in  the  district  school  near  his  home  and 
also  in  the  district  north  and  was  a  capable  edu- 
cator, imparting  clearly  and  readily  to  others  the 
knowledge  that  he  had  acquired.  After  the  out- 
break of  the  Civil  war,  however,  he  put  aside  all 
business  and  personal  considerations  and  in 
August,  1861,  offered  his  services  to  the  govern- 
ment, enlisting  as  a  member  of  Company  I,  Elev- 
enth Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  under  Captain 
Fort.  He  was  appointed  sergeant  of  the  company, 
which  was  raised  in  this  locality  and  which  joined 
the  regiment  at  Bird's  Point,  serving  under  Gen- 
eral Grant  and  taking  part  in  the  battles  of  Fort 


Donelson  and  of  Shiloh.  On  the  10th  of  May, 
1863,  Mr.  Shaw  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  sec- 
ond lieutenant  of  his  company  and  shortly  after- 
ward was  in  the  battle  of  Champion  Hills  and 
later  in  the  siege  of  Vicksburg.  The  regiment  was 
then:  sen-t  to-  the  Yazoo  river  and  Liverpool 
Heights  and  Yazoo  City  encountered  the  enemy 
in  battle.  The  command  also  participated  in  va- 
rious expeditions  out  from  Vicksburg  and  was  in 
the  Jackson,  Mississippi,  campaign,  which  in- 
cluded several  fights.  Lieutenant  Shaw  was  in 
command  of  a  force  protecting  a  transport  of  two 
boats  in  tow  going  to  Duvall's  Bluff.  They 
landed  at  night  and  were  fired  upon,  but  came 
off  without  severe  loss.  Mr.  Shaw  was  slightly 
wounded  at  Fort  Donelson  by  a  minie  ball,  which 
first  struck  his  musket  and  glanced,  hitting  him 
in  the  arm.  He  saw  much  active  service  in  Mis- 
sissippi and  Tennessee  and  he  is  greatly  interested 
in  reunions  of  the  Grand  Army  of  this  district. 

Mr.  Shaw  now  has  a  valuable  farm  of  two 
hundred  and  eighty  acres,  but  has  rented  his  land 
for  the  past  sixteen  years.  He  still  lives  upon  the 
old  home  place,  which  belonged  to  his  father,  the 
property  having  never  been  divided  among  the 
heirs,  and  derives  therefrom  an  excellent  income. 
In  his  political  affiliation  he  is  an  independent 
republican  without  aspiration  for  office,  and  in 
religious  faith  is  a  Universalist.  He  has  a  wide 
acquaintance  in  the  community  where  his  entire 
life  has  been  passed  and  where  he  has  so  directed 
his  labors  and  controlled  his  interests  that  he 
may  be  said  with  single  consistency  to  be  one  of 
the  foremost  representatives  of  the  community. 


J.  W.  WATKINS. 

J.  W.  Watkins,  who  owns  and  operates  a  good 
farm  in  Steuben  township,  where  he  has  spent 
his  entire  life,  first  opened  his  eyes  to  the  light 
of  day  on  the  old  family  homestead  in  this  county. 
He  is  a  son  of  David  Watkins,  who  was  born  in 
Athens  county,  Ohio,  February  18,  1817.  His 
parents  were  Isaiah  and  Mary  (Douglas)  Wat- 
kins,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of  Virginia,  the 
former  being  of  Welsh  descent  and  the  latter 
of  Scotch  lineage.  Isaiah  Watkins  was  born  in 
Williamsburg,  Virginia,  and  his  grandfather 
came  from  Wales,  establishing  his  home  in  Amer- 
ica, in  early  colonial  days.  He  served  during 
the  Revolutionary  war  under  General  WTashing- 
ton  for  seven  vears.  His  mother  bore  the  maiden 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


419 


name  of  Douglas  and  her  father  was  a  descend- 
ant of  the  famous  Douglas  family  that  owned 
and  occupied  the  Douglas  castle  of  Scotland.  He 
too  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier  under  Washing- 
ton and  served  at  the  same  time  as  Isaiah  Wat- 
kins,  with  whom  he  became  acquainted  during 
the  days  of  their  military  experience.  The  ma- 
ternal grandmother  of  Mr.  Watkins  was  Mary 
Jane  Addington,  who  was  of  English  descent.  It 
was  after  the  war  that  Isaiah  Watkins  married 
the  daughter  of  Mr.  Douglas.  They  were  mar- 
ried in  Ohio,  where  they  resided  until  the  death 
of  the  husband  and  father,  when,  in  1834,  the 
widow  with  three  children,  emigrated  to  Illinois, 
locating  in  Marshall  county.  One  son,  Jehiel, 
preceded  the  family  and  had  made  a  home  here, 
and  through  his  advice  the  remainder  of  the  fam- 
ily came  out.  Jehiel,  after  remaining  here 
twenty-five  years,  removed  to  Taylor  county,  Iowa. 
The  family  located  within  one  mile  of  where  Da- 
vid Watkins  lived,  taking  up  a  claim  and  im- 
proving a  farm.  Here  the  widow  lived  until 
called  to  her  reward  at  the  age  of  about  eighty 
years.  The  three  children  coming  with  their 
mother  were  David,  father  of  our  subject;  Mary 
J.,  who  wedded  Isaac  Tanquary,  and  removed 
with  him  to  Livingston  county,  where  both  died; 
and  Lucinda,  who  married  James  Tanquary,  of 
Steuben  township,  and  both  are  now  deceased. 

On  coming  to  this  country  the  Watkins'  were 
in  very  limited  circumstances,  and  on  the  death 
of  the  mother  David  kept  the  family  together  un- 
til the  marriage  of  his  sisters.  He  commenced 
life  for  himself,  working  for  ten  dollars  per 
month,  using  the  wages  obtained  in  payment  of 
the  home  farm.  He  was  twenty-eight  years  old 
before  he  felt  that  he  could  safely  wed.  He  was 
then  united  in  marriage  with  Eliza  Jane  Hoskins, 
a  daughter  of  Josiah  Hoskins,  a  pioneer  of  Steu- 
ben township.  Immediately  after  the  wed- 
ding ceremony  he  removed  with  his  young  bride 
to  a  farm  adjoining  that  of  J.  W.  Watkins,  and 
which  was  the  first  one  opened  on  the  prairie. 
An  industrious,  hard  working  man,  he  settled 
right  down  to  business,  and  from  time  to  time 
added  to  his  original  purchase  until  he  became  the 
possessor  of  about  eight  hundred  acres  of  as  fine 
land  as  lies  within  the  borders  of  Marshall  county. 
While  carrying  on  general  fanning,  if  it  can  be 
said  that  he  made  a  specialty  of  any  one  line,  it 
was  that  of  a  cattle  grower,  having  at  all  times 


upon  his  place  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty  head  of  fine  cattle.  He  was  not  what  is 
usually  termed  a  feeder  of  cattle,  but  raised  a 
high  grade  of  animals.  Attending  strictly  to  his 
business  he  made  a  success  in  life. 

In  1856  Mr.  Watkins  was  bereft  of  his  wife,  she 
dying  leaving  two  children — Lucinda,  who  died  at 
the  age  of  sixteen;  and  J.  Wesley.  Mr.  Watkins 
subsequently  married  Eliza  Jane  Brewster,  of  Mc- 
Donough  county,  Illinois,  who  also  died  leaving 
two  children — Albert  W. ;  and  Eliza  Jane,  who 
was  educated  in  music  and  elocution  at  Eureka 
College,  and  is  a  lady  of  rare  attainments,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  order  of  the  Eastern  Star,  well  known 
and  universally  esteemed. 

David  Watkins  was  in  all  respects  a  self-made 
man.  His  education,  obtained  in  the  old  pioneer 
log  school  houses,  was  necessarily  limited,  but  he 
was  a  silent  though  a  close  observer  of  men  and 
events,  and  therefore  became  a  well-posted  man. 
He  was  an  attendant  but  not  a  member  of  any 
church.  In  his  younger  days  he  was  quite  a 
sportsman  with  gun  and  rod.  He  was  always  an 
admirer  and  lover  of  a  good  horse,  and  even  at 
the  age  of  eighty  years  loved  to  be  astride  of  that 
noble  animal.  He  enjoyed  fair  health  almost  to 
the  very  last  and  lived  at  peace  with  all  mankind. 
In  politics  he  was  a  democrat,  but  never  an  office 
seeker:  His  death  occurred  in  1900  and  thus 
passed  away  one  of  the  honored  pioneer  settlers 
of  the  county. 

Albert  Watkins,  a  brother  of  J.  W.  Watkins, 
married  Mary  Eva  Van  Antwerp,  by  whom  he  has 
four  children :  Mary  Ethel,  Albert  Leslie,  David 
Timothy  and  Eliza  Mabel.  Albert  Watkins  is  the 
owner  of  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of  good 
farming  land  across  the  road  from  his  brother's 
home  and  is  one  of  the  enterprising  agriculturists 
of  Steuben  township.  He  belongs  to  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  church  and  votes  with  the  de- 
mocracy. 

J.  Wesley  Watkins  is  one  of  the  oldest  settlers 
of  Steuben  township,  having  spent  his  entire  life 
within  its  borders.  He  was  reared  to  the  occupa- 
tion of  farming  and  has  always  followed  that  pur- 
suit. As  the  years  have  passed,  he  has  prospered, 
owing  to  his  earnest  labor  and  capability  in  man- 
aging his  affairs,  so  that  today  he  is  the  owner  of 
six  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  valuable  land  in 
Steuben  township,  together  with  land  in  Iowa. 
Here  he  carries  on  general  farming  in  connection 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM    COTXT1ES. 


with  the  raising  of  stock  and  both  branches  of  his 
business  are  proving  profitable. 

Like  his  father,  Mr.  Watkins  has  given  his  po- 
litical support  to  the  democracy,  having  been 
reared  in  the  faith  of  that  party  and  seeing  no 
occasion  to  change  his  views  since  attaining  his 
majority.  He  has  been  called  to  several  local  of- 
fices. He  was  first  appointed  supervisor  to  fill  out 
the  unexpired  term  of  John  Hayden,  deceased, 
and  has  several  times  been  re-elected  to  that  office. 
For  thirty-six  consecutive  years  he  has  acted  as 
school  director  and  he  has  frequently  been  a  dele- 
gate to  county  conventions  of  his  party  and  has 
served  as  a  member  of  the  democratic  central 
committee.  His  fraternal  relations  are  with  the 
Masonic  fraternity  and  he  belongs  to  Sparland 
lodge,  No.  441,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  and  to  Sparland 
chapter  of  the  order  of  the  Eastern  Star.  He 
represents  a  family  that  has  long  been  prominent 
in  connection  with  the  agricultural  interests  of 
the  county  and  his  own  record  entitles  him  to 
mention  with  the  prominent  representatives  of 
agricultural  life  in  Marshall  county. 


WILLIAM  B.  SILL. 

William  B.  Sill  is  now  living  retired  in  Gran- 
ville,  but  for  many  years  was  connected  with  farm- 
ing interests  in  Putnam  county  and  the  strong 
purpose  and  resolute  will  which  he  displayed  in 
carrying  on  his  business  pursuits  brought  him  a 
measure  of  success  that  now  supplies  him  with 
the  comforts  that  go  to  make  life  worth  living. 
He  was  born  in  Senecaville,  Guernsey  county, 
Ohio,  July  10,  1838,  and  is  a  son  of  John  and 
Mary  Ann  (Dilley)  Sill,  the  former  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania  and  the  latter  of  Ohio.  They  were 
married  in  Ohio,  where  they  resided  until  1851, 
when  they  came  to  Illinois,  settling  south  of  Mag- 
nolia in  Marshall  county.  The  father  was  a  car- 
penter and  wheelwright  by  trade  and  was  thus 
engaged  during  the  period  of  his  residence  in  the 
Buckeye  state.  He  also  worked  in  the  same  way 
for  some  time  after  coming  to  Illinois.  When 
he  had  spent  a  few  years  in  Marshall  county  he 
removed  to  Hennepin,  where  he  was  engaged  in 
wagonmaking  for  several  years.  After  the  death 
of  his  wife,  which  occurred  in  1867,  he  continued 
to  make  his  home  in  Ilennepin  and  in  old  age 
resided  with  his  son  William  B.,  at  whose  home 
he  passed  away  in  April,  1900,  at  the  advanced 
age  of  eighty-seven  years. 


William  B.  Sill  was  the  eighth  in  order. of  birth 
in  a  family  of  nine  children,  five  of  whom  are  yet 
living,  but  he  is  the  only  one  in  Putnam  county. 
He  was  a  youth  of  thirteen  years  when  he  came 
with  his  parents  to  Illinois.  They  were  very  poor 
and  as  a  result  William  B.  Sill  had  to  begin  work 
at  the  age  of  thirteen  years  in  order  to  provide 
for  his  own  support.  He  had  but  limited  educa- 
tional privileges  but  was  early  trained  to  habits 
of  industry  and  economy  and  these  proved  of 
value  to  him  in  his  later  life.  He  had  been  trained 
to  but  one  kind  of  work  and  therefore  when  he 
began  to  earn  his  living  it  was  as  a  farm  hand. 
He  first  worked  for  eight  dollars  per  month  and 
was  thus  employed  until  about  twenty-three  years 
of  age.  He  then  rented  land  in  Hennepin  town- 
ship and  engaged  in  farming  on  his  own  account. 
In  1863  he  had  the  misfortue  to  break  one  of 
his  legs  and  this,  combined  with  his  poor  health, 
almost  completely  discouraged  him.  He  thought 
that  perhaps  he  might  be  benefited  by  going  to 
the  west  and  therefore  made  his  way  to  Montana, 
where  he  purchased  a  two-thousand  foot  claim 
and  engaged  in  mining.  The  venture  proved 
profitable  at  first,  but  later  he  lost  much  that  he 
had  made  through  another  investment  and  suc- 
cess in  that  enterprise  was  so  uncertain  that  he 
decided  to  try  farming.  He  therefore  homesteaded 
three  eighty-acre  tracts  of  land,  upon  which  he 
carried  on  general  agricultural  pursuits  and  stock- 
raising.  He  lived  in  Montana  during  the  pioneer 
epoch  in  the  history  of  that  state,  his  home  being 
a  little  cabin  with  a  dirt  floor  and  dirt  roof.  He 
experienced  all  the  hardships  and  trials  incident 
to  frontier  life,  but  continued  in  his  farm  work 
there  until  1877,  when  he  sold  out  and  returned 
to  Putnam  county.  Here  he  invested  his  capital 
in  one  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  land,  which 
was  already  improved  to  some  extent.  He  had  to 
incur  some  indebtedness  in  order  to  make  the  pur- 
chase, but  has  since  been  quite  successful  in  his 
farming  operations  and  is  now  the  owner  of  four 
hundred  acres  of  very  valuable  and  productive 
land,  constituting  one  of  the  good  farms  of  the 
county,  the  rental  from  which  is  sufficient  to  sup- 
ply him  with  all  the  necessities  and  many  of  the 
comforts  and  luxuries  of  life.  Five  years  ago  he 
retired  from  active  business  cares  and  built  a 
commodious  residence  in  Granville,  where  he  has 
since  made  his  home. 

On  the  4th  of  May,  1874,  Mr.  Sill  was  married 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


483 


to  Miss  Martha  A.  Harper,  who  was  born  in  Put- 
nam county,  a  daughter  of  James  Harper,  one 
of  the  early  settlers  of  this  part  of  Illinois.  Mrs. 
Sill  died  upon  the  home  farm  in  Granville  town- 
ship in  1879,  leaving  a  daughter,  Minnie,  who  is 
now  living  with  her  mother's  sister  on  the  Harper 
homestead.  She  went  to  live  with  her  grandpar- 
ents at  the  time  of  her  mother's  death  and  has 
since  been  with  that  family.  Nine  years  after  the 
death  of  his  first  wife  Mr.  Sill  was  again  married, 
his  second  union  being  with  Ann  E.  Drennen,  a 
native  of  this  county  and  a  daughter  of  James  and 
Nancy  (Wyatt)  Drennen.  She  is  still  living  and 
by  this  marriage  there  are  four  children,  three  of 
whom  survive,  the  youngest  having  died  in  in- 
fancy. The  others  are  Ethel,  Roy  D.  and  Jessie. 
When  upon  the  farm  Mr.  Sill  engaged  in  gen- 
eral agricultural  pursuits.  All  that  he  possesses 
has  been  acquired  through  hard  and  unremitting 
labor  and  careful  management.  At  times  fate  has 
seemed  to  him  very  unkind,  owing  to  his  ill  health 
and  to  disastrous  consequences  which  have  at- 
tended his  business  interests  through  no  fault  of 
his  own,  yet  he  has  never  given  up  and  as  the 
result  of  his  resolute  spirit  and  strong  determina- 
tion he  has  worked  his  way  upward.  Each  diffi- 
culty and  obstacle  in  his  path  has  seemed  to  serve 
as  an  impetus  for  renewed  effort  and  he  has 
learned  the  lesson  from  each  mistake,  and  pressed 
forward  to  the  goal  of  prosperity,  being  now  one 
of  the  substantial  residents  of  Granville.  In  poli- 
tics he  has  always  been  a  democrat  and  at  this 
writing,  in  1906,  is  serving  as  commissioner  of 
highways,  which  position  he  has  filled  for  twelve 
years.  He  is  also  serving  for  the  second  term  as 
a  member  of  the  village  board  of  aldermen  and 
exercises  his  official  prerogatives  in  support  of 
every  movement  for  the  general  good.  He  has 
been  an  Odd  Fellow  since  1863  and  is  most  loyal 
to  the  teachings  of  that  organization,  which  is 
based  upon  the  brotherhood  relations  of  mankind. 


JEREMIAH  FEAZEL. 

Jeremiah  Feazel,  deceased,  who  in  former  years 
was  a  respected  and  worthy  farmer  of  Marshall 
county,  and  who  spent  his  last  years  in  honorable 
retirement  from  business  cares  in  Lacon,  was 
born  in  Brown  county,  Ohio,  July  4,  1832,  a  son 
of  Jeremiah  and  Hannah  (Murphy)  Feazel.  The 
father  engaged  in  school  teaching  and  in  farming 


and  thus  provided  for  his  family,  which  numbered 
six  sons  and  six  daughters. 

Jeremiah  Feazel  was  reared  in  the  county  of 
his  nativity  to  the  age  of  fourteen  years,  when  he 
accompanied  his  parents  on  their  removal  to  Illi- 
nois. His  early  education,  acquired  in  the  public 
schools  of  his  native  state,  was  continued  in  the 
old  Broaddus  schoolhouse  in  Lacon  township, 
three  miles  east  of  Lacon,  and  when  his  education 
was  completed  he  became  the  active  assistant  of 
his  father  in  the  work  of  the  home  farm  and 
was  there  engaged  in  tilling  the  soil  and  in  rais- 
ing stock.  He  resided  upon  the  old  homestead 
until  1855,  when  he  was  married  and  began  fann- 
ing on  his  own  account,  settling  on  a  tract  of  land 
of  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres  in  Hopewell 
township,  Marshall  county.  There  he  lived  for 
fourteen  years,  when  he  sold  that  property  and 
bought  the  John  Harris  farm,  in  Hopewell  town- 
ship, which  remained  his  home  throughout  the  re- 
mainder of  his  active  business  life.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  general  farming  and  stock-raising  and 
both  branches  of  his  business  proved  profitable, 
owing  to  his  careful  direction  and  able  manage- 
ment, so  that  in  1884,  with  a  comfortable  compe- 
tence, acquired  through  years  of  earnest  toil,  he 
retired  from  agricultural  pursuits  and  took  up 
his  abode  in  Lacon,  where  he  spent  his  remaining 
days  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  rest  which  he  had 
truly  earned  and  richly  deserved. 

On  the  1st  of  November,  1855,  at  the  home  of 
the  bride  in  Roberts  township,  Marshall  county, 
Mr.  Feazel  was  married  to  Miss  Anna  Eliza 
Wright,  a  daughter  of  James  and  Lockey  Meade 
(Bell)  Wright,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of 
Ohio.  Her  father  was  a  farmer  by  occupation 
and  died  in  the  year  1849,  his  remains  being  in- 
terred in  the  Salem  cemetery.  His  wife  had 
passed  away  in  1847  and  was  laid  to  rest  in  a 
cemetery  in  Roberts  township.  They  were  devoted 
and  faithful  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church.  Their  daughter,  Mrs.  Feazel,  was  born 
in  Madison  county,  Ohio,  July  16,  1838,  and  was 
brought  to  this  county  in  1844.  As  stated,  at  the 
time  of  their  marriage  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Feazel  began 
housekeeping  upon  a  farm  and  so  lived  until  1884, 
when  they  became  residents  of  Lacon.  Mr.  Fea- 
zel died  in  that  city  June  8,  1899,  and  was  laid 
to  rest  in  Lacon  cemetery.  He  had  attained  the 
age  of  sixty-seven  years  and  had  lived  a  life 
worthy  of  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  his  fellow- 


r.M 


PAST    AM)    VUKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    ITTXAM    COUNTIES. 


men.  He  attended  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church,  served  as  one  of  its  trustees,  and  contrib- 
uted liberally  to  the  same,  although  he  was  not  a 
member,  and  in  politics  was  a  Bryan  democrat, 
advocating  the  principles  supported  by  the  Ne- 
braska statesman.  In  his  business  affairs  he  had 
been  straightforward  and  reliable,  in  citizenship 
was  progressive  and  public  spirited,  and  in  rela- 
tions of  home  and  of  friendship  he  was  ever  loyal 
and  true.  Mrs.  Feazel  still  survives  her  hus- 
band and  yet  resides  in  Lacon,  where  she  is  well 
known.  She  has  many  friends  there  and  is  a 
devoted  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church. 


ISAAC  ALLEN  GLENN. 

Years  of  activity  and  enterprise  have  brought 
to  Isaac  Allen  Glenn  a  measure  of  success  that 
classes  him  with  the  substantial  farmers  of  Mag- 
nolia township,  where  he  owns  and  operates  a 
valuable  farm  of  four  hundred  and  eighty  acres. 
This  has  been  in  possession  of  the  family  for 
many  years,  having  once  been  the  property  of  the 
grandfather  of  our  subject,  who  came  from  Taze- 
well  county  to  Putnam  county  when  Indians  were 
still  inhabitants  of  this  part  of  the  state.  He 
entered  the  land  from  the  government  and  in  the 
midst  of  a  frontier  district  began  the  develop- 
ment of  a  farm. 

His  son  Isaac  D.  Glenn,  was  born  and  reared  in 
Kentucky  and  there  married  Sarah  Allen,  who 
was  also  a  native  of  that  state  and  was  a  daughter 
of  Archibald  Allen,  who  also  became  a  pioneer 
settler  of  Magnolia  township,  Putnam  county, 
where  he  died  at  the  venerable  age  of  ninety-four 
years.  On  leaving  Kentucky  Isaac  Glenn,  Sr., 
and  his  wife  removed  to  Indiana  and  in  1832  be- 
came residents  of  Illinois,  but  it  was  not  until 
three  years  later  that  they  took  up  their  abode  on 
section  31,  Magnolia  township,  the  father  secur- 
ing the  land  from  the  government.  The  year  of 
their  arrival  in  this  state  was  the  one  in  which 
the  Black  Hawk  war  occurred  and  the  family 
shared  in  the  hardships  and  trials  of  pioneer  life, 
when  an  unsettled  district,  with  its  lack  of  ad- 
vantages and  opportunities,  brings  many  discom- 
forts and  trials.  The  father,  however,  resolutely 
undertook  the  task  of  developing  a  new  farm,  con- 
tinuing its  improvement  until  his  death,  which 
occurred  July  7,  1850.  He  was  long  survived  by 
his  wife,  who  passed  away  August  17,  1876. 


Both  were  members  of  the  old  school  Baptist 
church,  in  which  he  served  as  deacon  for  many 
years.  They  were  the  parents  of  six  children  who 
reached  adult  age :  Mrs.  Nancy  H.  Young,  of  Iowa ; 
Samuel,  of  Varna,  Illinois ;  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Lar- 
kins  and  Mrs.  Margaret  Haley,  now  deceased; 
Young  A.,  living  in  Magnolia  township ;  and 
Isaac  A. 

The  youngest  of  the  family,  Isaac  Allen  Glenn, 
was  born  on  the  old  family  homestead  on  section 
31,  Magnolia  township,  August  24,  1837,  and  was 
given  his  father's  Christian  name  and  his  mother's 
surname.  No  event  of  special  importance  oc- 
curred to  vary  the  routine  of  farm  life  for  him 
in  his  boyhood  days.  As  his  years  and  strength 
increased  he  aided  more  and  more  largely  in  the 
work  of  the  farm  and  when  winter  came  and 
brought  a  respite  from  the  arduous  labor  of  the 
fields  he  spent  about  three  months  in  attendance 
at  the  district  school,  which  was  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  from  his  home.  He  was  married  in  De- 
cember 20,  1855,  when  not  yet  nineteen  years  of 
age,  to  Miss  Mary  Jane  Stewart,  sister  of  Mrs. 
W.  M.  German,  of  Hopewell  township,  Marshall 
county.  She  was  born  in  Hennepin  December  30, 
1838,  and  was  the  eldest  member  of  the  Stewart 
family.  Her  father,  who  was  born  January  7, 
1817,  died  January  30,  1896. 

The  first  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Glenn  was  a 
log  cabin  on  the  farm  which  is  still  their  place  of 
residence,  but  the  pioneer  dwelling  has  long  since 
been  replaced  by  a  more  modern  and  commodious 
dwelling.  As  the  years  passed  he  brought  his 
land  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation,  annually 
harvesting  good  crops,  produced  through  the  care 
he  has  bestowed  upon  the  seed  and  the  soil,  the 
latter  being  naturally  very  rich  and  productive 
— for  there  is  no  finer  farming  land  in  all  this 
great  country  than  can  be  found  in  central  Illi- 
nois. For  some  years  Mr.  Glenn  has  also  engaged 
quite  extensively  and  successfully  in  the  breeding 
and  raising  of  fine  horses  and  cattle,  as  well  as 
other  stock,  and  has  worked  diligently  and  per- 
sistently in  bringing  his  farm  up  to  a  high  state 
of  improvement.  From  1861  to  1873  he  and  his 
brother,  Young  A.  Glenn,  were  engaged  ex- 
tensively in  buying  and  shipping  stock. 

As  the  years  passed  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Glenn  became 
the  parents  of  eight  children :  John  E.,  who  was 
born  October  23,  1856,  died  October  13,  1857; 
Samuel  M.,  born  August  29,  1858.  died  February 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


425 


15,  1862;  Sarah  Sophia,  born  August  30,  I860,  is 
the  wife  of  W.  H.  Burr;  Eliza  Hall,  bom  August 
31,  18(52,  is  the  wife  of  Randolph  Disosway  of 
Iroquois  county,  Illinois ;  Nancy  J.,  born  Septem- 
ber 18,  1864,  died  February  23,  1889;  Isaac  A., 
born  May  9,  1867,  died  August  15,  1871;  Jessie 
Elizabeth,  born  February  19,  1873,  is  the  wife  of 
D.  W.  Dunlap,  of  Evans  township,  Marshall 
count}' ;  and  Robert  Edwin,  born  November  4, 
1875,  died  June  11,  1894. 

Mr.  Glenn  votes  with  the  democracy  and  has 
been  honored  with  some  local  offices,  the  duties 
of  which  he  has  discharged  with  promptness  and 
fidelity.  Fraternally  he  is  connected  with  Mag- 
nolia lodge,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  and.  he  also  belongs 
to  the  Magnolia  Grange.  Both  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Glenn  are  members  of  the  0.  E.  S.  lodge,  No. 
189,  of  Magnolia,  of  which  Mrs.  Glenn  is  a  char- 
ter member.  His  entire  life  has  been  spent  in 
Putnam  county  and  one  of  the  first  farms  claimed 
and  developed  is  his  property.  The  work  of  im- 
provement instituted  by  his  grandfather  and  car- 
ried on  by  his  father  is  now  being  continued  by 
him,  and  thus  the  name  of  Glenn  has  ever  stood 
as  a  synonym  for  progress  here. 


JOHN  DAUB. 

John  Daub  is  the  owner  of  a  beautiful  and  ex- 
cellent farm  which  lies  in  a  basin  of  bottom  land 
surrounded  on  all  sides  by  high  bluffs.  Its  unique 
situation  adds  to  its  beauty  and  attractiveness  and 
the  land  is  rich  and  arable,  producing  good  crops. 
It  is  situated  on  section  32,  Richland  township. 
The  owner  was  born  in  New  Orleans,  March  24, 
1850,  and  is  of  German  lineage.  His  father,  John 
Daub,  was  born  in  Bavaria,  Germany,  and  after 
coming  to  America  espoused  the '  cause  of  his 
adopted  country,  enlisting  for  service  in  the  Civil 
war.  He  gave  up  his  life  in  defense  of  the  Union, 
being  killed  in  battle  in  1865.  His  wife,  who 
bore  the  maiden  name  of  Elizabeth  Castler,  was 
twice  married,  her  first  husband  being  John  Daub, 
and  to  them  were  born  three  children :  John ; 
Alec;  and  one  who  died  in  infancy.  By  her  mar- 
riage to  Hubert  Adami  she  had  four  children: 
Hubert;  Victor;  August;  and  one  who  died  in 
infancy. 

Mr.  Daub,  whose  name  introduces  this  review, 
became  a  resident  of  Mai-shall  county  in  1856. 
He  acquired  his  education  partly  in  the  schools 
<>f  this  rouniv  and  also  attended  school  to  some 


extent  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri.  He  was  reared  to 
farm  life  and  remained  at  home  until  his  mar- 
riage, after  which  he  took  up  his  abode  upon  a 
farm  in  Woodford  county,  Illinois,  where  he  re- 
sided until  the  13th  of  February,  1896.  He  ' 
started  out  in  life  with  very  little  assistance  and 
that  he  has  always  been  busy  and  energetic  and 
capably  controlled  his  business  interests  is  indi- 
cated by  the  fact  that  he  is  now  owner  of  a  val- 
uable property  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-eight 
acres  of  land  on  sections  29,  32,  and  33,  Rich- 
land  township.  The  soil  is  very  productive  and 
in  addition  to  raising  the  cereals  best  adapted 
to  the  climate  he  also  raises  good  stock  of  all 
kinds,  including  some  high  bred  Percheron  horses. 
As  a  companion  and  helpmate  on  life's  journey 
Mr.  Daub  chose  Miss  Anna  M.  Sneider,  who  was 
born  in  Tazewell  county,  Illinois,  March  16,  1856, 
and  there  remained  until  eight  years  of  age,  when 
she  accompanied  her  parents,  Lawrence  and 
Catharine  (Simon)  Sneider,  on  their  removal  to 
Woodford  county,  Illinois,  where  her  girlhood  days 
were  passed  and  her  education  was  acquired.  Her 
parents  were  born  and  reared  in  Bavaria,  Ger- 
many, and  were  schoolmates  during  their  youth. 
The  mother  was  but  seventeen  years  of  age  when 
she  came  to  the  United  States  with  her  parents 
and  was  married  on  landing  in  this  country.  Mr. 
Sneider  was  then  about  twenty-five  years  old.  For 
about  five  years  he  made  his  home  in  Cincinnati, 
Ohio,  and  then  removed  to  Tazewell  county,  Illi- 
nois, where  he  followed  farming  and  gardening 
for  twelve  years.  He  next  purchased  a  farm  in 
Woodford  county,  this  state,  and  to  its  cultiva- 
tion and  improvement  he  devoted  his  energies 
until  called  to  his  final  rest.  He  was  fairly  suc- 
cessful in  his  business  affairs  and  was  a  truly 
self-made  man.  After  his  death  his  wife  operated 
the  farm  for  about  fifteen  years,  but  now  makes 
her  home  with  her  son  Frank  in  Woodford  county 
at  the  age  of  seventy-two  years.  In  the  family 
were  eleven  children,  namely:  John,  a  farmer 
of  Woodford  county ;  Anna  M.,  wife  of  our  sub- 
ject; Catharine,  wife  of  Alec  Daub,  a  farmer  of 
Fairfield,  Iowa;  Lena,  wife  of  Hubert  Adami,  a 
farmer  of  Marshall  county,  Illinois;  Adam  C.,  a 
farmer  of  Woodford  county ;  Joseph  H.,  also  a 
farmer  of  that  county ;  Louisa,  wife  of  John  Greb- 
ner,  of  Woodford  county;  Frank  and  Peter,  who 
are  both  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  in 
Woodford  county;  Angeline,  the  wife  of  Frank 


426 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Grebner,  a  farmer  of  Woodford  county;  and  one 
who  died  in  infancy. 

The  wedding  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Daub  was  cele- 
brated September  9,  1873,  and  unto  them  have 
been  born  ten  children :  John,  born  December  15, 
1875,  aids  in  the  operation  of  the  home  farm. 
He  has  held  a  number  of  offices,  has  been  town 
clerk  and  school  director  and  is  now  filling  the 
position  of  constable.  Aloysius,  born  August  7, 

1877,  died  in  infancy.     Joseph  A.,  born  July  12. 

1878,  died  September  14,  1880.     Seraphina  Eliza- 
beth, born  September  9,  1880,  is  the  wife  of  John 
A.  Yunker,  of  Fargo,  North  Dakota.     Catherine, 
born  July  8,   1882,  is  living  with  her  sister  in 
North  Dakota.     Mary  Rosa,  born  June  3,   1884, 
George   Christopher,   born   July   24,   1886,   Anna 
Angelina,     born     November     17,     1889,     Isidor 
Francis,  born  September  18,  1892,  and  Lawrence 
Eugene,  born  July  28,  1896,  are  all  at  home. 

The  parents  and  children  are  communicants  of 
the  Catholic  church,  and  Mr.  Daub  exercises  his 
right  of  franchise  in  support  of  the  men  and 
measures  of  the  democracy,  having  adhered  to  the 
party  since  attaining  his  majority.  In  his  life 
he  has  displayed  many  of  the  sterling  character- 
istics of  his  German  ancestry  and  his  good  quali- 
ties constitute  the  secret  of  the  high  regard  in 
which  he  is  uniformly  held,  while  the  reason  for 
his  success  is  found  in  his  earnest,  persistent 
labor. 


WILLIAM  SCOON. 

William  Scoon,  a  representative  of  the  farming- 
interests  of  La  Prairie  township,  his  home  being 
on  section  12,  was  born  in  Roxburghshire,  Scot- 
land, May  6,  1846.  His  father,  Robert  Scoon, 
also  a  native  of  that  district,  was  born  in  1812 
and  came  to  the  United  States  in  1853.  He  lived 
for  one  year  in  New  York  and  then  removed  to 
Michigan,  where  he  resided  for  five  years.  In 
1859  he  brought  his  family  to  Marshall  county, 
Illinois,  and  for  many  years  after  was  identified 
with  its  agricultural  interests,  continuing  to  make 
his  home  here  until  his  death,  which  occurred  in 
December,  1886,  when  he  was  seventy-four  years 
of  age.  He  was  married  in  1837  to  Miss  Mary 
Nichol,  who  was  also  a  native  of  Roxburghshire, 
Scotland,  and  who  died  March  20,  1880.  They 
were  both  devoted  members  of  the  United  Pres- 
byterian church.  The  family  numbered  ten  chil- 
dren :  Margaret,  Jane,  John,  Jessie,  James,  Wil- 


liam, Charlie,  Minnie,  Elizabeth  and  Robert.  The 
last  named,  born  in  Scotland  in  1848,  was  married 
in  January,  1875,  to  Jennie  Mennock,  who  was 
born  in  Peoria  county,  Illinois,  in  1856,  a  daughter 
of  Jesse  and  Nancy  (Snyder)  Mennock,  who  were 
natives  of  Pennsylvania.  Robert  Scoon  resides 
upon  a  farm  adjoining  his  brother  William's 
place,  and,  like  him,  is  one  of  the  enterprising  and 
well  known  agriculturists  of  the  community.  Both 
he  and  his  wife  are  members  of  the  United  Pres- 
byterian church  and  are  highly  esteemed  people. 
His  political  support  is  given  the  republican  party, 
and  for  five  years  he  has  served  as  township  as- 
sessor. 

William  Scoon,  whose  name  introduces  this  re- 
view, was  a  lad  of  seven  years  when  he  left  his 
native  country  and  accompanied  his  parents  on 
their  emigration  to  America.  He  was  with  them 
on  their  various  removals  and  became  a  student 
in  the  Smith  school  in  La  Prairie  township.  Like 
his  brothers,  he  assisted  in  the  work  of  the  home 
farm  until  about  1870,  when  he  started  out  in 
life  on  his  own  account,  then  having  one  hundred 
acres  of  good  land  in  La  Prairie  township,  to 
which  he  has  since  added  until  he  now  owns  two 
hundred  and  eighty  acres  of  valuable  farming  land 
in  that  township,  together  with  one  hundred  and 
sixty  acres  near  Winnipeg.  His  life  has  always 
been  devoted  to  farm  work,  and  his  present  ex- 
tensive possessions  are  an  indication  of  the  thrift 
and  enterprise  which  he  has  always  displayed  in 
his  business  interests. 

In  1881  was  celebrated  the  marriage  of  Mr. 
Scoon  and  Miss  Jennie  W.  Hall,  a  daughter  of 
William  Hall,  who  is  now  living  in  Scotland  at 
the  venerable  age  of  eighty-four  years.  He  has 
crossed  the  Atlantic  ten  different  times,  being  a 
great  traveler.  His  daughter,  Mrs.  Scoon,  was 
born  in  1853  in  Scotland  and  was  there  reared, 
coming  to  the  United  States  when  twenty-five 
years  of  age..  In  19.05  our  subject  and  his  wife 
returned  on  a  visit  to  the  land  of  hills  and 
heather,  spending  many  pleasant  hours  in  look- 
ing again  upon  the  scenes  amid  which  their  early 
childhood  was  passed  and  in  renewing  the  ac- 
quaintances of  former  years.  They  have  four 
children :  Charles  R.,  who  was  a  student  in 
Sparland  high  school  and  is  now  attending 
Brown's  Business  College  at  Peoria;  Mary  and 
Willie,  twins,  now  nineteen  years  of  age,  who  are 
students  in  the  Sparland  high  school ;  and  Alice, 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


427 


who  is  attending  the  high  school  at  Lacon.  Mr. 
Scoon  is  a  stalwart  republican  and  has  frequently 
been  solicited  to  accept  office  but  has  always  re- 
fused. He  and  his  wife  hold  membership  in  the 
United  Presbyterian  church  and  are  interested 
in  its  work  and  upbuilding.  In  his  life  he  has 
displayed  many  of  the  sterling  characteristics 
which  mark  the  Scottish  race,  including  the  in- 
dustry and  perseverance  which  have  made  the 
Scotchman  successful  wherever  he  has  gone,  to- 
gether with  the  unfaltering  honesty  which  is  one 
of  the  dominant  traits  of  the  sons  of  "bonnie 
Scotland." 


HENRY  ALBERT  HARRISON. 

Henry  Albert  Harrison  was  born  August  3, 
1865,  in  Saratoga  township,  within  the  borders 
of  which  he  still  makes  his  home,  being  num- 
bered among  the  practical,  progressive  and  re- 
spected agriculturists  of  Marshall  county.  His 
father,  Robert  Harrison,  was  born  near  Winches- 
ter, Virginia,  September  20,  1820,  and  came  to 
Illinois  from  the  Old  Dominion  in  1849.  For 
several  years  he  was  employed  at  farm  labor  in 
Bureau  county,  after  which  he  removed  to  Sara- 
toga township,  Marshall  county,  and  took  up  a 
farm  of  eighty  acres,  which  is  now  a  part  of  the 
old  home  place  that  today  covers  a  quarter  sec- 
tion. He  acted  in  various  official  capacities,  to 
which  he  was  called  by  his  fellow  townsmen,  who 
recognized  his  worth  and  ability,  and  his  po- 
litical support  was  given  to  the  republican  party, 
having  firm  faith  in  its  principles.  He  came  of 
an  old  Virginian  family  and  was  a  representative 
of  the  best  type  of  southern  citizenship.  His  death 
occurred  June  7,  190G,  and  the  community 
mourned  the  loss  of  one  of  its  leading  men.  His 
wife,  who  bore  the  maiden  name  of  Elizabeth 
Kline,  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and  they 
were  married  in  Saratoga  township.  She  passed 
away  October  28,  1905,  and  they  were  laid  to 
rest  in  Saratoga  cemetery.  In  the  family  were 
five  children :  John  Robert,  who  is  now  engaged 
in  the  real-estate  business  in  Spencer,  Iowa; 
Ellen,  who  is  keeping  house  for  her  brother  Henry 
Albert ;  George,  who  is  living  at  Castleton,  Stark 
county,  Illinois ;  Elizabeth,  also  on  the  home 
place;  and  Henry  A.,  of  this  review. 

In  taking  up  the  personal  history  of  Mr.  Harri- 
son, whose  name  introduces  this  record,  we  pre- 
sent to  our  readers  an  account  of  one  who  is  widely 


known  in  Saratoga  township,  where  he  has  spent 
his  entire  life,  never  leaving  the  old  homestead 
farm.  He  was  educated  in  the  district  schools, 
and  when  not  occupied  with  his  text-books  his 
time  and  energies  were  largely  devoted  to  the 
tilling  of  the  soil.  After  completing  his  educa- 
tion he  concentrated  his  efforts  upon  the  work  of 
developing  the  home  place,  and  is  regarded  as 
one  of  the  practical  and  progressive  agriculturists 
of  this  community.  His  fields  return  to  him 
golden  harvests  as  a  reward  for  the  care  and  labor 
he  bestows  upon  them,  and  he  has  made  many 
modern  improvements  on  the  place. 

Politically  a  republican,  he  is  without  aspira- 
tion for  office.  Socially  he  is  connected  with  the 
Modern  Woodmen  of  America,  belonging  to  Brad- 
ford camp.  His  neighbors  and  friends  speak  of 
him  in  terms  of  praise  and  friendship  and  he  is 
justly  regarded  as  a  man  of  strong  character  and 
high  principles.  The  family  was  established  in 
this  part  of  Illinois  at  an  early  epoch  in  its  his- 
tory, and  the  name  of  Harrison  has  since  been 
synonymous  here  with  agricultural  progress  and 
with  honesty  in  business  life. 


CARMI  SWARTZ. 

Carmi  Swartz,  the  concentration  of  whose  en- 
ergies and  powers  upon  the  work  of  the  home 
farm  has  resulted  in  the  development  and  im- 
provement of  an  excellent  property,  was  born  in 
Marshall  county  and  is  a  son  of  William  and 
Elizabeth  (Paget)  Swartz.  The  father  was  born 
in  Bourbon  county,  Kentucky,  in  1814,  and  be- 
came a  resident  of  Illinois  in  1835,  settling  on 
what  was  called  Sandy  creek,  in  Evans  township 
Marshall  county,  where  he  developed  a  good  farm, 
experiencing  in  the  early  days  the  hardships  and 
privations  of  pioneer  life.  He  afterward  became 
the  owner  of  three  hundred  and  forty-five  acres 
of  land  and  also  owned  a  tract  of  twenty-seven 
acres  belonging  to  home  farm,  a  quarter  section 
in  Osage  township,  La  Salle  county,  Illinois,  and 
a  section  of  land  in  Morris  county,  Kansas,  his 
entire  life  being  devoted  to  farming.  His  political 
allegiance  was  given  to  the  democracy,  and  his 
religious  faith  was  indicated  by  his  membership 
in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church.  He  passed 
away  in  1897,  having  for  three  years  survived  his 
wife,  who  died  in  1894.  She  was  born  in  Bour- 
bon county,  Kentucky,  in  1821,  and  their  mar- 


428 


PAST    AND    I'liKSKNT    <>!•     MARSHALL    AND    PUTXAM    COUNTIHS. 


riage  was  celebrated  in  Evans  township,  Marshall 
county,  Illinois.  Their  children  are :  Zephaniah, 
a  farmer  living  near  Wymore,  Nebraska ;  Daniel 
W.,  a  resident  of  Wenona;  Albert,  who  resides  in 
WelMngford,  Emmet  county,  Iowa;  Charles  and 
Sarah,  both  residents  of  Wenona;  Artemesia,  de- 
ceased ;  Artemis,  of  Wenona ;  James,  deceased ; 
Carmi;  and  Arthur;  and  also  Mary  Jane  by  a 
former  marriage. 

Upon  the  old  homestead  farm  which  came  into 
possession  of  the  father  in  pioneer  days  Carmi 
Swartz  was  reared  and  attended  what  is  now  called 
the  Hamilton  school.  He  early  assisted  in  the 
arduous  labor  of  developing  the  home  place,  and 
when  twenty-one  years  of  age  began  farming  for 
himself  on  the  old  homestead.  He  today  owns 
one  hundred  and  eighty-six  acres  of  valuable  land, 
which  is  a  part  of  the  old  home  property,  and 
here  he  has  spent  his  entire  life,  so  that  the  farm 
is  endeared  to  him  through  the  recollections  of 
his  boyhood  as  well  as  through  the  associations 
of  later  years.  In  connection  with  the  raising  of 
cereals  best  adapted  to  climatic  conditions  here 
found,  he  also  raises  some  stock. 

Mr.  Swartz  was  married  in  1887  to  Miss  Anna 
Anthony,  who  was  born  in  Evans  township,  Mar- 
shall county,  in  1869,  and  is  a  daughter  of  Charles 
and  Lena  Anthony.  Her  father  is  now  deceased, 
but  her  mother  is  living  in  Wenona.  This  union 
has  been  blessed  with  three  children:  Clifton, 
Charles  and  Louise,  all  at  home.  The  parents  are 
members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  and 
Mr.  Swartz  is  a  republican.  He  and  his  wife  are 
prominent  socially,  the  hospitality  of  many  of  the 
best  homes  in  this  locality  being  cordially  extended 
to  them  in  recognition  of  their  genuine  personal 
worth. 

JAMES  JENKINS. 

James  Jenkins  is  a  retired  farmer,  living  in 
Varna,  and  has  passed  the  eighty-third  milestone 
on  life's  journey.  He  was  born  in  Hamilton, 
Ohio,  April  3,  1823.  His  father,  John  Jenkins, 
a  native  of  Virginia,  was  a  blacksmith  by  trade 
and  was  about  fifty  years  of  age  when  his  life's 
labors  were  ended  in  death  in  Ohio.  He  had 
married  Elizabeth  Vinage,  a  native  of  that  state, 
who  also  passed  away  in  Ohio  when  about  fifty 
years  of  age.  She  was  a  devoted  member  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church,  and  in  her  family 
were  six  children:  John  and  William,  both  de- 


ceased; Margaret  and  Kosana,  who  have  passed 
away;  Elizabeth,  who  died  in  infancy;  and 
George,  the  youngest,  who  lives  in  Lacon. 

James  Jenkins  of  this  family  acquired  his  early 
education  in  the  schools  of  Ohio,  and  was  about 
twenty  years  of  age  when  he  removed  to  Cam- 
bridge, Indiana.  He  was  there  married  to  Miss 
Elizabeth  Reeves,  who  was  born  in  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  July  14,  1828,  a  daughter  of  William  and 
Mary  Beeves,  in  whose  family  were  three  daugh- 
ters, the  sisters  of  Mrs.  Jenkins,  being  Mary  and 
Caroline,  both  now  deceased.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jen- 
kins were  married  April  15,  1847,  and  afterward 
returned  to  Ohio,  where  they  remained  for  two 
years.  In  1855  they  became  residents  of  Lacon, 
Illinois,  and  Mr.  Jenkins  was  employed  by  Jabez 
Fisher  in  the  packing  business,  working  for  him 
for  about  fifteen  years.  He  then  farmed  in  the 
vicinity  of  Lacon  for  about  five  years,  operating 
the  Fisher  place  in  the  summer  and  working  in 
a  packing  house  during  the  winter.  At  that  early 
day  he  found  it  very  difficult  to  rent  a  house  in 
Lacon,  but  finally  secured  a  small  frame  dwell- 
ing. He  afterward  bought  a  farm  in  Evans 
township,  about  three  and  a  half  miles  west  of 
Varna,  in  1865,  going  in  debt  for  the'  property. 
He  had  to  pay  a  big  interest  on  the  money,  and 
as  the  farm  was  not  at  first  self-sustaining  he 
had  to  hunt  work  outside  in  order  to  provide  a 
livelihood  for  his  family.  He  would  leave  his 
wife  and  children  to  carry  on  the  farm  work 
while  he  would  go  to  Lacon  and  work  for  Mr. 
Fisher.  He  always  covered  the  distance  between 
his  home  and  Lacon — fourteen  miles — on  foot, 
visiting  his  home  about  every  two  or  three  weeks. 
He  would  make  the  trip  on  Saturday  and  return 
Sunday  evening  in  order  to  be  ready  for  work 
Monday  morning.  He  started  out  in  life  empty- 
handed  and  is  now  in  possession  of  a  very  com- 
fortable competence.  For  many  years  he  carried 
on  general  agricultural  pursuits,  owning  a  farm 
of  two  hundred  and  six  acres,  and  he  brought  his 
fields  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation,  but  is  now- 
retired,  living  with  his  wife  in  the  village  of 
Varna.  They  are  a  most  highly  esteemed  and 
venerable  couple,  who  for  almost  sixty  years  have 
traveled  life's  journey  together  as  man  and  wife, 
sharing  with  each  other  in  the  joys  and  sorrows, 
the  adversity  and  prosperity  which  has  come  to 
them. 


ME.  AND  MKS.  JAMES  JENKINS. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


431 


Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jenkins  have  been  born  the 
following  children:  Alice  C.,  who  died  at  the 
age  of  sixteen  months;  Albert  W.,  who  is  farm- 
ing in  Evans  township;  Mrs.  Clara  Belle  Yocum, 
who  is  living  in  Lenexa,  Kansas;  Mrs.  Lillie  May 
Rush,  a  resident  of  Kansas  City,  Missouri;  Rosa- 
lind Leslie,  who  is  living  near  Varna;  Frank  E., 
a  resident  of  Columbus,  Ohio;  Eugene  0.,  who 
is  upon  the  old  home  farm  in  Evans  township; 
Emma  Grace,  who  died  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
months ;  and  Eugene  Edgar,  who  died  in  infancy. 

Mr.  Jenkins  made  no  mistake  when  he  deter- 
mined to  try  his  fortune  in  Marshall  county, 
for  though  the  early  years  were  fraught  with 
hard  and  unremitting  toil  and  he  had  to  face 
many  difficulties  and  trials  he  has  nevertheless 
worked  his  way  upward  here  and  his  life  record 
proves  that  labor  can  overcome  all  difficulties  and 
obstacles.  He  is  now  comfortably  situated  in 
life  and  is  enabled  in  the  evening  of  his  days  to 
live  in  honorable  retirement  from  business  cares. 
Moreover,  he  has  never  been  known  to  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  necessities  of  his  fellowmen  in  any 
business  transaction,  and  is  therefore  honored  and 
esteemed  by  all  with  whom  he  has  been  brought 
in  contact. 


FREDERICK  KOCH. 

Frederick  Koch,  whose  well  appointed  farm  in 
the  southwest  corner  of  Richland  township  is  not 
excelled  by  any  and  equaled  by  few  in  this  part 
of  Marshall  county,  has  through  an  active  life 
demonstrated  the  fact  that  labor  is  an  excellent 
foundation  upon  which  to  build  the  superstruc- 
ture of  success.  He  was  born  in  Bavaria,  Ger- 
many, July  18,  1852,  and  was  a  youth  of  sixteen 
years  when  he  came  to  America.  His  father,  Louis 
Koch,  was  also  a  native  of  Bavaria  and  crossed 
the  Atlantic  with  his  family  in  1868,  landing  at 
New  York.  He  made  his  way  to  Peoria,  Illinois, 
and  during  the  first  year  thereafter  Frederick 
Koch  of  this  review  was  employed  at  Washington, 
in  Will  county,  Illinois.  In  1869  he  turned  his 
attention  to  farming  in  Lacon  township,  Marshall 
county,  about  a  mile  west  of  his  present  place, 
beginning  the  development  and  improvement  of  a 
tract  of  land  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres. 
Both  of  his  parents  died  at  Washington  and  were 
laid  to  rest  in  the  cemetery  there. 

Frederick    Koch,    concentrating    his    attention 


upon  his  farming  interests,  has  developed  a  prop- 
erty which  in  its  equipments  and  accessories  is 
second  to  none  in  Richland  township.  He  is  prac- 
tical in  all  that  he  does,  and  yet  works  toward  the 
ideal  in  his  farming  pursuits.  The  fields  are  rich- 
ly tilled  and  the  buildings  are  substantial  and 
commodious.  He  also  keeps  good  grades  of  stock 
upon  his  place  and  annually  harvests  rich  crops 
which  find  a  ready  sale  on  the  market. 

In  1880  Mr.  Koch  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Elizabeth  Wagner,  a  native  of  Illinois  and 
a  daughter  of  John  Wagner.  Unto  them  have 
been  born  eight  children :  Mary,  Lena,  Katherine, 
Elizabeth,  Annie,  Louis,  Louisa  and  Emma.  The 
second  daughter,  Lena,  is  now  the  wife  of  Phillip 
Beckhardt,  a  farmer  residing  near  Washington, 
Illinois,  and  they  have  one  son,  Roy  Francis. 
Katherine,  the  third  daughter,  is  the  wife  of  Louis 
Kamp,  a  farmer  residing  near  Lacon. 

Mr.  Koch  is  identified  fraternally  with  the  Loyal 
Americans  of  the  Republic  and  his  religious  faith 
is  indicated  by  his  membership  in  the  German 
Reformed  church.  In  politics  he  is  an  indepen- 
dent democrat,  desiring  the  triumph  of  the  lead- 
ing principles  of  the  party,  yet  at  local  elections 
casting  his  ballot  without  regard  to  party  affilia- 
tions, for  at  such  elections  no  issues  are  involved 
and  only  the  capability  of  the  candidate  should  be 
considered.  He  has  served  as  school  director  for 
fifteen  years  and  as  constable  for  nine  years. 
Coming  to  America  when  a  youth  of  sixteen,  he 
readily  mastered  the  language  of  the  people  and 
familiarized  himself  with  customs  and  methods 
which  hitherto  were  unknown  to  him.  Through 
the  passing  years  he  has  made  good  use  of  his 
opportunities,  and  reasoning  back  from  effect  to 
cause,  we  see  in  his  success  the  elements  of  in- 
dustry and  perseverance  which  brought  about  the 
excellent  result  that  he  is  now  enjoying. 


R.  L.  WATSON,  M.  D. 

Dr.  R.  L.  Watson,  the  only  physician  in  the 
village  of  Florid,  was  born  in  Joliet,  Illinois, 
April  9,  1880,  and  is  a  son  of  Joseph  L.  and 
Caroline  M.  Watson.  The  father,  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania,  died  in  Joliet  on  the  9th  of  April, 
1905.  He  followed  the  occupation  of  farming 
until  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  war,  when  he 
located  in  Joliet,  where  for  years  he  was  captain 
of  the  night  watch,  while  subsequently  he  became 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


a  guard  at  the  penitentiary.  A  few  years  ago  he 
retired  from  business  cares  and  duties,  and  he 
passed  away  at  the  age  of  seventy,  being  still 
survived  by  his  widow,  who  yet  resides  in  Joliet. 
In  their  family  were  eight  children.  The  second 
brother  of  our  subject,  Robert  Louis  Watson,  was 
a  master  mechanic  employed  in  the  steel  mills  at 
Clairton,  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was  killed  in  an 
explosion  in  March,  1906.  Five  of  the  children 
are  still  living,  namely:  Belle  W.,  William  and 
Elizabeth,  all  of  whom  are  at  home  in  Joliet; 
and  Ralph,  who  is  employed  in  the  steel  mills  in 
Clairton,  Pennsylvania. 

Dr.  Watson,  who  is  the  youngest  of  the  family, 
entered  the  public  schools  of  Joliet  at  the  usual 
age  and  passed  through  successive  grades  until  he 
was  graduated  from  the  high  school  with  the 
class  of  1899.  He  afterward  did  three  years' 
preparatory  work  in  the  University  of  Michigan, 
and  then,  having  determined  upon  the  practice 
of  medicine  and  surgery  as  a  life  work,  he  matric- 
ulated in  Rush  Medical  College  of  Chicago,  from 
which  he  was  graduated  in  1904.  In  December 
of  the  same  year  he  located  in  Florid,  and  has 
secured  an  excellent  practice,  which  is  constantly 
growing.  Although  a  young  man,  he  is  consid- 
ered an  able  physician,  and  his  practice  extends 
over  a  large  territory.  He  is  continually  .reading 
and  studying  along  the  line  of  his  profession,  thus 
broadening  his  knowledge  and  promoting  his  effi- 
ciency, and  he  has  today  a  business  which  many 
an  older  practitioner  might  well  envy. 

Dr.  Watson  was  married  .October  18,  1905,  to 
Miss  Clara  M.  Case,  who  was  born  in  Manistee, 
Michigan,  and  they  now  have  a  beautiful  home  in 
Florid. 


WILLIAM  WHEELER. 

William  Wheeler  is  one  of  the  largest  land- 
owners and  wealthiest  citizens  of  Putnam  county, 
and  yet  the  time  was  when  his  financial  resources 
were  extremely  limited.  His  advancement  from 
a  very  humble  financial  position  to  one  of  afflu- 
ence is  due  not  to  any  fortunate  combination  of 
circumstances  or  to  any  inheritance,  but  to  his 
own  earnest,  persistent  labor,  and  his  life  exem- 
plifies the  truth  of  the  old  maxim  that  honesty  is 
the  best  policy.  He  now  resides  on  section  18, 
Senachwine  township,  and  within  the  borders  of 
this  township  he  holds  seven  hundred  and  fifty 


acres  of  land  which  is  very  productive  and  val- 
uable. 

Born  in  Licking  county,  Ohio,  February  24, 
1842,  he  is  a  son  of  Ira  and  Susan  (Lee)  Wheeler. 
The  father  was  born  in  Vermont  in  1805,  while 
the  mother's  birth  occurred  in  New  York  in  1802. 
They  were  married  in  Ohio,  where  they  began  their 
domestic  life  upon  a  farm,  making  their  home  in 
that  state  until  1848,  when  they  came  to  Illinois. 
They  settled  first  in  Fulton  county,  at  which  time 
the  father's  cash  capital  consisted  of  only  ten 
cents.  He  had  a  family  of  nine  children  depen- 
dent upon  him  for  support,  and  although  he  took 
up  a  claim  in  Fulton  county  he  was  unable  to 
make  the  payments  upon  it  and  thereby  hold  it. 
The  family,  however,  continued  to  reside  in  that 
county  until  1863,  when  they  removed  to  Senach- 
wine township,  Putnam  county,  where  the  death 
of  the  father  occurred  when  he  was  sixty-five  years 
of  age.  The  mother  afterward  went  to  live  with  a 
son  in  Madison,  Wisconsin,  where  she  passed  away 
in  1890.  She  was  a  witness  of  the  naval  battle  on 
Lake  Erie,  in  the  war  of  1812,  her  uncle,  William 
Lee,  being  captain  of  a  vessel  under  Commodore 
Perry.  She  had  one  son  who  served  for  five  years 
in  the  Civil  war,  enlisting  with  a  Wisconsin  regi- 
ment. 

William  Wheeler  remained  with  his  parents  in 
Fulton  county  until  twenty-two  years  of  age.  HQ 
was  a  lad  of  only  six  summers  at  the  time  of  the 
removal  from  Ohio,  and  his  educational  priv- 
ileges upon  the  frontier  were  very  limited.  He 
was,  however,  a  student  for  a  brief  period  in  an 
old  log  schoolhouse  where  the  methods  of  instruc- 
tion, were  very  primitive.  When  quite  young  he 
had  to  provide  for  his  own  support,  and  his  youth 
was  largely  a  period  of  earnest  and  unremitting 
toil.  In  1863,  when  twenty-one  years  of  age,  he 
came  to  Putnam  county  and  purchased  fifty-three 
acres  of  land  on  High  prairie,  in  Senachwine 
township.  He  was  able  to  pay  but  eighty  dollars 
on  the  farm,  going  in  debt  for  the  remainder,  but 
he  worked  hard  and  persistently,  lived  economical- 
ly and  frugally  and  by  these  methods  was  soon 
enabled  to  discharge  his  indebtedness  and  also  pur- 
chase fifty-three  acres  more.  He  resided  upon  his 
original  farm  until  1874,  when  he  sold  that  prop- 
erty and  purchased  three  hundred  and  twenty 
acres,  whereon  he  now  resides.  The  purchase  price 
was  thirteen  thousand  two  hundred  dollars,  on 
which  he  was  able  to  make  a  payment  of  six  thou- 


1'AST    AND    1'K'KSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    1TTNAM    I'Ol'NTIKS. 


433 


sand  dollars.  He  resolutely  set  to  work  to  meet 
the  linancial  obligation  he  incurred,  and  long  since 
lie  has  done  this  and  more,  for  as  the  years  have 
passed  he  has  added  to  his  property  until  he  now 
owns  seven  hundred  and  fifty  acres  in  Senach- 
wine  township  and  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres 
in  Minnesota.  His  investments  have  been  very 
carefully  made,  and  in  his  business  judgment  con- 
cerning the  value  of  land  and  the  possibility  of  its 
appreciation  he  has  been  most  wise.  Upon  his 
home  farm  he  has  excellent  buildings,  all  of  which 
he  has  erected  or  remodeled,  and  the  farm  is  now 
lacking  in  none  of  the  accessories  and  equipments 
of  a  model  property  of  the  twentieth  century. 

On  the  14th  of  February,  1864,  was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  William  Wheeler  and  Miss  Mel- 
vina  Tryphena  Bead,  a  native  of  Senachwine  town- 
ship and  a  daughter  of  Phillip  and  Tryphena 
(Davis)  Eead,  who  came  to  this  county  at  an  early 
day.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wheeler  have  been  born 
five  children,  and  the  family  circle  yet  remains 
unbroken  by  the  hand  of  death.  Charles  E.,  the 
eldest,  married  Fannie  Terry,  of  Wenona,  and 
they  reside  upon  the  father's  farm.  Chettie  is 
the  wife  of  George  Crawford,  a  resident  of  Liv- 
ingston county,  Illinois.  Ulissa  is  the  wife  of  W. 
S.  Murphy,  a  merchant  in  the  village  of  Putnam. 
Olio  is  the  wife  of  Adam  Smith,  of  Livingston 
county;  and  Atha  is  the  wife  of  John  Wherry,  of 
Senachwine  township. 

For  many  years  Mr.  Wheeler  has  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Christian  church,  and  in  politics  he  has 
always  been  a  republican.  His  career  seems  al- 
most phenomenal  when  we  think  of  the  condi- 
tions with  which  he  was  surrounded  in  his  boy- 
hood days.  His  parents  were  very  poor  when  the 
family  came  to  Illinois,  and  they  not  only  had 
few  of  the  comforts  of  life,  but  oftentimes  lacked 
its  necessities.  It  is  a  noticeable  fact,  however, 
in  the  history  of  the  world  that  it  is  under  the 
pressure  of.  adversity  that  the  best  and  strongest 
in  men  are  brought  out  and  developed,  and  the 
needs  of  Mr.  -Wheeler  called  forth  his  latent  pow- 
ers and  energies.  He  demonstrated  in  his  work 
his  willingness  to  perform  arduous  labor,  com- 
liincd  with  ability  and  energy,  and  he  never  found 
it  difficult  therefore  to  obtain  employment.  He 
was  ambitions,  too,  to  secure  a  farm  of  his  own, 
and  always  worked  with  that  end  in  view.  After 
coming  to  Putnam  county  he  took  care  of  his 
parents,  willingly  assuming  the  burden,  which  he 


discharged  with  filial  devotion.  All  that  he  has 
today  has  been  made  through  his  own  efforts  and 
the  assistance  of  his  estimable  wife,  who  has  in- 
deed been  a  faithful  companion  and  helpmate  to 
him  on  life's  journey.  He  has  been  a  good  man- 
ager, conservative  in  his  dealings  and  careful  in 
his  investments.  Today  he  is  in  possession  of 
extensive  property  interests  as  the  result  of  his 
thrift  and  diligence,  and  he  certainly  deserves  the 
prosperity  that  has  come  to  him.  He  now  rents 
his  land,  owing  to  his  health,  which  is  somewhat 
impaired,  and  the  property  brings  to  him  an  in- 
come more  than  sufficient  for  his  needs  and  wants. 


JOHN  B.  WILSON. 

John  B.  Wilson,  owner  of  a  well  appointed 
farm,  whereon  he  is  engaged  in  the  breeding  and 
raising  of  fine  Norman  horses  as  well  as  in  culti- 
vating the  cereals  best  adapted  to  the  soil  and  the 
climatic  conditions,  was  born  in  Rising  Sun,  In- 
diana, March  19,  1847.  His  father,  James  Wil- 
son, was  likewise  a  native  of  that  state  and  was  a 
carpenter  and  builder  by  trade.  Eemoving  to  Illi- 
nois in  1851,  he  settled  at  Henry,  where  his  father, 
John  Wilson,  had  located  one  year  before,  or  in 
1850.  John  Wilson  followed  farming-  on  Crow 
Meadow,  in  Henry  township,  but  has  now  departed 
this  life.  James  Wilson,  however,  still  survives 
and  is  now  living  with  his  son  John  on  a  farm  in 
Saratoga  township.  Although  he  has  reached  the 
advanced  age  of  eighty  years,  he  is  Still  quite  an 
active  and  well  preserved  man.  His  wife,  who 
bore  the  maiden  name  of  Elizabeth  Stewart,  was 
a  native  of  Indiana,  and  died  about  1851  in  Henry. 

John  B.  Wilson,  their  only  child,  was  educated 
in  the  Crow  Meadow  district  school  of  Henry 
township,  that  was  located  on  the  old  farm  that 
belonged  to  his  grandfather,  and  in  Henry  Sem- 
inary. He  was  thus  provided  with  good  advan- 
tages, and  when  not  busy  with  his  text-books  he 
was  trained  to  the  work  of  field  and  meadow. 
Farming  has  been  his  sole  occupation,  and  public 
opinion  grants  him  prominence  as  the  leading 
farmer  of  Saratoga  township.  His  father  was  the 
owner  of  a  tract  of  land  in  Whitefield  township, 
and  there  John  B.  Wilson  engaged  in  general  agri- 
cultural pursuits  for  a  number  of  years.  His  farm 
in  Saratoga  township  comprises  three  hundred  and 
twenty  acres  of  land  and  is  a  model  property, 
equipped  with  all  of  the  improved  machinery  and 
accessories  which  facilitate  the  work  of  the  fields 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


and  promote  the  success  of  the  agriculturist.  He 
annually  harvests  good  crops  and  also  takes  great 
interest  in  fine  horses,  owning  and  breeding  some 
very  fine  Norman  stock.  The  farm  is  pleasantly 
located  on  section  8,  and  the  owner  is  an  expert  in 
the  development  of  property,  to  which  he  devotes 
his  labors.  His  home  is  a  very  commodious  and 
attractive  residence,  built  in  modern  style  of  ar- 
chitecture, and  tarns  and  other  buildings  are  in 
keeping  with  the  spirit -of  progress  which  dom- 
inates him  in  all  of  his  work. 

In  1869  Mr.  Wilson  was  iinited  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Mary  Elizabeth  Merrill,  a  daughter  of  Gil- 
man  Merrill,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts.  They  now 
have  five  children :  Herbert  B.,  who  is  farming  in 
Saratoga  township,  on  one  of  his  farms,  and  who 
married  Miss  Myrtle  Mallory,  by  whom  he  has 
four  children;  Oscar,  who  is  a  bookkeeper  in  Min- 
neapolis, Minnesota;  Jennie,  the  wife  of  Alfred 
Holmes,  a  resident  farmer  of  Saratoga  township; 
Arthur,  who  married  Miss  Combs  and  is  farming 
in  Iowa ;  and  Clarence,  a  youth  of  sixteen,  now  in 
school. 

John  B.  Wilson  is  a  stanch  republican,  unfalter- 
ing in  his  allegiance  to  the  party,  for  he  believes 
its  principles  are  most  conducive  to  good  govern- 
ment. He  has  been  a  school  director  for  twenty- 
seven  years,  and  the  cause  of  education  has  found 
in  him  a  stalwart  champion.  He  has  also  been 
road  commissioner  at  various  times  and  has  done 
much  to  improve  the  public  highways.  Thorough- 
ly posted  on  matters  of  general  interest,  political 
and  otherwise,  upon  the  improved  methods  of 
farming  and  the  topics  of  the  day,  he  stands  as  a 
high  type  of  progressive  American  manhood  and  is 
a  co-operant  factor  in  many  measures  which  have 
been  of  signal  service  to  the  county.  Almost  his 
entire  life  has  been  passed  within  the  borders  of 
this  county,  so  that  his  life  history  is  well  known, 
and  the  position  to  which  he  is  accorded  by  the 
consensus  of  public  opinion  is  proof  of  his  many 
sterling  traits  of  character. 


GEORGE  A.  FORD. 

George  A.  Ford,  manager  of  the  elevator  of  the 
United  Grain  Company,  at  Granville,  was  born  in 
Hennepin  township,  January  11,  1863.  His  father, 
John  Ford,  was  a  native  of  Ohio,  born  December 
5,  1835.  He  lost  his  father  when  quite  young  and 
afterward  came  to  Putnam  county  with  his  mother, 
who  later  married  Mahlon  Newburn.  Thus  John 


Ford  was  reared  in  this  county,  and,  having  ar- 
rived at  years  of  maturity,  he  was  married,  on  the 
8th  of  December,  1859,  to  Miss  Catherine  New- 
burn,  who  was  born  in  Washington  county,  Penn- 
sylvania, July  12,  1835,  a  daughter  of  George  and 
Lydia  (Van  Scoyoe)  Newburn,  who  arrived  in 
Putnam  county  in  1852,  settling  near  McNabb 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ford  began  their  domestic  life  upon 
a  farm,  and  he  purchased  the  property  upon  which 
his  widow  now  resides  when  there  was  no  improve- 
ment save  a  log  house  on  the  place.  He  made  it 
his  home  until  his  death,  and  in  the  intervening 
years  erected  a  comfortable  residence  and  made 
many  good  and  substantial  improvements.  He 
died  January  17,  1897,  and  the  old  home  is  now 
the  property  of  their  youngest  daughter,  Mary, 
who  has  never  married  and  is  living  with  her 
mother.  There  were  two  other  children  born  unto 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  Ford,  namely :  Milton  E.  and 
George  A.  The  former  resides  on  a  part  of  the 
home  farm  that  lies  in  Granville  township. 

George  A.  Ford  of  this  review  spent  his  boyhood 
days  under  the  parental  roof  and  mastered  the 
common  branches  of  English  learning  in  the  dis- 
trict schools  near  his  father's  home.  After  put- 
ting aside  his  text-books  he  continued  to  aid  in  the 
labors  of  field  and  meadow  until  twenty-seven  years 
of  age,  when  he  was  married  and  established  a 
home  of  his  own.  He  wedded  Miss  Martha  J. 
Peterson,  who  was  born  in  Putnam  county,  a 
daughter  of  Daniel  Peterson,  now  living  in  Gran- 
ville. Mr.  Ford  then  engaged  in  general  agri- 
cultural pursuits  and  purchased  and  operated  a 
farm  in  Magnolia  township,  but  after  a  few  years 
he  disposed  of  that  property  and  bought  land  in 
Granville  township,  which  he  cultivated  for  some 
time.  Five  years  ago,  however,  he  sold  that  farm 
and  took  up  his  abode  in  the  village  of  Granville, 
where  he  engaged  in  buying  and  shipping  stock. 
For  the  past  two  years  he  has  been  in  the  employ 
of  the  Churchill  &  White  Grain  Company,  now 
the  United  Grain  Company.  He  is  a  very  com- 
petent business  man,  carefully  conducting  the 
grain  trade  at  this  town,  and  in  addition  to  his 
duties  therewith  he  manages  his  own  property  in- 
terests, and  is  also  engaged  in  the  tile  business. 
He  has  recently  purchased  one  hundred  and  twen- 
ty acres  of  land  in  Hennepin  township,  known  as 
the  E.  B.  Culter  farm,  and  he  also  owns  thirty 
acres  of  timber  land  beside  his  residence  in  the 
old  town  of  Granville. 


PAST    AND    I'HKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL   AND    1TTNAM    COUNTIES. 


435 


Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ford  have  one  son,  W.  J.  Ford. 
The  parents  became  members  of  the  old  Presby- 
terian church  at  Florid,  but  the  organization  has 
ceased  to  exist.  In  politics  Mr.  Ford  is  a  demo- 
crat, and  while  living  in  Magnolia  served  as  road 
commissioner.  He  is  now  filling  the  position  of 
school  director  of  Granville  township,  and  he 
keeps  in  touch  with  the  trend  of  modern  thought 
and  progress  in  the  county,  becoming  a  repre- 
sentative citizen  by  reason  of  the  aid  and  co-opera- 
tion which  he  has  given  to  many  movements  for 
the  general  good  as  well  as  by  reason  of  his  activ- 
ity and  enterprise. 


SAXTON  T.  KELLOGG. 

Saxton  T.  Kellogg,  who  is  practically  living  re- 
tired, but  still  owns  and  occupies  his  farm  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  acres  on  sections  18  and  7, 
La  Prairie  township,  was  born  near  Trivoli,  Peoria 
county,  Illinois,  March  19,  1838,  and  is  the  sixth 
in  order  of  birth  in  a  family  of  eight  children, 
whose  parents  were  Ammi  and  Susan  (Bosworth) 
Kellogg,  the  former  born  in  Vermont,  December 
19,  1799,  and  the  latter  in  the  state  of  New  York, 
November  4,  1804.  They  were  married  in  the 
Empire  state  and  in  1836  came  to  Illinois,  where 
they  spent  their  remaining  days.  The  father,  how- 
ever, passed  away  July  24,  1854,  but  the  mother 
long  survived  and  died  January  24,  1896,  at  the 
advanced  age  of  ninety-one  years.  The  members 
of  their  family  were:  Liddie  K.,  who  was  born 
January  9,  1826,  and  died  in  infancy;  Henry  M., 
who  was  born  February  19,  1827,  and  is  deceased; 
Sarah  F.,  who  was  born  February  24,  1829,  and 
has  departed  this  life;  Sidney  B.,  who  was  born 
January  7,  1832,  and  died  March  11,  1885;  Fuller 
A.,  who  was  born  September  16,  1834,  and  died 
September  2,  1884;  Saxton  T.,  of  this  review; 
Emily  0.,  who  was  born  September  2,  1840,  and 
is  now  living  in  Princeton;  and  Percy,  who  was 
born  December  3,  1842,  and  died  October  27, 1844. 

Saxton  T.  Kellogg  has  spent  his  entire  life  in 
Illinois,  and  early  became  imbued  with  the  spirit 
of  enterprise  and  progress  which  have  been  man- 
ifest in  the  upbuilding  of  the  middle  west.  His 
childhood  days  were  largely  passed  in  La  Prairie 
township,  Marshall  county,  where  he  attended  the 
Kellogg  school  and  when  not  busy  with  his  text- 
books worked  in  the  fields.  At  the  age  of  sixteen 
he  started  out  in  life  on  his  own  account,  working 
as  a  farm  hand  bv  the  month.  When  he  was 


eighteen  years  of  age  he  and  his  mother  established 
a  home  (the  father  having  died  many  years  be- 
fore), keeping  house  together.  In  1857  he  bought 
ten  acres  and  later  he  purchased  eighty  acres  of 
land,  which  came  into  his  possession  in  1872,  and 
that  he  has  prospered  in  the  meantime  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  he  has  extended  the  boundaries  of 
his  farm  until  it  now  comprises  one  hundred  and 
eighty  acres  of  good  land  on  sections  18  and  7, 
La  Prairie  township.  He  has  engaged  quite  ex- 
tensively in  the  raising  of  hogs,  but  is  now  prac- 
tically living  retired,  leaving  the  active  work  of  the 
farm  to  others,  although  he  still  gives  his  super- 
vision to  the  work.  The  only  interruption  to  his 
life  as  an  agriculturist  came  through  his  service 
as  a  soldier  of  the  Civil  war.  In  1864  he  respond- 
ed to  the  country's  call  and  joined  the  One  Hun- 
dred and  Thirty-ninth  Illinois  Infantry,  serving 
under  Captain  Virden  and  Colonel  Peter  Davis. 

On  the  2d  of  September,  1866,  Mr.  Kellogg  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Ann  Honor  Peistor, 
who  was  born  in  Albany  county,  New  York,  Janu- 
ary 15,  1848,  and  came  with  her  parents  to  La 
Prairie  township,  Marshall  county,  Illinois,  in  her 
early  girlhood  days.  She  was  a  student  in  the  Kel- 
logg school,  and  they  were  married  in  the  Bond 
schoolhouse  by  the  Rev.  Shafer,  a  minister  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church,  holding  there  a  big 
reception.  Mrs.  Kellogg  is  a  daughter  of  Tabol- 
ster  and  Betsy  Peistor,  who  were  farming  people. 
Her  father  died  in  1854  at  the  comparatively  early 
age  of  thirty  years,  but  her  mother  is  still  living, 
making  her  home  in  Iowa  with  a  daughter.  She 
is  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church. 
In  the  family  were  five  children  besides  Mrs.  Kel- 
logg, namely:  Peter  and  Homer,  twins;  David; 
Martha ;  and  Jennie.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kellogg 
have  been  born  five  children :  Sidney,  who  died  in 
infancy;  Lucy  B.,  who  is  the  wife  of  Alexander 
Kussel,  a  farmer  residing  in  Stark  county,  Illinois ; 
Shirley,  who  married  Hattie  Wilson  and  is  en- 
gaged in  farming  in  La  Prairie  township;  Sarah 
Ann,  who  died  in  infancy ;  and  Charlie,  at  home. 

Politically  Mr.  Kellogg  is  a  republican,  and  he 
and  his  family  are  members  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal church,  in  the  work  of  which  they  are  inter- 
ested, while  to  its  support  they  contribute  liberally. 
Almost  his  entire  life  has  been  passed  in  this 
county,  so  that  he  is  numbered  among  its  pioneer 
settlers  and  has  been  a  witness  of  its  growth  and 
development  from  the  period  of  its  early  advance- 


430 


PAST   AM)    I'K'KSKXT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUXTIKS. 


ment  to  the  present  time.  Great  have  been  the 
changes  which  have  occurred,  and  he  has  shared 
in  the  work  of  improvement,  especially  along  ag- 
ricultural lines. 


CHRISTIAN  GEORGE  OPPER. 

It  is  not  the  province  of  biography  to  give  a 
man's  modest  estimate  of  himself,  but  to  establish 
his  standing  by  the  opinion  of  the  community  in 
which  he  dwells,  and  in  Putnam  county,  where  he 
is  best  known,  Christian  George  Opper  is  ever 
spoken  of  as  "a  good  man,  worthy  of  all  respect." 
He  was  born  in  the  village  of  Wohra,  Hesse-Cassel, 
Germany,  November  23,  1838,  and  is  a  son  of 
George  and  Mary  Opper,  who  were  likewise  natives 
of  Germany.  The  father  was  a  shoemaker  by 
trade,  and  during  the  later  years  of  his  life  was  a 
government  revenue  inspector.  He  died  in  his 
native  country,  and  the  mother  passed  away  while 
on  the  ocean  on  her  way  to  America. 

Christian  G.  Opper  was  a  studant  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  his  native  country  until  he  reached 
the  age  of  thirteen  and  a  half  years,  and  later  he 
profited  by  the  advantages  afforded  in  a  night 
school,  thus  acquiring  a  fair  education.  Attracted 
by  the  opportunities  of  the  new  world,  of  which 
he  had  heard  very  favorable  reports,  Mr.  Opper, 
at  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  came  to  the  United 
States,  making  his  way  at  once  to  Granville,  Illi- 
nois, where  lived  his  aunt,  Mrs.  Christian  Bruder. 
He  reached  his  destination  on  the  16th  of  May, 
1855,  and  was  then  employed  upon  a  farm  until 
September.  He  began  working  for  his  uncle,  Mr. 
Bruder,  in  the  fall,  learning  the  blacksmith's 
trade,  and  when  he  had  mastered  the  business  he 
established  a  smithy  of  his  own,  and  for  over  fort}7 
years  was  thus  identified  with  the  industrial  in- 
terests of  Granville,  carefully  and  successfully  con- 
ducting his  shop. 

On  the  llth  of  July,  1858,  Mr.  Opper  was 
married  to  Miss  Anna  Schneider,  who  was  born  in 
a  neighboring  village  of  Germany,  April  8,  1833, 
and  who  came  to  the  United  States  a  year  after 
the  arrival  of  her  future  husband.  She  lived  in 
Baltimore  until  coming  to  the  west,  but  the  greater 
part  of  her  life  was  passed  in  Putnam  county. 
For  almost  forty-seven  years  this  worthy  couple 
traveled  life's  journey  together,  and  were  then 
separated  through  the  death  of  the  wife  on  the 
19th  of  May,  1905.  They  were  the  parents  of  six 
children,  of  whom  five  are  yet  living :  Helen,  the 


wife  of  \\~.  A.  Stansbury,  who  resides  at  Normal, 
Illinois;  Elizabeth,  who  died  at  the  age  of  three 
months;  Mrs.  W.  E.  Hawthorne,  of  Granville; 
Henry  W.,  who  is  manager  of  the  Toluca  Lumber 
&  Hardware  Company  of  Granville ;  Mary  A.,  who 
is  at  home,  and  has  been  clerking  for  eight  years; 
and  Bertha,  who  for  nine  years  has  been  postmis- 
tress of  Granville. 

Mr.  Opper  has  always  been  a  most  industrious, 
energetic  man.  Without  desire  to  be  wealthy  he 
has  nevertheless  acquired  enough  to  allow  him  to 
spend  his  declining  years  without  recourse  to  fur- 
ther labor,  having  made  judicious  investment  in 
real  estate,  from  which  he  derives  a  comfortable 
income.  He  has  a  nice  home  in  the  old  town  of 
Granville  and  yet  lives  in  the  house  a  part  of 
which  he  built  in  the  summer  of  1858.  His  has 
been  a  most  honorable  and  upright  life.  He  was 
converted  when  eighteen  years  of  age  and  joined 
the  Evangelical  church.  He  assisted  in  organizing 
the  German  church  and  building  its  house  of  wor- 
ship five  miles  east  of  Granville  and  for  several 
years  was  a  regular  attendant  on  its  services,  but 
with  advancing  years  he  felt  the  necessity  of  at- 
tending a  church  nearer  his  home,  and  withdrew 
from  the  organization  which  he  had  aided  in 
founding  and  placed  his  membership  with  the 
Congregational  church  in  Granville,  with  which 
he  is  now  identified. 

Mr.  Opper  started  out  in  life  a  poor  boy,  and 
for  many  years  he  found  it  a  difficult  task  to  pro- 
vide the  necessities  of  life,  but  he  never  became 
discouraged.  His  nature  is  rather  that  of  the 
optimist,  and  he  has  never  permitted  difficulties 
to  deter  him  in  his  onward  march.  He  always 
worked  with  the  stimulus  of  the  fact  that  a  loving 
wife  and  children  awaited  his  return  home,  and  it 
was  for  them  that  he  labored  so  industriously  and 
energetically.  His  companions  from  his  youth 
were  always  among  the  best,  and  his  own  genuine 
worth  has  caused  his  friendship  to  be  sought  by 
those  who  have  true  regard  for  the  value  of  char- 
acter. His  home  has  ever  been  noted  for  its  hos- 
pitality and  good  cheer,  and  was  ever  open  for  the 
entertainment  of  strangers  before  there  was  any 
hotel  in  Granville.  All  who  sought  it  could  find 
food  and  shelter  with  him,  and  these  were  freely 
offered  whether  the  recipient  had  the  money  to  pay 
for  it  or  not.  His  influence  has  ever  been  exerted 
in  behalf  of  goodness,  truth  and  justice,  and  many 
times  a  word  spoken  in  season  has  been  of  the  ut- 


S.  ('.  (i.  OPPEK. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


441 


most  help  in  turning  one  toward  the  path  of 
righteousness.  By  precept  and  example  he  has 
taught  the  better  way  of  life  and  is  honored  and 
respected  by  all  who  know  him.  The  world  is  cer- 
tainly better  for  his  having  lived,  and  Granville 
has  profited  by  his  labors  and  his  influence. 


JAMES  NATHAN  OWEN. 

James  Nathan  Owen,  a  leading  representative 
of  one  of  the  most  prominent  pioneer  families  of 
Marshall  county,  was  born  in  Richland  township, 
north  of  Wilburn,  on  the  13th  of  February,  1852. 
His  father,  Walter  Owen,  was  a  native  of  Ken- 
tucky and  came  to  Illinois  with  his  father,  Nathan 
Owen,  the  family  home  being  established  west  of 
Wilburn  in  Richland  township  in  the  early  '50s. 
The  grandfather  had  served  as  a  soldier  of  the 
war  of  1812.  Walter  Owen  is  still  living,  his 
home  being  in  Chenoa,  McLean  county,  Illinois, 
while  his  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden  name  of 
Mary  Glass,  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight  years. 
She  was  a  native  of  Virginia  and  they  were 
married  in  this  state.  In  their  family  were  three 
children  who  are  yet  living,  the  daughters  being 
Elizabeth  Mildred,  now  Mrs.  Harrison  Ireland ; 
and  Cora,  who  is  living  with  her  father. 

In  his  early  boyhood  days  James  Nathan  Owen 
accompanied  his  father  on  his  removal  to  Kan- 
kakee,  Illinois,  where  he  acquired  his  education  in 
the  public  schools.  After  he  had  attained  his 
majority  he  returned  to  Richland  township  and 
worked  upon  the  home  farm.  In  the  spring  of 
1882  he  Came  to  his  present  place  of  residence 
and  has  since  resided  here,  covering  a  period  of 
almost  a  quarter  of  a  century.  He  has  a  well  de- 
veloped farm  property,  equipped  with  all  modern 
conveniences  and  accessories  and  supplied  with 
substantial  and  commodious  buildings  for  the 
shelter  of  grain  and  stock.  He  has  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres  of  land,  of  which  one  hundred 
acres  is  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation,  while  in 
addition  to  tilling  the  fields  he  is  engaged  quite 
extensively  and  successfully  in  the  raising  of  sheep, 
hogs  and  cattle. 

In  1875  Mr.  Owen  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Alice  Louisa  York,  a  daughter  of  John 
York,  who  follows  farming  near  Wenona,  Illinois. 
Unto  them  were  born  two  children:  Harry,  who 
was  born  in  1881  and  died  at  the  age  of  nine 
years;  and  Frank  Eugene,  who  was  born  Febru- 
ary 12,  1886,  and  is  now  upon  the  home  place. 


Mr.  Owen  is  connected  with  the  Modern  Wood- 
men of  America,  his  membership  being  in  Wash- 
burn  camp,  No.  1821.  He  votes  with  the  repm> 
lican  party  and  for  many  years  has  served  as 
school  director,  the  cause  of  education  finding  in 
him  a  warm  and  stalwart  friend.  He  belongs  to 
the  Christian  chur-ch  and  has  lived  a  life  in  har- 
mony with  the  family  record,  which  has  ever  been 
most  creditable.  No  name  is  more  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  history  of  Marshall  couaty  and  its 
development  from  pioneer  conditions  than  the 
name  of  Owen,  and  later  generations  have  been 
equally  loyal  to  public  interests  and  have  con- 
tinued the  work  of  improvement  and  progress  that 
was  begun  by  ancestors  in  an  early  epoch  in  the 
history  of  this  county. 


GEORGE  E.  PACE. 

George  E.  Pace,  a  resident  of  Henry,  Illinois, 
was  for  many  years  identified  with  general  agri- 
cultural pursuits  and  live-stock  interests  in  Mar- 
shall county,  whereby  he  accumulated  a  comfort- 
able competence.  He  was  born  in  Morris  county, 
New  Jersey,  on  the  15th1  of  November,  1864,  and 
is  a  son  of  John  and  Sarah  (Perry)  Pace,  both  of 
whom  were  natives  of  New  Jersey.  The  father 
died  about  seven  years  ago,  having  long  survived 
his  wife,  who  passed  away  on  the  15th  of  No- 
vember, 1873. 

George  E.  Pace  was  reared  under  the  parental 
roof  and  acquired  his  educati6n  in  the  public 
schools  of  his  native  county.  He  early  became  fa- 
miliar with  farm  work  and  about  1885  made  his 
way  westward  to  Illinois,  settling  in  Marshall 
county,  where  he  turned  his  attention  to  general 
farming.  He  became  well  known  as  a  cattle 
dealer  and  is  now  doing  a  good  business  as  a  cattle 
buyer  and  seller,  being  an  excellent  judge  of  live 
stock,  so  that  he  has  been  enabled  to  make  ju- 
dicious purchases  and  profitable  sales. 

Mr.  Pace  married  Miss  Emily  Olmsted,  of  Mar- 
shall county,  and  unto  them  have  been  born  two 
children,  Kittie  Amanda  and  Herbert  Austin,  both 
attending  school.  Mr.  Pace  is  a  member  of  Henry 
lodge,  No.  119,  A.  F.  &  A.  M.,  and  also  of  the 
Modern  Woodmen  camp,  of  Henry,  in  which  he 
has  served  as  consul  for  two  years  and  adviser  for 
five  years.  He  has  made  many  friends  in  these 
organizations  by  reason  of  qualities  which  in  every 
land  and  clime  command  confidence  and  regard. 


442 


PAST    AND    IM.'KSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    Pl'TXAM    COUNTIES. 


He  does  not  feel  that  he  made  a  mistake  in  seeking 
a  home  in  the  middle  west,  for  here  he  has  en- 
joyed and  benefited  by  good  business  opportunities 
and  has  made  substantial  financial  progress. 


EDO  DUDEN. 

Edo  Duden  is  the  owner  of  a  valuable  farming 
property  of  two  hundred  acres  in  Bennington 
township,  which  he  has  placed  under  a  high  state 
of  cultivation.  He  has  other  valuable  farm  prop- 
erty in  Iowa,  and  his  holdings  are  so  extensive 
as  to  render  further  active  labor  on  his  part  no 
longer  a  necessity,  for  his  income  from  the  land 
is  sufficient  to  supply  him  with  all  of  the  comforts 
and  many  of  the  luxuries  of  life.  A  native  of  Ger- 
many, he  was  born  in  Oldenburg  on  the  29th  of 
January,  1832.  His  father,  John  G.  Duden,  also 
a  native  of  Germany,  was  born  in  1808,  and  in  that 
country  he  engaged  in  farming  a  small  tract  of 
land  of  twenty-four  acres.  There  he  continued  to 
reside  until  called  to  his  final  rest  in  1884,  when 
he  was  about  seventy-six  years  of  age.  His  wife, 
Mrs.  Anna  Elizabeth  Duden,  was  born  in  1808  and 
passed  away  in  1882.  They  were  the  parents  of 
six  children :  Mary,  who  is  living  in  Minonk,  Illi- 
nois ;  Kate,  a  resident  of  Iowa ;  Anna,  who  is  lo- 
cated in  Nebraska ;  Olmet,  living  in  Germany ;  and 
Margaret,  deceased. 

In  the  schools  of  his  native  land  Mr.  Duden  of 
this  review  acquired  his  education.  He  spent  his 
minority  in  the  fatherland  and  in  1853  crossed  the 
Atlantic  to  America  on  a  sailing  vessel  named  the 
Columbus.  After  a  voyage  of  nine  weeks  he 
landed  at  New  Orleans,  whence  he  proceeded 
northward  to  Missouri,  where  he  secured  employ- 
ment at  a  wage  of  ten  dollars  per  month.  Among 
his  duties  was  the  milking  of  forty-five  cows.  He 
remained  with  his  first  employer  for  about  six 
months,  after  which  he  went  to  Peoria,  Illinois, 
and  worked  on  the  canal.  He  also  did  other  labor, 
scorning  no  work  that  would  yield  him  an  honest 
living.  About  five  years  were  passed  in  Peoria, 
on  the  expiration  of  which  period  he  removed  to 
Nebraska  township,  Livingston  county,  Illinois, 
and  invested  the  money  which  he  had  saved  from 
his  earnings  in  forty  acres  of  land.  He  was  mar- 
ried at  that  time  and  later  he  purchased  the  place 
upon  which  he  now  resides,  first  becoming  owner 
of  eighty  acres,  but  from  time  to  time  he  has  ex- 
tended the  boundaries  of  his  farm  until  it  now 


comprises  two  hundred  acres  of  richly  productive 
land  in  Bennington  township.  The  soil  is  very  al- 
luvial and  the  farm  responds  readily  to  the  care 
and  cultivation  which  he  bestows  upon  the  fields. 
In  addition  to  this  he  has  made  extensive  invest- 
ment in  real  estate  in  Iowa,  where  he  now  owns 
ten  hundred  and  forty  acres.  He  has  given  to  each 
of  his  children  a  farm  and  yet  retains  valuable 
holdings  which  supply  him  with  an  income  suffi- 
cient to  obviate  any  necessity  for  further  active 
work. 

In  1862  Mr.  Duden  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Johanna  Siefkes,  who  was  born  in  Germany 
in  1845  and  was  three  years  of  age  when  brought 
to  the  United  States  by  her  parents.  Their  chil- 
dren are :  Fannie,  who  is  now  living  ii 
Illinois;  Bertha,  living  in  Iowa;  Anna, 
Johanna,  at  home ;  Betty,  who  is  living  in  Nebras- 
ka ;  Henrietta,  who  resides  in  Lee  county,  Illinois ; 
Mary,  who  is  living  in  Benson,  Illinois;  Kate,  at 
home ;  and  John,  who  is  operating  the  home  farm. 

Mr.  Duden  gives  his  political  allegiance  to  the 
democracy.  His  wife  is  a  member  of  the  German 
Lutheran  church.  He  has  never  had  occasion  to 
regret  his  determination  to  seek  a  home  in  the  new 
world,  for  in  this  country  he  found  the  opportuni- 
ties he  sought,  which,  by  the  way,  are  always  open 
to  ambitious,  energetic  young  men.  As  the  years 
passed  he  made  good  use  of  his  advantages,  early 
realizing  that  in  America  "labor  is  king,"  and  in 
the  face  of  difficulties  and  obstacles  he  has  worked 
his  way  steadily  upward,  his  position  today,  how- 
ever, being  an  enviable  one,  proving,  ag  it  does, 
the  possibilities  for  successful  accomplishment  to 
those  who  are  forced  to  start  out  in  life  empty- 
handed. 


THOMAS  PAXSON. 

Thomas  Paxson,  elected  three  times  to  county 
offices  on  the  democratic  ticket  in  a  strongly  re- 
publican county,  is  now  filling  the  office  of  treas- 
urer, and  his  elections  have  come  as  a  testimonial 
of  his  personal  popularity  and  the  confidence  re- 
posed in  him  by  his  fellow  townsmen — a  confi- 
dence that  is  well  placed,  as  is  shown  by  his 
fidelity  and  capability  in  office — qualities  which 
have  led  to  his  re-election.  Hennepin  and  Put- 
nam county  number  him  as  a  representative 
citizen. 

Mr.  Paxson  was  born  in  Belmont  county,  Ohio, 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNT  IKS. 


443 


February  25,  1854.  His  father,  Thomas  Paxson, 
Sr.,  was  born  in  Loudoun  county,  Virginia,  De- 
cember 14,  1801,  and  in  early  life  learned  and 
followed  the  shoemaker's  trade,  while  later  he 
worked  in  a  paper  mill  at  Wheeling,  West  Vir- 
ginia. Subsequently  he  removed  to  Ohio,  where 
he  carried  on  farming  until  his  death.  He  was 
married  to  Miss  Sarah  McCormick,  who  was 
born  in  Westmoreland  county,  Pennsylvania,  in 
1814.  He  was  born  and  reared  in  the  Quaker 
church,  but  in  later  years  belonged  to  no  denom- 
ination. His  wife,  however,  was  a  member  of  the 
Methodist  church.  She  was  his  second  wife,  his 
first  wife  having  been  a  Miss  Morgan,  of  Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio.  They  had  two  children,  both  of 
whom  died  in  infancy,  and  following  the  death  of 
the  mother,  Thomas  Paxson,  Sr.,  wedded  Miss 
McCormick,  by  whom  he  had  ten  children,  four 
of  whom  are  now  living:  William,  who  resides 
with  his  brother .  Thomas ;  Amos,  who  is  living 
near  Magnolia,  Putnam  county;  and  Parven,  a 
resident  of  Kansas. 

Thomas  Paxson  of  this  review  lived  with  his 
parents  through  the  period  of  his  minority,  spend- 
ing his  youth  on  the  home  farm  and  acquiring  a 
common-school  education.  When  twenty-five 
years  of  age  he  left  his  parents'  home  and  came 
to  Illinois,  working  by  the  month  as  a  farm  hand 
in  Marshall  county.  He  later  removed  to  Mag- 
nolia, Putnam  county,  and  secured  a  clerkship  in 
a  store,  where  he  was  employed  for  about  one 
year,  and  then  resumed  farming.  While  thus 
engaged  he  was  elected  to  the  office  of  sheriff  of 
the  county,  and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  the 
position  December  1,  1890.  He  served  for  four 
years  and  then  conducted  a  hotel  in  Hennepin 
until  1898,  when  he  was  again  elected  county 
sheriff.  Four  years  later  he  was  chosen  by  pop- 
ular suffrage  to  the  position  of  county  treasurer. 
It  is  a  law  that  no  man  shall  serve  for  two 
consecutive  terms  in  the  office  of  either  treasurer 
or  sheriff,  and  thus  Mr.  Paxson  could  not  be  nom- 
inated without  a  lapse  of  time,  but  in  190f>  he 
was  nominated  for  the  third  term  for  sheriff,  and 
his  popularity  and  ability  as  an  officer  leave  little 
doubt  as  to  the  outcome  of  the  election.  He  was 
reared  in  the  faith  of  the  democracy,  and  his 
mature  judgment  has  sanctioned  its  policy  and 
platform,  and  his  elections  therefore  are  all  the 
greater  compliment  from  the  fact  that  Putnam 
is  regarded  as  a  republican  county.  He  has  also 


served  as  township  clerk  of  Magnolia  township, 
filling  the  office  for  two  years  before  elected 
sheriff  the  first  time.  'He  was  collector  of  Hen- 
nepin township  for  three  years  while  in  the  sher- 
iff's office  and  one  year  in  the  hotel.  Later  he 
served  for  four  years,  so  that  his  incumbency  in 
that  position  covered  altogether  eight  years.  No 
official  is  free  from  mistakes,  but  any  that  Mr. 
Paxson  may  have  made  have  been  errors  of  judg- 
ment rather  than  an  indication  of  incapability 
or  infidelity.  On  the  contrary,  people  of  the  op- 
position party  endorse  his  work  and  give  him 
support  at  the  ballot  box,  and  his  official  record 
is  altogether  creditable. 

Mr.  Paxson  was  married  in  1884  to  Miss  Alice 
Horton,  a  native  of  Magnolia  and  a  daughter  of 
N.  C.  Horton,  an  early  settler  of  Putnam  county. 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Paxson  now  have  five  children : 
Edwin  G.,  Sallie,  Thomas,  Milton  and  Florence, 
all  yet  at  home,  the  eldest  being  in  his  twenty- 
first  year.  Mr.  Paxson  is  a  valued  member  of  the 
Woodmen,  Masonic  and  Odd  Fellows  lodges,  and 
he  has  in  the  county  a  wide  acquaintance  and 
qualities  which  render  him  very  popular  in  po- 
litical circles  and  private  life.  He  regards  a 
public  office  as  a  public  trust — and  no  trust 
reposed  in  him  was  ever  betrayed  in  the  slightest 


WILLIAM  M.  LAUGHLIN. 

William  M.  Laughlin,  justice  of  the  peace  at 
Granville  and  one  of  the  respected  and  leading 
citizens  of  the  village,  has  been  closely  identified 
with  its  material  progress  and  its  community  in- 
terests. He  was  born  in  Bond  county,  Illinois, 
July  29,  1826,  and  is  a  representative  of  one  of 
the  early  families  of  the  new  world.  During  a 
pioneer  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  United  States 
three  brothers  of  the  name  came  from  Scotland 
and  two  of  them  settled  in  Pennsylvania,  while 
one  took  up  his  abode  in  South  Carolina. 

A  grandson  of  the  latter  was  S.  D.  Laughlin, 
father  of  our  subject.  He  was  born  in  South 
Carolina  and  was  married  in  Ohio,  after  which 
he  came  to  Illinois,  settling  in  Bond  county  in  the 
early  '20s.  His  wife  bore  the  maiden  name  of 
Rebecca  Dunlavy  and  was  a  native  of  the  Buck- 
eye state.  After  living  for  some  years  in  Bond 
county  the  parents  came  to  Putnam  county  in 
1830  and  remained  in  the  log  cabin  of  Nelson 


444 


PAST  AND    PUKSKNT   OF    MARSHALL    AXD   PUTNAM   COUXT1KS. 


Shepherd,  south  of  Florid,  until  they  could  build 
a  cabin,  on  their  own  land.  Mr.  Laughlin  pre- 
empted between  three  and  four  hundred  acres  of 
land,  which  he  secured  from  the  government,  but 
it  was  not  in  the  market  until  1835.  When  it 
came  into  his  possession  not  a  furrow  had  been 
turned  or  an  improvement  made  upon  the  place, 
the  entire  tract  being  just  as  it  was  when  it  came 
from  the  hand  of  nature.  He  cut  the  trees, 
hewed  the  timber  and  sawed  the  lumber  in  a 
steam  sawmill  at  Florid,  after  which  he  built  a 
frame  house.  He  performed  much  of  the  ardu- 
ous labor  incident  to  the  development  and  im- 
provement of  a  new  farm,  and  as  the  years 
passed  by,  carefully  conducted 'his  business  inter- 
ests up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  which  was  oc- 
casioned by  pneumonia  when  he  was  fifty-two 
years  of  age.  His  wife  died  when  about  fifty 
years  of  age.  In  their  family  were  eight  chil- 
dren, four  sons  and  four  daughters,  and  the 
daughters  are  now  deceased.  A  brother  of  our 
subject,  James  G.  Laughlin,  is  living  in  Prince- 
ton, Illinois.  The  eldest  brother  died  in  Kansas, 
while  the  youngest  brother,  Addison  Laughlin,  is 
now  living  in  Kewanee,  Wisconsin. 

William  M.  Laughlin  was  only  four  years  of  age 
when  brought  by  his  parents  to  Putnam  county, 
and  he  began  work  in  the  fields  when  he  was  so 
young  that  he  was  only  able  to  do  one-half  of 
the  amount  of  the  men  employed.  In  early  days 
he  would  frequently  make  trips  to  Chicago  with 
wheat,  doing  this  about  twice  each  fall,  for  the 
winter  wheat  was  sown  and  much  of  the  farm 
work  for  the  year  was  done.  A  team  of  horses 
would  be  hitched  to  the  wagon  and  in  that  he 
would  convey  the  wheat  to  market,  it  usually  re- 
quiring about  ten  days  to  make  the  trip.  His 
father  owned  five  head  of  horses,  which  he  brought 
with  him  from  Bond  county,  but  there  were  no 
fences  and  all  of  the  horses  strayed  away  with 
the  exception  of  one,  which,  however,  was  gone 
for  some  time.  Thus  amid  pioneer  conditions 
and  environments  the  days  of  his  boyhood  and 
youth  were  passed  by  Mr.  Laughlin,  who  con- 
tinued to  make  his  home  upon  the  old  farm  until 
his  parents  died. 

The  following  year  he  was  married  to  Miss 
Elizabeth  J.  Thatcher,  who  was  born  in  Vermont, 
October  25,  1830,  a  daughter  of  Benjamin 
Thatcher,  who  settled  in  this  county  in  1845  near 
Union  Grove  church.  For  a  year  after  their  mar- 


riage they  lived  upon  the  old  homestead  and  Mr. 
Laughlin  then  purchased  an  improved  farm  of 
eighty  acres,  where  he  lived  three  years.  He 
afterward  developed  and  improved  a  farm  south 
of  Granville,  and  he  continued  to  engage  actively 
in  agricultural  pursuits  until  after  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  war.  In  1864,  prompted  by  a  spirit 
nf  [till  riotism,  he  offered  his  services  to  the  gov- 
ernment and  joined  Company  B,  One  Hundred 
and  Thirty-ninth  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  un- 
der Captain  Jefferson  Durley.  He  was  in  one 
hundred  days'  service  and  went  as  far  south  as 
Cairo,  Illinois,  being  mustered  out  after  five 
months.  In  order  to  go  to  the  war  he  left  his 
home  and  wife  with  four  small  children,  the  oldest 
not  over  ten  years  of  age.  Though  his  service 
was  comparatively  short,  yet  he  did  not  know 
where  he  would  be  sent  or  what  he  would  en- 
counter before  he  returned  home,  and  it  certainly 
required  a  great  personal  sacrifice  on  his  part  to 
leave  his  wife  with  the  care  of  their  little  ones 
when  fate  held  for  him  nothing  but  uncertainty. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Laughlin  were  born  six  chil- 
dren, of  whom  five  are  yet  living:  Ella  C.,  now 
the  wife  of  Eobert  M.  Pr.itchett,  a  druggist  living 
at  Dana,  Illinois;  Mrs.  C.  C.  Watts,  of  Rutland, 
Illinois ;  Hattie,  the  wife  of  Allen  Ramsey,  who 
is  living  at  Wheaton,  Minnesota;  Cassius,  who 
died  at  the  age  of  a  year  and  a  half;  Maggie  A., 
the  wife  of  William  A.  Lake,  a  resident  of  La 
Salle  county ;  and  Bessie,  the  wife  'of  H.  E.  Raley, 
sheriff  of  Putnam  county. 

After  the  war  Mr.  Laughlin  removed  to  Gran- 
ville, where  he  engaged  in  carpenter  work  until  a 
few  years  ago,  and  many  buildings  in  the  town 
and  vicinity  were  partly  erected  by  him.  He  has 
lived  a  life  of  industry,  working  resolutely  to  pro- 
vide for  his  family,  and  a  fair  measure  of  suc- 
cess has  been  accorded  him.  In  1905  he  was  called 
upon  to  mourn  the  loss  of  his  wife,  who  died  on 
the  15th  of  May  of  that  year.  After  her  death 
he  no  longer  cared  to  live  in  the  old  home  and 
sold  that  property,  since  which  time  he  has  erected 
a  new  cottage  in  the  east  part  of  the  town.  He 
has  served  as  justice  of  the  peace  for  thirty 
years,  but  has  held  no  other  public  office.  In  the 
justice  court,  however,  he  has  proved  a  most 
capable  official,  and  his  decisions  have  been  strictly 
fair  and  impartial,  so  that  he  has  "won  golden 
opinions  from  all  sorts  of  people."  When  a  young 
boy  he  united  with  the  Presbyterian  church  and 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


445 


has  always  led  an  earnest  Christian  life.  In  1848 
he  voted  for  Martin  Van  Buren,  candidate  for 
president  on  the  free  soil  ticket,  and  since  the 
organization  of  the  republican  party  has  been  one 
of  its  stalwart  champions. 

Probably  no  resident  of  the  county  has  resided 
so  long  within  its  borders,  and  the  years  of  his 
continuous  connection  with  this  part  of  the  state 
well  entitle  Mr.  Laughlin  to  prominent  mention 
in  this  work.  He  has  a  most  retentive  memory, 
and  is  considered  authority  on  all  matters  relating 
to  the  early  history  of  the  community.  He  recalls 
many  interesting  incidents,  in  some  of  which  he 
was  an  active  participant.  He  remembers  well  the 
controversy  and  division  in  the  Union  Grove 
Presbyterian  church,  the  Ramsey  hanging  and  the 
attempt  to  return  a  runaway  negro  by  the  name 
of  Prank.  All  of  these  were  important  events  in 
the  early  days.  His  memory  forms  a  connecting 
link  between  the  primitive  past  and  the  pro- 
gressive present,  and  to  present  in  detail  his  ex- 
periences in  this  county  would  be  to  give  a  cor- 
rect picture  of  pioneer  life  and  later  progress 
here.  Long  since  has  the  stage  coach  and  the 
"prairie  schooner"  given  way  before  the  railroad 
train,  the  log  cabin  has  been  replaced  by  the 
commodious  and  substantial  frame,  brick  or  stone 
dwelling,  crude  farm  machinery  has  been  sup- 
planted by  the  reaper,  the  mower,  the  harvester 
and  the  thresher,  and  today  there  is  little  evidence 
to  show  that  hardly  more  than  a  half  century 
ago  the  county  was  still  but  very  sparsely  settled 
and  the  work  of  improvement  had  scarcely  begun. 


GEORGE  A.  McCORMICK,  M.  D. 

Dr.  George  A.  McCormick,  the  only  physician 
of  Hennepin  and  proprietor  of  a  drug  store  there, 
is  one  of  the  best  known  and  most  popular  resi- 
dents of  Putnam  county,  and  although  other  phy- 
sicians have  located  in  Hennepin  they  find  that 
Dr.  McCormick  is  so  strongly  entrenched  in  the 
affections  and  confidence  of  the  public  at  large 
that  they  must,  of  necessity,  seek  locations  else- 
where. For  forty  years  he  has  made  his  home 
in  this  county,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  first 
year  has  continuously  resided  in  the  town. 

A  native  of  Knox  county,  Indiana,  he  was  born 
October  28,  1846,  and  is  a  son  of  Robinson  and 
Sarah  B.  (Smith)  McCormick,  both  of  whom 
were  natives  of  Virginia,  the  former  born  in  1804 
and  the  latter  in  1812.  When  a  young  man  Rob- 


inson McCormick  became  a  resident  of  Indiana, 
where  he  followed  farming  and  stock-raising,  pur- 
chasing and  owning  a  tract  of  land,  which  he  op- 
erated until  his  death.  He  attempted  to  join 
the  Twenty-seventh  Indiana  Volunteer  Infantry, 
but  was  rejected.  Later  he  got  an  appointment  as 
wagonmaker  with  the  same  regiment,  and  in 
February,  1862,  contracted  a  cold,  which  resulted 
in  his  death  soon  afterward.  He  was  married 
twice,  the  mother  of  our  subject  being  his  second 
wife.  He  had  seven  children  by  his  first  wife  and 
five  by  the  second  wife,  who  died  during  his  ab- 
sence in  the  army  in  1861.  Both  were  members 
of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  church  and  Mr. 
McCormick  gave  his  early  political  support  to  the 
whig  party,  while  on  its  dissolution  he  joined  the 
ranks  of  the  new  republican  party.  Of  the  twelve 
children  only  two  are  living,  the  sister  being  Mrs. 
Steele,  of  Eleanor,  Indiana. 

Dr.  McCormick  was  a  youth  of  fifteen  when  his 
mother  died,  and  the  year  following,  his  father's 
death  occurred.  He  had  been  reared  to  farm  work 
and  was  familiar  with  no  other  line  of  activity, 
so  about  the  close  of  the  war  he  rented  land  and 
engaged  in  farming  on  his  own  account,  but  the 
inflated  prices  brought  about  by  the  war  had  col- 
lapsed and  farm  products  brought  little  money. 
At  the  end  of  a  year  he  had  barely  enough  to  pay 
his  debts,  and  he  resolved  to  seek  his  fortune  else- 
where. Accordingly  he  came  to  Hennepin  in  Sep- 
tember, 1866,  and  for  a  year  worked  on  a  farm, 
after  which  he  found  employment  in  a  drug  store 
in  Hennepin.  He  served  an  apprenticeship, 
learned  the  business  and  in  1876  became  pro- 
prietor of  a  drug  store,  which  he  has  since  con- 
ducted. He  also  owns  an  interest  in  a  store  in 
Granville,  Putnam  county.  After  three  years  in 
Bennett  Medical  College,  of  Chicago,  he  was 
graduated  therefrom  in  1883  and  has  since  been 
practicing  in  Hennepin,  where  he  has  a  good  busi- 
ness. His  skill  and  ability  are  widely  acknowl- 
edged and  have  been  demonstrated  in  the  manner 
in  which  he  has  handled  intricate  cases  with  good 
results. 

Dr.  McCormick  has  been  married  twice.  In 
1871  he  wedded  Angenetta  Simpson,  who  died  in 
1876,  leaving  three  small  children,  two  of  whom 
are  now  living — Mrs.  Ida  B.  Shepherd  and  Mrs. 
Ira  Windersheidt,  both  living  in  Hennepin.  In 
1877  Dr.  McCormick  was  married  to  Miss  Mary 
Fitzpatrick,  a  native  of  Hennepin,  and  they  have 


I  111 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


one  son,  George  A.,  who  is  a  graduate  of  the  Chi- 
cago College  of  Pharmacy  and  works  in  his 
father's  store. 

Dr.  McCormick  has  always  given  his  political 
support  to  the  republican  party,  and  for  years  has 
filled  the  office  of  village  trustee.  Community  af- 
fairs are  of  deep  interest  to  him  and  his  co-opera- 
tion can  always  be  counted  upon  to  further  move- 
ments for  the  general  good.  He  is  an  Odd  Fel- 
low, a  Mystic  Worker  and  Woodman  and  exem- 
plifies in  his  life  the  beneficent  spirit  of  these 
organizations.  He  has  a  nice  home  in  Hennepin, 
together  with  a  good  business  block,  and  has 
become  well-to-do  through  the  conduct  of  his 
commercial  and  professional  interests.  He  is  pop- 
ular with  a  large  circle  of  friends,  being  a  man  of 
genial  disposition  and  kindly  spirit,  so  that  wher- 
ever he  is  known  he  wins  friends. 


Z.  E.  PERRY. 

For  over  seventy  years  the  name  of  Perry  has 
been  prominently  identified  with  the  upbuilding 
and  development  of  Marshall  county,  for  as  early 
as  1834  Elijah  L.  Perry,  father  of  our  subject, 
became  a  resident  of  this  county  and  took  an  ac- 
tive part  in  reclaiming  the  land  for  the  purpose 
of  civilization.  He  was  born  in  Kentucky  in 
1820  and  on  coming  to  this  state  located  in  Bell 
Plain  township,  Marshall  county,  where  he  fol- 
lowed farming  throughout  the  remainder  of  his 
life,  dying  here  in  August,  1870.  He  was  an 
active  and  consistent  member  of  the  Christian 
church  and  was  a  stanch  supporter  of  the  demo- 
cratic party.  On  the  29th  of  October,  1847,  he 
married  Miss  Nancy  A.  Hatton,  who  was  born  in 
Virginia  on  the  17th  of  September,  1825,  and  is 
still  living,  making  her  home  with  her  children. 
She,  too,  is  an  earnest  member  of  the  Christian 
church  and  is  a  lady  highly  esteemed  by  all  who 
know  her.  She  was  five  years  of  age  when  she 
accompanied  her  father,  Forsythe  Hatton,  on  his 
removal  from  Rockbridge  county,  Virginia,  to 
Ohio,  and  in  that  state  she  began  her  education, 
pursuing  her  studies  in  a  little  old  log  schoolhouse 
near  her  childhood  home.  This  was  a  primitive 
structure,  one  log  being  left  out  for  a  window 
and  the  aperture  covered  with  greased  paper. 
The  seats  were  made  of  split  logs  with  pegs  driven 
in  them  for  legs  and  the  building  was  heated 
with  a  huge  fireplace.  At  the  age  of  nine  years 


she  accompanied  her  parents  on  the  removal  to 
Illinois.  Eleven  children  were  born  to  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Perry,  namely:  Malinda,  W.  J.,  Sophia, 
Anna,  Z.  E.,  Nettie,  Forsythe,  Maggie,  E.  F.,  A. 
E.,  and  Cora. 

Z.  E.  Perry  was  born  in  Bell  Plain  township, 
Marshall  county,  on  the  18th  of  September,  1855, 
and  was  reared  and  educated  in  much  the  usual 
manner  of  farmer  hoys.  He  and  his  brother  A. 
E.  still  live  on  the  old  home  farm  with  their 
mother,  which  has  been  their  place  of  residence, 
for  twenty-seven  years.  The  'mother  was  left  a 
widow  at  an  early  age  and  had  a  large  family  to 
rear,  but  the  sons  have  been  of  great  assistance 
to  her  in  the  care  of  the  farm  and  the  manage- 
ment of  her  business  affairs.  They  today  own 
and  operate  a  fine  farm  of  three  hundred  acres, 
seventy  acres  of  which  is  covered  with  timber, 
while  the  remainder  is  under  a  high  state  of  cul- 
tivation and  supplied  with  a  good  set  of  farm 
buildings  for  the  shelter  of  grain  and  stock.  All 
of  the  family  are  members  of  the  Christian 
church  and  they  occupy  an  enviable  position  in 
the  esteem  of  the  community.  The  sons  support 
the  democratic  party  by  their  ballots  and  F.  E. 
and  Z.  E.  have  served  on  the  school  board.  Fra- 
ternally they  are  members  of  the  Modern  Wood- 
men of  America. 


E.  J.  TOWNLEY. 

In  retrospect  E.  J.  Townley  can  see  Putnam 
county  when  it  was  but  sparsely  settled,  when  its 
homes  were  mostly  log  cabins  and  when  only  here 
and  there  had  a  farm  been  made,  showing  that  the 
work  of  development  had  been  begun  in  this  re- 
gion. He  is  now  one  of  the  oldest  citizens  of 
Senachwine  township,  not  only  in  years,  but  also 
in  the  length  of  his  residence  in  this  locality.  He 
was  born  in  Essex  county,  New  Jersey,  February 
21,  1828,  and  his  father,  Clark  Townley,  was  born 
in  the  same  county,  March  1,  1797.  He  married 
Rachel  Gildersleeve,  who  was  born  in  the  village 
of  Jefferson,  New  Jersey,  on  the  llth  of  June, 
1803,  and  their  children  were  six  in  number,  four 
of  whom  died  in  New  Jersey.  The  other  two, 
E.  J.  and  George  W.  Townley,  the  latter  now  a 
resident  of  Nebraska,  came  with  their  parents  to 
Illinois  in  1854,  and  the  winter  was  spent  at  the 
home  of  Elder  Gill,  at  Toulon,  Stark  county,  Illi- 
nois. In  March,  1855,  they  located  on  the  farm 
upon  which  the  subject  of  this  review  now  resides. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


The  father  was  a  shoemaker  by  trade  and  the  fam- 
ily were  poor,  but  they  managed  to  purchase  forty 
acres  of  land.  There  was  a  little  cabin  on  the 
place,  but  it  had  no  chimney,  and  a  stovepipe  was 
put  through  a  hole  in  the  roof.  About  ten  acres 
of  the  land  had  been  broken  and  fenced,  and  the 
father  and  sons  took  up  the  work  of  further  de- 
veloping and  cultivating  the  farm.  There  they 
lived  for  fifteen  years  and  then  the  mother  died, 
passing  away  February  8, 1869.  The  father  after- 
ward removed  to  the  village  of  Henry,  Marshall 
county,  where  he  passed  away  October  19,  1884, 
at  the  venerable  age  of  eighty-seven  years. 

E.  J.  Townley  was  a  young  man  of  twenty-six 
years  at  the  time  of  the  removal  of  the  family  to 
Illinois,  and  he  assisted  in  the  work  of  the  home 
farm,  and  when  the  father  removed  to  Henry  he 
and  his  brother  took  charge  of  the  farm,  which 
they  operated  together  for  many  years.  Later, 
however,  the  brother  sold  out  and  went  to  Ne- 
braska, while  MB.  Townley  has  continued  his  farm- 
ing operations  in  this  county,  and  although  he  is 
not  now  actively  engaged  in  the  work  of  the  fields, 
he  still  owns  valuable  farming  land  in  Putnam 
county. 

He  was  married  in  1857  to  Miss  Julia  Baur, 
who  was  born  in  Wall  street,  New  York,  August 
7,  1829.  For  some  time  she  has  been  in  poor 
health.  Two  sons  and  a  daughter  were  born  unto 
them,  all  yet  living :  John  C.,  who  is  married  and 
has  a  family,  lives  in  Texas;  Rachel  is  at  home; 
and  Arthur  is  in  Texas. 

Mr.  Townley  remembers  well  the  trials  and 
hardships  of  pioneer  life  in  Putnam  county,  when 
all  labor  was  performed  by  hand  and  when  the 
farmer  worked  hard  and  long  to  till  his  fields  and 
harvest  his  crops.  His  day's  labor  extended  from 
sunrise  to  sunset,  and  even  after  that  the  chores 
had  to  be  done.  Although  he  has  been  successful 
in  business  he  has  always  regretted  that  he  had  no 
better  educational  privileges  in  youth.  He  attend- 
ed only  the  subscription  schools,  and  because  his 
father  had  little  money  his  school  opportunities 
were  very  limited.  He  has,  however,  practical 
common  sense,  the  lack  of  which  has  caused  many 
a  man  to  fail  in  business,  while  Mr.  Townley  has 
prospered,  becoming  the  owner  of  over  seven  hun- 
dred acres  of  valuable  land  in  Scnachwine  town- 
ship. He  now  rents  his  land,  so  that  he  is  prac- 
tically living  retired — -and  his  rest  is  well  earned. 
In  politics  he  has  been  a  republican  since  the  or- 


ganization of  the  party,  but  has  never  wanted  or 
held  office.  About  a  year  ago  he  united  with  the 
Christian  church.  Earnest,  unremitting  toil  was 
for  many  years  his  portion,  and  he  certainly  merits 
the  rest  which  has  come  to  him  in  the  evening  of 
life. 


C.  W.  DYSART.' 

C.  W.  Dysart,  a  prosperous  farmer  of  Granville 
township,  was  born  January  22,  1847,  on  the  farm 
which  is  yet  his  home.  His  parents  were  A.  P. 
and  Hannah  J.  (Hawthorne)  Dysart.  The  father 
was  born  in  Pennsylvania  in  September,  1808, 
and  the  mother's  birth  occurred  in  Ohio.  The 
Dysart  family  is  of  Scotch  descent,  and  early  rec- 
ords give  an  account  of  the  emigration  to  America 
of  the  first  representatives  of  the  name  in  the  new 
world  about  1684. 

In  1838  A.  P.  Dysart,  coming  by  way  of  the 
lakes,  arrived  at  Chicago,  where  he  purchased  a 
horse  and  saddle  and  thence  journeyed  to  Peru,  Il- 
linois. There  his  horse  and  saddle  were  stolen  from 
him  and  he  walked  the  remaining  distance  to  Gran- 
ville.  He  purchased  fifty  acres  of  land  just  south 
of  the  village,  after  which  he  went  to  Hennepin 
and  then  down  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers 
and  up  the  Ohio  river  to  Pittsburg,  whence  he 
journeyed  to  his  old  home  in  Pennsylvania.  He 
afterward  made  the  trip  across  the  country  with 
teams  to  Illinois,  driving  four  horses  to  a  wagon 
and  carrying  with  him  tools  and  other  effects.  He 
then  began  farming  on  his  own  land  and  per- 
formed the  arduous  task  of  developing  new  fields. 
In  those  days  it  was  customary  to  ride  the  near 
horse  of  the  rear  team  and  to  drive  all  with  a 
single  line,  and  it  was  in  this  way  that  Mr.  Dysart 
traveled  across  the  country  to  his  new  home.  The 
land  which  he  purchased  had  been  partially  broken 
but  there  were  no  buildings  upon  it.  He  erected 
a  log  house  and  barn  and  made  a  home  there  until 
1845,  when  he  sold  the  property  and  purchased 
eighty  acres  on  section  15,  Granville  township — 
the  farm  now  occupied  by  his  son,  C.  W.  Dysart. 
Upon  this  place  the  father  continued  to  reside 
until  1874,  when  he  removed  to  Virginia,  where 
his  death  occurred.  His  first  wife  died  in  1854,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-nine  years,  and  he  afterward 
wedded  Miss  Hannah  Orr,  a  native  of  Ireland, 
who  died  in  Kansas  about  six  years  ago.  A.  P. 
Dysart  had  only  a  common-school  education,  but 
was  a  great  reader,  a  ready  accountant  and  a  well 


450 


PAST   AND   PHUSENT   OF   MAESHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


informed  maa  on  events  of  local  and  national 
importance.  In  his  religious  belief  he  was  a  Pres- 
byterian. His  political  support  was  given  to  the 
whig  party  and  later  he  became  a  republican.  He 
took  a  prominent  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  town- 
ship and  county  and  served  as  highway  commis- 
sioner for  twenty  years. 

In  the  family  were  ten  children,  of  whom  nine 
are  now  living:  Margaret,  the  wife  of  A.  E. 
Baird,  a  resident  of  Missouri;  Susan,  the  wife  of 
B.  W.  Cook,  who  is  living  in  California;  C.  W.,  of 
this  review;  Hannah,  the  wife  of  J.  H.  Salisbury, 
of  Tonica,  Illinois;  and  Jennie,  the  wife  of  John 
Hawthorne,  of  Kansas.  The  above  were  all  born 
of  the  father's  first  marriage.  The  children  of 
the  second  marriage  were  Belle,  the  wife  of  James 
Elkins,  of  Kansas;  Jessie,  who  died  at  the  age  of 
twenty-two  years;  Helen,  the  wife  of  John  Croxen, 
of  Arkansas ;  Amanda,  the  wife  of  William  Jones, 
a  minister  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  Cali- 
fornia; and  Olive,  the  wife  of  J.  C.  Jones,  of 
Kansas. 

C.  W.  Dysart  made  his  home  on  the  farm  with 
his  parents  in  the  days  of  his  boyhood  and  youth 
and  acquiring  his  education  in  the  schools  of  Gran- 
ville,  devoting  his  time  and  energies  to  the  work 
of  the  schoolroom,  the  pleasures  of  the  playground 
and  the  tasks  which  were  assigned  him  in  connec- 
tion with  the  cultivation  of  his  father's  farm.  At 
the  age  of  twenty-three  years  he  was  married  to 
Miss  Mary  E.  Heywood,  a  native  of  Maine  and  a 
daughter  of  John  and  Sarah  (Folsom)  Heywood. 
She  survived  until  1899  and  died  at  the  age  of 
fifty  years  lacking  one  month.  Unto  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Dysart  have  been  born  nine  children,  all  of 
whom  are  yet  living:  Hannah,  the  wife  of  E.  F. 
Foley,  of  Iowa;  A.  H.,  who  wedded  Mary  Crick 
and  is  a  groceryman  of  Granville;  Lucy,  the  wife 
of  A.  M.  McCormick,  a  resident  of  Iowa;  J.  W., 
who  married  Myrtle  McClary  and  is  also  of  Iowa; 
John,  who  completed  a  four  years'  course  at  the 
Champaign  university  and  is  at  home;  L.  C., 
Charles,  H.  L.  and  Benjamin,  who  are  also  with 
their  father.  In  1902  Mr.  Dysart  was  again  mar- 
ried, his  second  union  being  with  Miss  Nira  Burn- 
ham,  a  native  of  Putnam  county. 

After  his  first  marriage  Mr.  Dysart  engaged  in 
farming  on  his  father's  land.  He  was  the  only 
son  and  has  always  remained  upon  the  old  home- 
stead. At  the  death  of  his  father  he  came  into 
possession  of  the  farm,  which  comprises  two  hun- 


dred acres  of  rich  land.  He  has  carried  on  im- 
provements inaugurated  by  his  father  and  has  a 
nice  country  home  and  good  farm,  the  fields  re- 
turning to  him  golden  harvests  as  a  reward  for 
the  care  and  labor  he  bestows  upon  them.  For 
many  years  several  thousand  rails  were  used  in 
fencing  the  farm,  and  only  a  few  years  ago  Mr. 
Dysart  burned  the  last  one.  Large  cottonwood 
trees  are  abundant  on  the  place,  having  been 
planted  by  his  father.  The  railroad  has  cut  off 
twelve  and  a  half  acres  of  his  land,  leaving  the 
farm  a  tract  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-seven  and 
a  half  acres.  Throughout  his  entire  life  Mr.  Dy- 
sart has  carried  on  general  agricultural  pursuits, 
and  his  labors  have  been  attended  with  a  measure 
of  success  that  shows  that  he  has  kept  in  touch 
with  the  spirit  of  modern  progress  as  manifest 
along  agricultural  lines. 

For  years  he  has  been  a  member  of  the  Con- 
gregational church  at  Granville.  In  politics  he 
has  always  been  a  republican,  casting  his  first  vote 
for  U.  S.  Grant.  He  served  for  three  years  as 
supervisor  of  his  township  and  for  nine  years  as 
assessor,  and  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  leading 
representatives  of  the  party  in  this  locality,  his 
opinions  frequently  proving  a  decisive  factor  in  its 
councils.  He  is  now  a  member  of  the  county 
central  committee  and  does  all  in  his  power  to 
secure  legitimate  republican  successes.  A  pleas- 
ant, genial  gentleman,  he  makes  friends  wherever 
he  goes  and  is  recognized  as  a  public-spirited  cit- 
izen whose  labors  in  behalf  of  the  county  have  been 
far-reaching  and  beneficial. 


WILLIS  B.  MILLS. 

This  well  known  citizen  of  Magnolia  town- 
ship, who  is  now  serving  as  supervisor,  was  born 
on  the  farm  where  he  now  lives,  November  15, 
1852,  and  is  a  son  of  Pusey  Mills,  whose  birth 
occurred  in  Washington  county,  Pennsylvania,  on 
the  17th  of  February,  1824.  The  father  was  about 
sixteen  years  of  age  when  in  1840  he  came  with 
his  parents  to  this  state  and  settled  on  a  farm  near 
the  village  of  Magnolia,  in  Putnam  county.'  Here 
he  grew  to  manhood  and  was  married  and  later 
purchased  a  farm  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
acres,  for  which  he  paid  seven  dollars  per  acre. 
At  that  time  it  was  all  wild  prairie,  but  year 
after  year  he  made  many  improvements  thereon 
and  converted  the  tract  into  a  well  cultivated  and 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


451 


attractive  farm.  Upon  that  place  he  died  April 
18,  1882.  His  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden  name 
of  Lydia  Hartley,  was  born  in  Pennsylvania,  De- 
cember 2,  1827,  and  died  in  this  county  on  the 
5th  of  October,  1894.  In  the  family  of  this 
worthy  couple  were  the  following  children: 
Joshua,  who  is  now'  a  resident  of  Springfield,  Illi- 
nois ;  Rebecca,  who  is  living  with  the  family  of 
Dr.  Barber,  in  Peoria,  Illinois;  Willis  B.,  of  this 
review;  Jonathan,  a  resident  of  California;  one 
who  died  in  infancy;  and  Oliver  M.,  a  resident 
of  McNabb. 

The  boyhood  and  youth  of  Willis  B.  Mills  was 
spent  upon  his  father's  farm  in  Magnolia  town- 
ship and  his  early  education  was  obtained  in  the 
public  schools  of  the  neighborhood.  Later  he  en- 
tered the  State  University  at  Champaign  and  had 
just  completed  his  third  year  in  the  agricultural 
course  when  called  home  on  account  of  his  father's 
sickness.  He  remained  upon  the  farm  for  some 
time  and  was  there  engaged  in  the  manufacture 
of  tile  for  about  ten  years.  On  the  expiration  of 
that  period  he  entered  the  employ  of  the  Churchill 
&  White  Grain  Company,  having  charge  of  their 
business  at  McNabb  for  one  year,  and  later  had 
charge  of  the  lumber  business  of  the  Toluca  Lum- 
ber Company  at  that  place  for  a  time.  After  the 
death  of  his  father  he  came  into  possession  of  the 
old  homestead,  purchasing  the  interest  of  the  other 
heirs,  and  has  since  added  to  the  place  another 
tract  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres,  so  that  he 
now  has  a  fine  farm  of  two  hundred  and  forty 
acres  well  improved  and  highly  cultivated.  He  is 
an  enterprising  and  progressive  agriculturist,  thor- 
oughly up  to  date  in  his  methods  of  carrying  on 
his  work,  and  he  is  meeting  with  well  deserved 


In  1879  Mr.  Mills  was  united  in  marriage  to 
Miss  Mattie  E.  Benjamin,  whose  birth  occurred 
in  McLean  county,  Illinois,  August  8,  1854,  and 
they  have  become  the  parents  of  four  sons,  all  of 
whom  are  still  living.  Ernest,  born  in  1880,  at- 
tended school  at  Champaign,  but  did  not  complete 
the  regular  course  and  is  now  operating  a  part  of 
his  father's  farm.  He  married  Miss  Lulu  Koehler. 
Floyd,  born  in  1883,  graduated  in  the  civil  en- 
gineering course  at  the  State  University  and  now 
holds  an  important  position  with  a  railroad  com- 
pany on  the  Pacific  coast.  Clifford,  born  in  1889, 
is  pursuing  the  agricultural  course  at  the  uni- 
versity at  Champaign.  John  Turner,  born  in 


1893,  is  at  home  and  is  attending  the  district 
school. 

Upon  our  subject's  farm  stands  the  Friends  or 
Quakers  church,  to  which  he  and  his  family  be- 
long. They  are  people  of  the  highest  respecta- 
bility and  have  a  host  of  friends  throughout  the 
county.  As  a  republican  Mr.  Mills  takes  quite 
an  active  and  prominent  part  in  local  politics  and 
is  serving  his  third  term  as  supervisor  of  Mag- 
nolia township.  He  has  also  filled  the  offices  of  as- 
sessor, collector  and  school  director  and  his  official 
duties  have  always  been  most  promptly  and  faith- 
fully performed.  He  was  one  of  the  promoters  of 
the  consolidation  of  schools,  which  is  being 
watched  with  great  interest  throughout  the  coun- 
try. He  is  a  practical  farmer,  making  a  thorough 
study  of  improved  methods,  and  has  been  called 
upon  to  lecture  before  farmers'  institutes.  Fra- 
ternally he  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic  order, 
Modern  Woodmen  of  America,  the  Yeomen  and 
the  Grange. 


JAMES  C.  PACKINGHAM. 

Granville  has  a  considerable  population  of  re- 
tired farmers,  men  whose  business  activity  and 
enterprise  in  former  years  have  resulted  in  bring- 
ing to  them  a  measure  of  success  that  now  enables 
them  to  live  comfortably  without  recourse  to  fur- 
ther effort  in  the  field  of  business  activity.  A 
representative  of  this  class  is  found  in  James  C. 
Packingham,  who  now  makes  his  home  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Granville  and  who  is  one  of  the  native  sons 
of  Granville  township,  where  he  was  born  on  the 
19th  of  December,  1848. 

His  parents  were  James  and  Elizabeth  (Dysart) 
Packingham,  natives  of  Massachusetts  and  of 
Pennsylvania,  respectively.  In  1832  the  father 
came  to  Putnam  county  and  worked  in  Hennepin 
at  his  trade  of  carpentering  and  milling,  being 
thus  closely  associated  with  the  early  industrial 
development  of  this  part  of  the  state.  Later  he 
took  up  his  abode  upon  a  farm  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  acres  in  Granville  township.  It  was  a 
tract  of  wild  land  when  it  came  into  his  posses- 
sion, but  he  turned  the  furrows  in  the  fields, 
planted  his  seed  and  in  due  course  of  time  was 
gathering  rich  crops.  Eventually  he  placed  the 
entire  farm  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation  and 
made  his  home  thereon  until  his  death,  which  oc- 
curred when  he  was  seventy-seven  years  of  age. 
His  wife  died  at  the  age  of  sixty  years.  They 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OP   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


were  Presbyterians  in  religious  faith  and  Mr. 
Packingham  was  a  republican  in  his  political  ad- 
herence, but  was  without  aspiration  for  office. 
Their  family  numbered  nine  children,  of  whom 
James  C.  was  the  fourth  in  order  of  birth.  The 
record  is  as  follows :  Julia,  now  the  wife  of  James 
Carton,  a  resident  of  Idaho;  Susan,  the  wife  of 
Calvin  Henderson,  who  is  living  in  Eankin,  Illi- 
nois; Achsah,  the  wife  of  B.  Coulter,  a  resident 
of  Iowa;  James  C. ;  David  L.,  who  is  now  presi- 
dent of  the  village  board  of  Granville;  George,  a 
resident  of  Oregon ;  Archie,  who  is  located  in  Ford 
county,  Illinois;  Hannah,  who  became  the  wife  of 
Frank  French  and  was  living  in  Wisconsin  at  the 
time  of  her  death ;  and  Fannie,  who  died  when  but 
nine  months  old. 

James  C.  Packingham  remained  on  his  father's 
farm  until  twenty-two  years  of  age,  and  his  edu- 
cational privileges  were  those  afforded  by  the  com- 
mon schools.  When  not  busy  with  his  text-books 
he  worked  in  the  fields,  and  after  attaining  his 
majority  he  purchased  eighty  acres  of  unimproved 
land  near  the  old  home  place,  on  which  he  en- 
gaged in  general  farming  and  stock-raising.  He 
at  once  began  to  work  the  fields  and  soon  the  track 
of  the  shining  plow  was  seen  across  the  prairie. 
He  continued  the  work  of  improvement  and  added 
to  his  farm  from  time  to  time  until  he  now  owns 
two  hundred  and  seventy-five  acres  in  one  body, 
constituting  one  of  the  best  farms  in  the  county, 
lacking  in  none  of  the  modern  accessories  and  con- 
veniences which  go  to  make  up  a  model  farm  of 
the  twentieth  century.  He  also  owns  forty  acres 
of  timber  land  northwest  of  Granville,  and  his 
property  interests  are  conclusive  proof  of  his  life 
of  industry,  for  he  received  no  pecuniary  assist- 
ance nor  inheritance  from  family  or  friends. 
Eight  years  ago  he  retired  from  business  life  and 
built  a  beautiful  home  in  Granville,  where  he  now 
resides.  He  has  always  possessed  considerable 
mechanical  ingenuity,  is  known  for  his  ability  as 
a  machinist,  and  for  twenty-five  years  he  owned 
and  operated  a  steam-threshing  and  corn-shelling 
outfit. 

Mr.  Packingham  has  been  married  twice.  His 
first  wife,  Grace  Penneman,  was  born  in  Vermont, 
and  died  after  traveling  life's  journey  with  him 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  They  had  two  chil- 
dren: Frank,  who  is  a  farmer  near  Neponset, 
Bureau  county,  Illinois,  where  he  owns  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty  acres  of  land ;  and  Lucy,  the  wife 


of  Emory  Sherman,  who  follows  farming  in  Gran- 
ville township.  Five  years  ago  Mr.  Packingham 
wedded  Mrs.  Martin,  who  was  formerly  Miss  Ella 
Gunn,  a  daughter  of  L.  D.  Gunn,  whose  sketch 
appears  elsewhere  in  this  work.  By  her  former 
marriage  Mrs:  Packingham  has  two  children — 
Helen  and  Joe. 

Politically  a  republican,  Mr.  Packingham  keeps 
well  informed  on  the  questions  and  issues  of  the 
day  and  for  twelves  years  has  served  as  highway 
commissioner.  He  belongs  to  no  church,  but 
has  always  been  an  upright,  honest  citizen,  reli- 
able in  his  business  relations  and  in  all  walks  of 
life.  A  life-long  residence  in  this  county  has 
made  his  history  familiar  to  all  and  the  sterling 
qualities  which  he  has  manifested  have  gained 
for  him  the  friendly  regard  of  the  great  majority 
of  those  with  whom  he  has  been  brought  in  con- 
tact.   

CHAELES  E.  RICKEY. 

Charles  E.  Rickey,  who  is  engaged  in  farming 
and  stock-raising  on  section  1,  Lacon  township, 
Marshall  county,  making  a  specialty  of  the  rais- 
ing of  hogs,  was  born  in  the  township  where  he 
still  resides  August  5,  1844,  and  is  the  sixth  in 
order  of  birth  in  a  family  of  eight  children,  whose 
parents  are  Samuel  R.  and  Sarah  (Hall)  Rickey, 
both  of  whom  were  natives  of  New  Jersey.  The 
father  was  born  in  Somerset  county,  that  state, 
and  came  to  Marshall  county  at  an  early  period 
in  its  development,  casting  in  his  lot  with  its 
pioneer  settlers.  He  turned  his  attention  to 
fanning,  entering  land  from  the  government  and 
transforming  the  wild  prairies  into  richly  pro- 
ductive fields.  His  wife  is  a  member  of  the  Pres- 
byterian church  and  both  are  highly  esteemed  in 
the  community  where  they  reside.  Their  chil- 
dren are:  William  M.,  now  living  in  Henry; 
Mrs.  Catherine  Hawkins,  who  resides  at  Houston, 
Texas;  Robert,  a  resident  of  Montgomery  county, 
Kansas;  Eliza  M.,  deceased;  Adolphus  A.,  living 
in  Missouri ;  Charles  E. ;  Mrs.  Louisa  Owens,  a 
resident  of  Montgomery  county,  Kansas,  and 
Walter,  who  is  living  in  Henry,  Illinois. 

Charles  .E.  Rickey  was  a  student  in  the  Lacon 
school  at  a  time  when  the  little  "temple  of  learn- 
ing" was  built  of  logs  and  seated  with  benches 
made  of  slabs.  The  desk  was  formed  by  laying 
a  slab  upon  wooden  pegs  driven  into  the  wall  and 
upon  this  the  older  children  wrote  their  exercises. 


PAST    AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


453 


Although  his  educational  privileges  were  some- 
what meager,  Mr.  Rickey  has  learned  many  valu- 
able lessons  in  the  school  of  experience  and  has 
constantly  broadened  his  knowledge  through  read- 
ing and  observation.  His  training  at  farm  labor 
was  not  meager  and  he  early  became  familiar 
with  the  work  of  the  fields.  In  1874  he  sought 
a  companion  and  helpmate  for  life's  journey  and 
on  the  4th  of  November  of  that  year  was  mar- 
ried to  a  Miss  Smith,  who  was  bom  in  Ohio  in 
IS.'):!,  a  daughter  of  Frederick  and  Martina  Smith, 
the  latter  now  a  resident  of  Lacon.  Mrs.  Rickey 
was  educated  in  Lacon  and  by  her  marriage  has 
become  the  mother  of  eight  children.  Nellie  May, 
born  upon  the  farm  where  her  father  now  resides, 
is  the  wife  of  a  Mr.  Moritz,  who  is  engaged  in 
farming  in  Richland  township,  Marshall  county. 
Fred  is  a  carpenter  by  trade  and  lives  at  home. 
Mabel,  Samuel,  Carrie,  Willie,  Eunice  and  Lena 
are  all  yet  at  home. 

Since  his  marriage  Mr.  Rickey  has  engaged  in 
farming  on  his  own  account  and  lives  upon  land 
which  he  rents  from  his  father.  In  addition  to 
its  cultivation  and  improvement  he  annually  feeds 
a  large  number  of  hogs  and  his  stock-raising  in- 
terests are  an  important  branch  of  his  business. 
His  political  views  are  in  accord  with  the  princi- 
ples of  the  republican  party  and  he  exercises  his 
right  of  franchise  in  support  of  its  men  and  meas- 


I.  H.  COOK. 

I.  H.  Cook,  editor  of  the  Putnam  Record,  pub- 
lished at  Hennepin,  was  born  in  Madison  county, 
Indiana,  January  20,  1836.  His  parents  were 
Francis  and  Lucy  (Tillson)  Cook,  both  natives 
of  Vermont.  The  father  died  when  the  subject 
of  this  review  was  only  two  years  of  age  and  the 
mother  was  twice  married  after  that.  She  died 
several  years  ago  in  Huntsville,  Indiana. 

The  boyhood  days  of  I.  H.  Cook  were  largely 
passed  in  the  state  of  his  nativity  and  after  he 
had  attained  the  age  of  six  years  he  lived  most 
of  the  time  in  Huntsville.  He  early  became  fa- 
miliar with  farm  labor  and  in  his  youth  attended 
the  common  schools,  acquiring  a  fair  English 
education.  When  twenty  years  of  age  he  visited 
an  older  brother  in  Anderson,  Indiana,  who  was 
conducting  a  printing  office  and  publishing  a  little 
paper.  This  was  Mr.  Cook's  initiation  into  the 


printing  business  and  he  decided  to  make  it  his 
life  occupation.  He  entered  his  brother's  employ, 
working  with  him  for  about  a  year,  after  which 
he  became  a  partner  and  continued  in  the  office 
for  three  or  four  years.  On  the  expiration  of  that 
period  they  disposed  of  the  little  journal  and 
started  for  southwestern  Missouri,  a  party  of  six 
driving  across  the  country  with  teams,  being 
thirty-one  days  on  the  road.  Their  wives  and 
families  came  by  railroad  and  were  met  at  the 
terminus  of  the  road,  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  from  where  they  located.  In  the  mean- 
time Mr.  Cook  had  learned  the  trade  of  shoe- 
making  and  followed  that  business  in  connection 
with  the  sale  of  shoes.  He  continued  to  live  in 
Missouri  until  January,  1861,  when,  anticipating 
the  trouble  between  the  north  and  the  south,  he 
left  that  district,  which  was  already  the  scene  of 
considerable  hostility,  and  went  back  to  Indiana, 
and  in  1823  moved  to  Janesville,  Wisconsin,  where 
he  engaged  in  various  enterprises,  working  in  a 
printing  office  and  also  at  shoemaking. 

In  1865  he  came  to  Hennepin,  where  for  a  time 
he  worked  at  painting  and  paper-hanging.  There 
was  no  paper  nor  press  of  any  kind  in  Hennepin, 
all  the  work  being  done  at  Henry  or  in  Princeton, 
and,  believing  this  was  an  advantageous  opening, 
Mr.  Cook  went  to  Peoria  and  purchased  a  little 
army  press.  He  then  began  doing  job  printing 
in  the  city  hall  building  and  after  the  establish- 
ment of  that  business  his  fellow  townsmen  solic- 
ited him  to  publish  a  paper.  On  the  25th  of  June, 
1868,  the  first  number  of  the  Putnam  County- 
Record  appeared,  a  little  leaflet  nine  by  twelve 
inches,  which  he  printed  for  one  year.  He  still 
has  every  copy  of  that  first  volume  on  file.  After 
a  year  he  enlarged  the  paper  to  a  six  column  folio, 
and  in  1877  he  made  it  a  seven-column  folio, 
then  in  1882  it  was  enlarged  to  its  present  size — 
a  five  column  quarto,  and  took  the  name  of  the 
Putnam  Record.  He  has  a  Prouty  power  press 
with  all  attachments  for  power,  but  has  never  put 
in  an  engine,  all  of  the  work  being  done  by  hand 
power.  The  paper  is  neutral  in  politics  and  is  a 
clean,  newsy  sheet.  Mr.  Cook  and  his  son  are 
experts  at  printing  and  few,  if  any,  typographical 
errors  appear  in  their  paper,  which  is  published 
each  Wednesday  and  has  a  wide  circulation. 

Mr.  Cook  was  married  April  4,  1857,  in  An- 
derson, Indiana,  to  Miss  Sophia  Hengstler,  who 
was  born  in  Pennsylvania,  and  with  her  parents 


I  .VI 


PAST    AM)    1'RKSENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


removed  to  the  vicinity  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  in 
her  early  girlhood.  When  sixteen  years  of  age 
she  went  with  an  uncle  to  Indiana  and  worked 
in  Anderson.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cook  have 
been  born  four  children,  of  whom  two  are  living. 
Mary  B.  is  now  the  wife  of  John  P.  Towle,  a 
resident  of  Henncpin.  Edwin  F.  died  at  the  age 
of  four  years.  Charles  W.,  who  is  in  the  office 
with  his  father,  has  grown  up  in  the  printing 
business  and  with  the  exception  of  a  few  years 
spent  in  Michigan  has  been  continuously  con- 
nected with  his  father  in  the  printing  trade.  Ar- 
thur, deceased,  completed  the  family. 

At  general  elections  Mr.  Cook  votes  the  demo- 
cratic ticket,  but  in  local  matters  is  independent. 
He  has  been  identified  with  the  Odd  Fellows  since 
1875  and  is  heartily  in  sympathy  with  the  teach- 
ings of  the  organization  and  its  beneficent  pur- 
poses. He  has  resided  continuously  in  Hennepin 
for  a  period  of  forty  years  or  more  and  the  in- 
terests of  the  village  are  greatly  promoted  through 
his  efforts  and  enterprise. 


CHAELES  TEERWILER. 
In  pioneer  times  Charles  Trerwiler  came  to 
Putnam  county,  and  for  many  years  figured 
prominently  as  a  leading  representative  of  the 
German-American  element  in  its  citizenship.  He 
was  born  in  Prussia,  Germany,  January  27,  1824. 
and  in  1847,  when  a  young  man  of  twenty-three 
years,  came  to  America.  He  landed  at  Buffalo. 
New  York,  with  fifteen  cents  as  his  entire  cash 
capital  and  spent  a  brief  period  in  that  city.  He 
had  learned  the  blacksmith's  trade  in  his  native 
country  and  followed  that  pursuit  in  Buffalo  to 
get  enough  money  to  take  him  on  to  St.  Louis. 
He  then  boarded  a  boat  that  stopped  at  Henne- 
pin, and  while  it  was  laying  at  anchor  here  Mr. 
Trerwiler  went  ashore.  He  was  watching  some 
men  attempt  to  shoe  a  wild  horse,  and  being  a 
big,  strong  young  man  and  liking  to  show  what 
he  could  do,  he  took  hold  of  the  job  and  succeed- 
ed in  shoeing  the  animal.  This  awakened  the 
admiration  of  the  bystanders,  who  induced  him 
to  remain  and  go  to  work.  After  being  employed 
by  others  for  a  time  he  then  bought  a  shop  of 
his  own  and  continued  in  the  blacksmithing 
business  and  also  built  wagons  and  buggies  for 
many  years,  being  a  skilled  workman  in  that  line. 
The  excellence  of  his  product  secured  him  a  con- 
stantly growing  patronage  and  he  became  quite 


wealthy,  owing  to  his  success  at  his  trade  and  his 
judicious  investment  in  property.  As  his  finan- 
cial resources  increased  he  acquired  considerable 
real  estate  and  might  have  obtained  much  more 
had  he  not  been  of  such  a  generous  disposition 
that  he  gave  away  much  of  his  means.  Embark- 
ing in  the  implement  business  he  continued  the 
sale  of  machinery  for  several  years  and  never 
hesitated  to  let  any  one  have  what  they  needed 
whether  they  had  the  money  to  pay  or  not.  The 
result  was  that  he  retired  from  business  with  a 
large  amount  of  worthless  notes,  which,  could 
they  have  been  collected,  would  have  brought  him 
in  several  thousand  dollars.  However,  many 
greatly  benefited  by  his  generous  and  benevolent 
disposition  and  in  time  repaid  him  for  his  kind- 
ness by  meeting  their  financial  obligations. 

On  the  6th  of  February,  1853,  Mr.  Trerwiler 
was  married  to  Miss  Susannah  Kneip,  who  was 
born  in  Luxemburg,  Germany,  March  25,  1834, 
a  daughter  of  Phillip  and  Elizabeth  (Schammel) 
Kneip,  who  emigrated  to  the  United  States  in 
1847.  They  located  at  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin, 
but  not  liking  the  forest  region  Mr.  Kneip,  hav- 
ing done  much  chopping  and  clearing  in  his  own 
country,  they  decided  to  locate  on  the  prairie  and 
took  up  their  abode  in  La  Salle  county,  Illinois, 
near  Troy  Grove,  having  heard  that  the  land  was 
very  rich  in  that  locality  and  that  good  crops 
were  being  raised.  Accordingly  they  located  there 
in  1847.  Mrs.  Trerwiler  was  then  a  maiden  of 
fourteen  years  and  yet  remembers  the  wild  con- 
ditions that  confronted  them  when  they  came  to 
Illinois.  Mendota  had  not  yet  been  heard  of  and 
the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal  was  under  con- 
struction. It  was  thought  that  this  waterway 
would  furnish  a  means  of  steady  communication 
with  the  outside  world,  and  in  fact  it  was  used 
for  many  years  to  convey  the  products  of  the 
country  to  the  city  markets,  while  deer  were  nu- 
merous and  in  fact  could  be  seen  in  great  herds 
wandering  over  the  prairie.  Eattlesnakes  were 
also  very  plentiful  and  one  could  hardly  step  out 
of  doors  without  seeing  a  reptile  of  that  charac- 
ter. Mrs.  Trerwiler  has  lived  in  the  same  house 
for  over  a  half  century  except  for  a  brief  period 
spent  in  Chicago  and  near  Henry.  She  lost  her 
husband  September  7,  1902,  when  they  were  at 
the  home  of  their  son-in-law,  Adolph  Klein,  near 
Henry,  Marshall  county.  Their  daughter  died 
eight  years  ago,  leaving  eleven  children. 


PAST   AND    PRESENT    OF   MABSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


457 


After  the  death  of  Mr.  Trerweiler  his  widow 
returned  to  Hennepin.  By  her  marriage  she  had 
become  the  mother  of  eleven  children,  of  whom 
five  died  in  infancy.  The  other  six  were :  Eliza- 
beth, the  deceased  wife  of  Adolph  Klein;  Mar- 
garet, at  home;  Louis,  who  died  at  the  age  of 
fifteen  years;  Anna,  who  was  the  wife  of  Prank 
Eeavy,  and  died  six  years  ago;  Charles,  who  is 
living  in  Chicago;  and  Mary,  the  wife  of  James 
McCutcheon,  of  Hennepin. 

Mr.  Trerwiler  was  a  devout  communicant  of 
the  Catholic  church,  to  which  his  family  also  be- 
longed. In  politics  he  was  a  democrat  but  with- 
out aspiration  for  office.  He  lived  a  life  of  un- 
remitting industry  and  perseverance.  He  was  a 
good  neighbor  and  a  faithful  friend,  being  most 
kind  hearted  .and  true  and  ever  ready  to  help 
any  one  in  need.  In  fact  his  generosity  and 
benevolence  were  among  his  most  salient  charac- 
teristics and  won  for  him  a  large  measure  of  re- 
spect and  admiration. 


BENJAMIN  SUTCLIFFE. 
Benjamin  Sutcliffe  is  well  known  in  Hennepin 
and  Putnam  county,  where  in  former  years  he  was 
closely  associated  with  agricultural  and  with  mer- 
cantile interests.  A  life  of  business  activity  has 
been  crowned  with  a  measure  of  success  that  en- 
ables him  to  enjoy  well  earned  rest.  He  was  born 
in  London,  England,  April  7,  1835.  His  father, 
John  Sutcliffe,  whose  birth  occurred  in  that 
country  in  1815,  was  a  finisher  of  silk  hats  and 
worked  in  a  factory  for  a  few  years.  A  well  edu- 
cated man,  he  became  a  local  preacher  in  the  Wes- 
leyan  Methodist  church  and  wielded  a  wide  influ- 
ence in  its  behalf.  He  was  always  a  great  student 
and  often  arose  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning 
in  order  to  study.  At  length  he  became  inter- 
ested in  an  emigration  aid  society  and  in  1849 
came  to  America  to  lecture  for  that  society.  He 
landed  at  New  York,  where  he  began  lecturing, 
but  in  the  same  year  he  passed  away  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, being  then  about  forty-nine  years  of  age. 
His  wife,  who  bore  the  maiden  name  of  Sarah 
Finder,  was  born  in  England  and  lived  to  be 
seventy-seven  years  of  age,  her  death  occurring 
in  Hennepin.  Benjamin  Sutcliffe's  older  sister, 
Mrs.  James  Bradbury,  was  living  in  this  county 
at  the  time  of  her  father's  death.  The  widow  of 
John  Sutcliffe  and  her  family  afterward  came  here 
and  located  on  land  in  Hennepin  township.  It 


was  nearly  all  forest  land,  but  in  the  midst  of 
the  woods  a  small  house  had  been  built.  At  a 
later  date  Mrs.  Sutcliffe  became  the  wife  of  J. 
D.  McCarty,  at  one  time  county  judge  of  Putnam 
county  and  since  known  by  that  title.  At  the 
time  of  her  mother's  arrival  her  children,  Samuel 
Sutcliffe  and  a  daughter,  also  came  to  Illinois. 

The  family  numbered  altogether  eight  chil- 
dren, as  follows :  Sarah,  who  became  the  wife  of 
James  Bradbury  and  lived  in  this  county;  James, 
who  died  in  infancy ;  John,  a  tailor,  who  remained 
in  England;  Mary  Ann,  who  became  the  wife  of 
William  Patterson  and  settled  in  La  Salle  county, 
Illinois,  where  he  became  wealthy;  Thomas  Eben- 
ezer,  who  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  America  but 
afterward  returned  to  England,  where  he  died; 
Jane,  who  departed  this  life  in  England ;  Samuel, 
who  came  to  the  United  States  with  his  mother 
in  1852  and  died  in  Putnam  county  in  May,  1901 ; 
and  Benjamin,  of  this  review. 

Benjamin  Sutcliffe,  now  living  retired  in  Hen- 
nepin, spent  his  boyhood  days  at  Staly  bridge  near 
Manchester  in  Lancastershire,  England.  In  his 
youth  he  learned  the  plumber's  trade  and  he  made 
his  home  with  his  parents  until  in  his  eighteenth 
year.  He  then  went  to  Liverpool  and  joined  the 
army,  with  which  he  started  for  Malta  in  1854. 
The  troops  proceeded  to  Turkey,  sailed  on  the 
Black  sea  and  took  part  in  the  Crimean  war.  Mr. 
Sutcliffe  received  a  badge  at  Sebastopol  for  merit- 
orious service,  the  badge  being  handed  to  him  by 
Queen  Victoria.  He  served  for  four  years  and 
one  hundred  and  ninety-four  days  in  the  English 
army  and  took  part  in  all  of  the  battles  of  the 
Crimean  war,  including  the  siege  of  Sebastopol. 
For  a  time  he  was  head  butler  for  the  officers' 
mess. 

Mr.  Sutcliffe  afterward  returned  to  England 
and  in  1857  volunteered  to  go  to  Delhi,  India, 
with  the  army.  He  was  on  a  furlough  of  thirty 
days,  during  which  time  he  received  a  letter  from 
his  mother  telling  him  that  his  services  were 
needed  in  Putnam  county,  Illinois.  Mr.  Sutcliffe 
had  a  good  friend  in  a  major  of  his  regiment  and 
through  his  kindly  offices  was  granted  a  discharge 
by  Prince  Albert.  In  1858  he  came  to  America, 
making  his  way  at  once  to  Putnam  county,  and 
assisted  his  brother  Samuel  in  clearing  up  and 
working  the  home  farm,  where  the  mother  and 
brother  had  previously  located.  In  1862,  when 
this  country  called  for  volunteers,  Mr.  Sutcliffe 


458 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


enlisted  at  Ottawa  as  a  member  of  Company  K, 
One  Hundred  and  Fourth  Illinois  Volunteer  In- 
fantry. He  served  until  June,  1863,  and  was  then 
taken  ill,  after  which  he  was  transierred  and  later 
discharged.  Subsequently  he  returned  to  Putnam 
county,  where  he  engaged  in  farming.  On  the 
death  of  his  mother  the  farm  was  divided  and  he 
received  eighty  acres  as  his  share  of  the  home 
place.  His  time  and  energies  were  then  devoted 
to  farming  for  a  long  period  and  he  continued  to 
cultivate  his  land  until  1890,  when  he  removed 
to  Hennepin  and  engaged  in  the  butchering  busi- 
ness with  John  Weeks.  After  two  years  he  sold 
out  and  then  for  a  short  time  was  engaged  in  the 
implement  business,  but  was  not  successful  in 
that  venture.  Not' being  able  to  work  his  farm, 
he  retired  from  business,  sold  his  land  and  has 
since  made  his  home  in  Hennepin,  where  he  is 
now  comfortably  situated.  He  disposed  of  his 
farm  about  four  years  ago,  but  he  still  owns  a 
good  dwelling  in  Hennepin  and  a  large  garden. 
He  suffers  from  rheumatism  and  other  ailments 
incurred  by  his  service  in  the  Civil  war  and  the 
hardships  and  exposures  of  army  life,  and  the 
government  grants  him  a  pension  of  twelve  dol- 
lars per  month. 

Mr.  Sutcliffe  was  married  on  the  15th  of  March, 
1864,  to  Miss  Harriette  L.  Osborn,  who  was  born 
in  Hennepin,  September  15,  1837,  a  daughter  of 
John  E.  Osborn,  now  deceased,  who  came  to  Put- 
nam county  in  1835.  For  many  years  he  fol- 
lowed farming  and  later  engaged  in  the  drug 
business.  Mrs.  Sutcliffe  is  the  only  surviving 
member  of  her  father's  family.  By  her  marriage 
she  became  the  mother  of  eight  children:  Ar- 
thur E.,  who  was  born  February  15,  1865,  and 
died  on  the  3d  of  August  of  that  year;  Lewis  C., 
who  was  born  July  21,  1866,  and  died  on  the  17th 
of  August  following;  Charles  E.  who  was  born 
November  6,  1867,  and  married  Ella  Smith,  their 
home  being  now  in  Missouri;  Margaret  P.,  who 
was  born  April  5,  1870,  and  died  on  the  25th  of 
July  of  the  same  year;  Alice  M.,  who  was  born 
January  30,  1872,  and  died  September  16,  1872; 
Lucy  Jane,  who  was  born  March  30,  1873,  and 
died  September  23,  1873;  John  F.,  who  was  born 
August  26,  1875,  and  is  at  home;  and  H.  Edna, 
who  was  born  February  14,  1882,  and  is  also  at 
home. 

Mr.  Sutcliffe  and  his  family  are  members  of 
the  Congregational  church  and  are  interested  and 


active  in  its  work.  He  is  a  public-spirited  citi- 
zen, aiding  in  many  matters  of  general  interest 
as  far  as  his  means  will  allow.  In  politics  he 
has  always  been  a  republican  since  casting  his 
first  presidential  vote  for  Abraham  Lincoln,  yet 
he  has  never  been  an  aspirant  for  office  nor  held 
any  position  of  political  preferment  save  that  of 
school  director.  He  has  always  been  as  loyal  to 
his  country  in  days  of  peace  as  in  days  of  war 
and  has  lived  an  honest,  upright  life,  winning  him 
the  respect  and  good  will  of  all  with  whom  he  has 
been  associated. 


FRANCIS  L.  GILMER. 

Francis  L.  Gilmer,  assistant  postmaster  at 
Henry,  was  born  near  Wenona,  Illinois,  in  1870. 
His  father,  Albert  Gilmer,  was  born  in  Ohio  and 
on  coming  to  Illinois  settled  near  Florid,  making 
the  journey  hither  with  his  parents.  He  became 
a  well-to-do  citizen  and  here  died  in  the  forty- 
sixth  year  of  his  age.  His  political  support  was 
given  the  republican  party.  His  wife,  who  bore 
the  maiden  name  of  Sarah  E.  Kinder,  was  also 
born  in  Ohio  and  is  now  living  in  Henry  at  the 
age  of  fifty-six  years.  In  their  family  were  three 
children:  Francis  L. ;  Roy  M.,  a  bookkeeper  in 
Chicago;  and  Orrel,  who  is  connected  with  a  book 
store  in  Henry. 

Francis  L.  Gilmer  acquired  his  education  in 
the  public  schools  of  Wenona  and  of  Henry.  He 
was  reared  to  farm  life  and  to  some  extent  worked 
at  farm  labor,  but  on  abandoning  agricultural 
pursuits  came  to  Henry.  For  five  years  he  was 
connected  with  his  father  in  the  conduct  of  a 
livery  business  in  Streator,  but  following  the 
father's  death  he  sold  out  the  business  there  and 
came  to  Henry.  Subsequently  he  was  employed 
at  farm  labor  for  three  years  and  then  returned 
to  Henry,  where  he  entered  a  grocery,  remaining 
there  for  a  year.  On  the  expiration  of  that  period 
he  secured  the  position  of  janitor  of  a  school  and 
worked  in  that  capacity  for  three  years.  He  then 
again  went  back  to  the  grocery,  but  after  sixteen 
months  he  accepted  a  position  with  J.  Watercott 
&  Company,  with  whom  he  remained  for  several 
months.  The  position  of  assistant  postmaster 
was  then  tendered  him  by  John  Kline  -in  1900 
and  he  has  since  acted  in  that  capacity  with  credit 
to  himself  and  satisfaction  to  all  concerned,  prov- 
ing a  most  capable,  prompt  and  efficient  officer. 


PAST  AND  PRESENT  OF  MAES  1 1  ALT,  AND  PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


On  the  15th  of  September,  1903,  Mr.  Gilmer 
was  married  to  Miss  Edna  Goddard,  who  was 
born  in  1876  and  is  a  daughter  of  Joseph  and 
Sarah  Goddard.  Her  father  was  a  harnessmaker 
and  a  veteran  of  the  Civil  war.  Unto  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Gilmer  have  been  born  one  daughter,  Mar- 
jory Pearl,  born  October  8,  1904.  Mrs.  Gilmer 
is  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  church  and  Mr. 
Gilmer  is  an  Odd  Fellow,  while  his  political  sup- 
port is  given  to  the  republican  party.  He  has  a 
wide  acquaintance  in  this  locality,  where  his  entire 
life  has  been  passed,  and  he  is  one  of  the  most 
popular  and  efficient  officers  ever  connected  with 
the  Henry  postoffice. 


WILLIAM  HARTMAN. 

William  Hartman,  who  owns  and  operates  a 
farm  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  on  section 
3,  Granville  township,  and  whose  property  inter- 
ests comprise  five  hundred  acres  of  valuable  land 
all  in  this  township,  together  with  a  quarter  sec- 
tion in  Iowa,  has  manifested  in  his  business  career 
those  sterling  traits  of  perseverance  and  industry 
which  enable  the  individual  to  overcome  difficul- 
ties and  obstacles  and  advance  far  on  the  high 
road  to  success.  Born  in  Nassau,  Germany,  on  the 
23d  of  March,  1835,  he  was  a  son  of  William  and 
Mary  (Haylor)  Hartman,  both  of  whom  were  also 
natives  of  that  country.  The  father,  who  was 
born  in  1809,  passed  away  in  1896,  while  the 
mother,  whose  birth  occurred  in  1810,  died  when 
about  sixty-two  years  of  age.  William  Hartman, 
Sr.,  was  a  farmer  by  occupation  and,  as  was  the 
custom  in  those  days  in  his  native  country,  he 
lived  in  a  village  and  worked  land  just  out- 
side the  town.  His  family  numbered  eight  chil- 
dren, four  of  whom  came  to  this  country,  namely : 
Jacob,  who  died  in  Nebraska  about  a  year  ago; 
Mrs.  John  Miller,  who  is  living  in  Iowa;  Chris- 
tian, a  resident  of  Granville  township,  Putnam 
county ;  and  William. 

The  last  named  in  the  days  of  his  youth  entered 
upon  an  apprenticeship  of  three  and  a  half  years 
to  the  cabinet-makers'  trade  and  worked  altogether 
at  his  trade  for  five  years  in  the  fatherland,  when, 
thinking  that  he  might  have  broader  opportuni- 
ties in  the  new  world,  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  to 
America  in  1857,  arriving  in  Peru,  Illinois,  with 
a  cash  capital  of  only  fifteen  dollars.  He  im- 
mediately sought  employment  and  engaged  to  go 


to  work  at  his  trade.  He  spent  fourteen  dollars 
for  a  set  of  tools  and  after  a  brief  period  the  shop 
in  which  he  worked  was  burned  and  his  tools  were 
destroyed.  On  Sunday  morning  on  a  hot  day  in 
June,  after  walking  thirteen  miles,  he  might  have 
been  discovered  sitting  on  a  pile  of  new  lumber 
by  the  roadside,  out  of  money  and  without  friends, 
in  a  strange  country  where  the  language  and  cus- 
toms of  the  people  were  largely  unfamiliar  to 
him.  He  was  not  disheartened,  however,  for  he 
possessed  good  health  and  strength  and  an  abund- 
ance of  ambition.  These  qualities  in  after  years 
brought  him  a  gratifying  measure  of  success. 
About  this  time  he  managed  to  secure  work  at 
the  carpenter's  trade  and  for  two  years  was  thus 
employed  in  Granville.  He  then  rented  land  and 
with  one  horse  and  a  few  tools  began  farming.  In 
order  to  do  his  breaking  he  would  borrow  a  horse 
and  thus  with  his  own  make  a  team.  As  soon 
as  his  own  crops  were  in  and  needed  his  atten- 
tion no  further  he  would  work  by  the  day  for  his 
neighbors,  and  thus  he  gained  a  little  ready  money. 
He  often  husked  corn  for  seventy-five  cents  per 
day.  His  first  purchase  of  land  comprised  twenty- 
four  acres  near  the  village  of  Granville,  for  which 
he  paid  two  thousand  dollars.  In  1869  he  sold 
that  property  and  purchased  eighty  acres  two  miles 
south  of  Granville,  on  which  he  made  a  cash  pay- 
ment of  fifty  dollars.  Things  now  began  to  look 
brighter  for  him,  yet  during  the  first  two  or  three 
years  his  crops  were  poor.  He  possessed,  how- 
ever, a  resolute,  determined  spirit,  carefully  tilled 
his  fields  and  garnered  his  crops  and  raised  corn 
where  other  people  had  met  with  total  failure  in 
that  work.  The  eighty  acres  adjoining  his  place 
was  soon  put  on  sale  and  he  was  anxious  to  get 
it  but  he  had  no  capital.  His  honesty  and  indus- 
try, however,  had  won  him  a  friend  in  Peter 
Kuhne,  from  whom  he  borrowed  money  upon 
which  he  paid  ten  per  cent  interest.  Thus  he 
purchased  the  eighty  acres  adjoining  and  in  so 
doing  manifested  that  good  judgment  and  fore- 
sight which  have  always  characterized  him  in  his 
business  life.  He  has  always  improved  every  op- 
portunity where  a  good  bargain  could  be  made 
and  has  ever  kept  his  credit  good,  meeting  his  ob- 
ligations promptly.  Thus  he  made  for  himself 
an  unassailable  reputation  for  reliability  and  busi- 
ness integrity.  He  is  now  the  owner  of  five  hun- 
dred acres  of  very  valuable  land  in  Granville  town- 
ship, together  with  a  quarter  section  in  Iowa.  The 


4(JO 


PAST    AND    1'KKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    IM'TNAM    COrXTIKS. 


one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  whereon  he  now  resides 
lies  one  mile  east  of  Granville  and  was  purchased 
by  him  seven  years  ago  for  ninety-one  dollars 
per  acre.  He  bought  one  hundred  and  eighty  acres 
on  section  28  for  twenty-seven  thousand  dollars 

Mr.  Hartman  was  married  in  November,  1859, 
to  Miss  Katie  Miller,  who  died  in  1867.  They 
had  four  children,  of  whom  Charles  died  at  the 
age  of  twenty-five  and  the  others  in  infancy.  In 
1868  Mr.  Hartman  wedded  Katie  Ochse,  who  was 
bora  in  Germany,  May  9,  1843,  and  is  still  living. 
They  have  three  living  children:  Lizzie,  now  the 
wife  of  William  F.  Henshaw;  Lena,  the  wife  of 
Olaf  Matson,  residing  upon  the  farm  with  her 
father ;  and  Victor  C.,  who  lives  on  one  of  his 
father's  farms. 

Mr.  Hartman  was  reared  in  the  Keformed  Lu- 
theran church  and  until  a  short  time  ago  was  a 
member  of  the  Congregational  church  in  Gran- 
ville. He  has  always  been  a  stalwart  republican 
since  casting  his  first  vote  in  this  country  for 
Abraham  Lincoln.  With  only  a  common-school 
education,  but  with  much  natural  ability,  he 
started  in  life  in  America  empty  handed  and  in 
the  control  of  his  business  interests  has  manifested 
sound  judgment  and  keen  discrimination,  care- 
fully controlling  his  interests  until  he  is  now  one 
of  the  prosperous  farmers  of  the  county.  He 
has  always  been  a  broad  reader,  keeping  well  in- 
formed on  all  matters  of  current  interest  through 
the  daily  papers  and  magazines,  and  his  life  rec- 
ord displays  traits  of  character  that  are  most 
commendable. 


LOUIS  HENKELL. 

Louis  Henkell,  who  for  thirty  years  has  engaged 
in  the  practice  of  veterinary  surgery  at  Granville, 
was  born  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  Maryland, 
January  13,  1843.  His  father,  John  C.  Henkell, 
was  a  native  of  Germany,  born  November  28, 
1807,  and  it  was  subsequent  to  his  emigration  to 
America,  when  he  was  twenty-eight  years  of  age, 
that  he  was  married  to  Miss  Catherine  Elizabeth 
Shaffer,  who  was  born  in  Germany,  May  8,  1814, 
and  came  to  the  new  world  with  her  parents, 
who  settled  in  Pennsylvania  not  far  from  Balti- 
more. Mr.  Henkell  had  taken  up  his  abode  in 
that  city  and  was  employed  in  a  packing  house, 
where  he  won  promotion  until  he  became  foreman. 
He  afterwards  went  to  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  and  to 


other  places  in  charge  of  work  for  the  firm.  In 
his  early  life  he  worked  at  the  millwright's  trade. 
In  1862  he  arrived  in  Putnam  county,  Illinois, 
and  engaged  in  th  butchering  business  in  Gran- 
ville. The  present  home  of  his  son  Louis  was 
purchased  by  him  from  G.  R.  Henderson.  He 
continued  actively  in  the  butchering  business  until 
he  had  acquired  a  comfortable  competence  and 
then  retired  permanently  from  commercial  pur- 
suits. He  was  reared  in  the  faith  of  the  German 
Lutheran  church.  His  political  views  were  in  har- 
mony with  the  principles  of  democracy,  but  he 
took  no  active  part  in  politics.  He  died  in  Gran- 
ville in  November,  1873,  and  was  long  survived 
by  his  wife,  who  passed  away  here  June  3,  1892. 
In  their  family  were  seven  children,  all  but  two 
of  whom  were  born  in  Baltimore,  while  four  are 
now  living:  Henry,  who  is  in  the  employ  of  the 
Big  Four  Railroad  company  and  resides  in  Ohio; 
Louis,  of  this  review ;  Helen  and  Elizabeth,  who 
are  living  with  Dr.  Henkell. 

The  Doctor  was  a  youth  of  thirteen  years  when 
his  parents  removed  from  Baltimore  to  a  farm  in 
Pennsylvania  and  he  was  thus  engaged  in  the 
work  of  field  and  meadow  until  the  family  came 
to  Illinois.  In  this  state  he  was  employed  at  farm 
labor  at  a  wage  of  thirteen  dollars  a  month.  Later 
he  learned  the  shoemaker's  trade  and  when  the 
war  was  inaugurated  he  bought  a  shoe  shop  from 
an  old  man  who  went  into  the  army.  He,  how- 
ever, sold  this  when  the  former  owner  returned 
and  later  Dr.  Henkell  gave  his  attention  to  farm 
labor  and  to  the  butchering  business.  Having 
obtained  a  good  knowledge  of  anatomy  through 
his  experience  in  the  butchering  business,  he  be- 
came quite  proficient  in  caring  for  sick  animals 
and  through  the  advice  of  Dr.  Holsburg  he  pur- 
chased books  and  read  extensively  upon  the  subject 
of  veterinary  surgery.  Subsequently  he  began  de- 
voting his  entire  attention  to  this  work,  which 
he  has  since  followed  with  good  success.  His  ex- 
perience has  given  him  superiority  in  the  treat- 
ment of  many  cases  and  his  practice  extends  over 
a  wide  area.  He  is  often  called  as  far  as  Depue 
and  his  business  is  of  a  most  profitable  nature. 

Where  state  and  national  issues  are  involved 
Dr.  Henkell  gives  his  political  allegiance  to  the 
democracy,  but  at  local  elections  always  votes  for 
the  man  who  in  his  judgment  is  the  most  com- 
petent candidate  and  will  prove  most  acceptable 
in  office.  He  has  been  prominently  identified  with 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


public  affairs  in  Granville  and  has  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  village  board  for  a  number  of  years, 
while  in  1903  and  1904  he  served  as  its  president. 
He  has  also  been  justice  of  the  peace  for  eight 
years  and  notary  public  for  two  years  and  is  act- 
ing in  the  latter  capacity  at  the  present  time. 
He  takes  a  deep  and  abiding  interest  in  the  wel- 
fare of  the  town  and  his  advice  is  often  sought 
on  matters  relating  to  the  general  good.  He  is 
far-sighted  and  his  judgment  is  sound  and  relia- 
ble, while  his  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  the  com- 
munity is  above  question. 


A.  J.  ROBINSON. 

A.  J.  Robinson,  who  follows  farming  on  sec- 
tion 3,  Granville  township,  was  born  in  La  Salle 
county  near  the  Putnam  county  line,  March  12, 
1850.  His  boyhood  days  were  spent  on  the  home 
farm  and  in  the  district  schools.  His  parents 
were  James  and  Sophia  (Richey)  Robinson,  both 
of  whom  were  natives  of  Ohio.  In  1833  they  be- 
came residents  of  La  Salle  county,  Illinois,  being 
among  the  earliest  families  of  that  part  of  the 
state.  They  located  upon  a  farm  where  they  spent 
their  subsequent  years  and  through  a  long  period 
were  prominent  in  the  community  where  they 
resided.  Mr.  Robinson  was  among  those  who 
aided  in  laying  broad  and  deep  the  foundations 
for  the  present  development  and  progress  of  the 
county  and  co-operated  in  many  of  the  events 
which  have  left  their  impress  upon  the  pioneer 
history  of  his  portion  of  the  state.  His  wife  died 
at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  forty-four  years 
and  Mr.  Robinson  long  survived,  passing  away  at 
the  age  of  eighty-three.  In  their  family  were  nine 
children,  eight  of  whom  are  yet  living. 

After  attending  the  district  schools  A.  J.  Rob- 
inson profited  by  three  years'  instruction  in  the 
state  normal,  after  which  he  engaged  in  teaching 
in  Putnam  county,  following  that  profession  for 
five  years.  He  was  then  married  on  the  27th  of 
December,  1882,  to  Miss  Ellen  Barnard,  who  was 
born  in  Vermont,  a  daughter  of  Charles  E.  Bar- 
nard, mention  of  whom  is  made  elsewhere  in  this 
volume.  Following  his  marriage  Mr.  Robinson 
rented  a  farm  in  La  Salle  county  and  a  year  later 
purchased  a  tract  of  land  of  sixty  acres  in  that 
county,  cultivating  it  for  three  years,  when  he 
invested  in  three  hundred  and  twenty  acres  on 
section  3,  Granville  township,  Putnam  county. 


This  was  an  improved  farm  and  he  at  once  took 
up  the  task  of  further  cultivating  the  fields.  Sub- 
sequently he  sold  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of 
the  land.  He  has  erected  upon  the  place  a  sub- 
stantial residence  and  good  farm  buildings  and 
in  addition  to  this  property  he  now  owns  one 
hundred  and  sixty-five  acres  in  Hennepin  town- 
ship. He  is  engaged  in  general  farming  and  stock- 
raising,  also  feeding  cattle  and  hogs,  and  for  five 
years  he  has  put  up  ice,  which  he  supplies  to  the 
trade  in  Granville.  This  year,  owing  to  the  mild 
winter  of  1905-6  and  to  the  excessive  heat  of  the 
past  summer,  which  has  made  the  demand  so  much 
greater,  his  supply  of  ice  has  been  completely  ex- 
hausted and  he  has  therefore  made  shipments 
from  Wisconsin.  Recently  he  has  erected  a  com- 
modious modern  residence  upon  his  farm,  which 
is  a  splendidly  equipped  property  and  indicates 
his  careful  supervision  and  progressive  methods. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robinson  have  been  born 
four  children:  Candace,  who  was  graduated  in 
1906  from  the  state  university  and  is  now  en- 
gaged in  teaching ;  Anna,  who  is  a  graduate  of  the 
Granville  high  school  of  the  class  of  1906  and  is 
now  a  student  in  the  Northwestern  University, 
and  Earl  and  Charles,  both  at  home. 

Fraternally  Mr.  Robinson  is  connected  with  the 
Modern  Woodmen  of  America  and  his  family  be- 
long to  the  Congregational  church.  He  has  al- 
ways been  a  republican,  but  has  aspired  to  no 
office,  nor  has  he  held  positions  of  official  prefer- 
ment save  that  of  school  director.  His  deep  in- 
terest in  the  cause  of  education  has  prompted  him 
to  undertake  the  duties  of  that  position,  which 
are  most  important,  for  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  good  schools  and  the  employ- 
ment of  competent  teachers  is  something  which 
cannot  be  over-estimated  in  its  value  as  a  prep- 
aration for  good  citizenship.  In  fact,  Mr.  Rob- 
inson stands  for  progress  along  all  those  lines 
which  work  for  the  development  of  the  individual 
and  the  community  in  ways  that  are  beneficial 
and  far-reaching. 


SIDNEY  WHITAKER. 
Sidney  Whitaker  is  an  enterprising  farmer  re- 
siding two  miles  east  of  Granville  on  section 
11,  Granville  township.  He  was  born  in  Eden 
township,  La  Salle  county,  December  20,  1859. 
His  father,  John  Ireland  Whitaker,  was  born  in 
Bridgeton,  New  Jersey,  June  2,  1822,  and  in 


462 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF    MARSHALL    AXD  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


1843,  when  a  young  man  of  twenty-one  years, 
came  west  to  Putnam  county,  which  was  then 
largely  a  frontier  district,  the  evidences  of  im- 
provement and  progress  being  comparatively  few. 
Only  here  and  there  had  a  settlement  been  made 
and  much  of  the  land  was  still  unclaimed  and 
uncultivated.  He  lived  upon  a  farm  near  Gran- 
ville  until  1855,  when  he  removed  to  Eden  town- 
ship, La  Salle  county,  where  he  resided  until  his 
death,  which  occurred  December  12,  1904,  when 
he  was  eighty-two  years  of  age.  His  wife,  who 
in  her  maidenhood  was  Wilhelmina  Scheottler, 
was  born  in  Hesse-Cassel,  Germany,  and  was  a 
maiden  of  fourteen  years  when  she  came  to 
America.  She,  too,  died  upon  the  homestead 
farm  in  La  Salle  county,  where  she  passed  away 
in  1898  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven  years.  In  the 
family  were  six  children,  all  of  whom  are  living: 
Effie,  the  wife  of  E.  H.  Whitaker,  living  in  Eden 
township,  La  Salle  county;  Clara,  who  is  living 
upon  the  old  homestead  in  La  Salle  county;  Sid- 
ney; Linna,  the  wife  of  E.  T.  James,  a  resident 
of  Madison,  North  Dakota ;  Eugenie,  at  home ;  and 
Charles  L.,  who  is  living  at  Zearing,  Story  county, 
Iowa. 

Sidney  Whitaker  largely  acquired  his  educa- 
tion in  the  district  schools  of  Eden  township 
and  later  completed  the  course  in  Peru  high 
school,  although  he  did  not  graduate.  His  life 
work  has  been  that  of  the  farm  and  while  yet  at 
home  he  purchased  and  operated  land  in  La  Salle 
county.  In  1898  he  came  to  Putnam  county  and 
was  here  married  to  Miss  Martha  B.  Hopkins,  a 
daughter  of  Joel  W.  Hopkins,  deceased,  of  whom 
mention  is  made  on  another  page  of  this  work. 
Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Whitaker  have  been  born 
six  children:  Sidney,  John  H.,  Joel  H.,  Sarah 
Hyde,  Wilhelmina  Scheottler  and  Eichard  H. 

Mr.  Whitaker  has  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres 
of  land  in  the  home  farm,  whereon  he  resides. 
It  is  improved  with  a  beautiful  residence  and  good 
buildings  and  he  and  his  wife  own  other  land  in 
the  county,  together  with  some  in  La  Salle  county 
and  also  in  Iowa.  Mr.  Whitaker  is  now  renting 
most  of  his  farm,  retaining  only  a  small  piece 
of  farm  land  and  some  pasture,  whereon  his  stock 
can  feed.  Pleasantly  situated  in  life,  he  and  his 
family  are  enabled  to  enjoy  all  of  the  comforts 
and  many  of  the  luxuries  which  go  to  make  life 
worth  living,  their  property  affording  them  a 
gratifying  income.  In  politics  Mr.  Whitaker  is  a 


republican  where  national  issues  are  involved,  but 
at  local  elections  votes  independently.  He  and 
his  wife  are  members  of  the  Congregational  church 
at  Granville,  in  which  they  take  an  active  and 
helpful  interest,  Mr.  Whitaker  having  served  as 
superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school,  while  at  the 
present  writing  he  is  its  secretary.  Both  he  and 
his  wife  have  spent  their  entire  lives  in  this  part 
of  the  state  and  have  a  wide  acquaintance,  the 
hospitality  of  the  best  homes  being  cordially  ex- 
tended them. 


WALTEE  FOSTEE. 

Walter  Foster  is  an  intelligent  and  respected 
agriculturist  of  Eoberts  township,  Marshall  coun- 
ty, living  on  section  25,  and  it  was  in  this  town- 
ship that  his  birth  occurred,  October  31,  1860. 
His  father  was  Joshua  Foster,  who  was  born  in 
Ohio  near  New  London  on  the  21st  of  March, 
1821.  He  came  to  Marshall  county  in  1841,  then 
a  young  man  of  twenty  years,  and  cast  in  his  lot 
with  the  early  settlers  of  this  portion  of  the 
state.  He  drove  cattle  through  with  his  father  in 
1835.  In  the  early  days  of  his  residence  here  he 
shared  in  the  hardships  and  privations  of  pioneer 
life  and  aided  in  reclaiming  the  district  for  the 
purposes  of  civilization.  As  the  years  went  by 
success  crowned  his  labors  and  he  was  at  one 
time  the  owner  of  eight  hundred  acres  of  valua- 
ble land,  which  he  shared  with  his  children.  His 
political  views  were  in  accord  with  the  principles 
of  Jacksonian  democracy.  He  passed  away  May 
3,  1895,  and  thus  was  ended  a  useful  and  hon- 
orable life,  which  covered  a  period  of  seventy- 
four  years.  The  members  of  his  family  were : 
Benjamin,  who  was  born  in  1844  and  is  now  a 
retired  farmer  living  in  Evans  township,  Mar- 
shall county;  Thomas  Edwin,  who  was  born  in 
1846  and  died  in  1881;  John  Lewis,  who  follows 
farming  in  Iowa;  Albert,  who  is  living  retired 
in  Illinois;  George  E.,  a  retired  farmer  of  Evans 
township;  James,  a  retired  farmer  of  Eoberts 
township;  Walter,  of  this  review;  and  Wilbur, 
who  is  living  retired  in  Tazewell  county,  Illinois. 

Beared  under  the  parental  roof  in  the  county 
of  his  nativity,  Walter  Foster  attended  the  Fair- 
view  district  school  and  began  work  for  himself 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  previous  to  which 
time  he  had  received  ample  training  in  the  work 
of  the  farm  through  the  assistance  which  he  had 


-JOSHTA    FOSTER. 


PAST    AND    PEESEXT    OF   MARSHALL  AXD   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


465 


rendered  his  father  in  the  care  and  cultivation 
of  the  fields  upon  the  old  home  place.  He  now 
owns  the  old  homestead,  which  comprises  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-four  acres  of  land  that  is  very 
rich  and  productive  and  responds  readily  to  the 
care  and  labor  bestowed  upon  the  fields  by  yield- 
ing golden  harvests. 

On  the  5th  of  March,  1891,  Mr.  Foster  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Sylvia  Traver  and 
unto  them  have  been  born  six  children :  Emory, 
Holland,  Nellie,  Edith,  Jessie  and  May,  all  yet 
at  home.  Mr.  Foster  votes  the  prohibition  ticket 
and  attends  the  Christian  church,  and  these  asso- 
ciations are  indicative  of  the  character  of  the 
man  and  the  high  principles  which  govern  his 
life  and  are  manifest  in  his  conduct. 


HENRY  W.  TIDMARSH. 

Henry  W.  Tidmarsh  owns  and  occupies  a  beau- 
tiful home  that  stands  in  the  midst  of  a  fine  farm 
of  two  hundred  and  forty  acres  on  section  30, 
Roberts  township,  Marshall  county,  in  addition 
to  which  he  has  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  in 
Richland  township,  so  that  his  landed  possessions 
aggregate  four  hundred  acres,  all  in  this  county. 
He  was  born  in  1863  in  a  log  cabin  which  stood 
on  the  Jesse  Bane  farm  in  Roberts  township  and 
has  spent  his  entire  life  in  this  locality. 

He  is  a  son  of  Abel  Tidmarsh,  who  was  born 
in  Wiltshire,  England,  December  27,  1821,  and 
who  died  October  25,  1898.  The  father  was  one 
of  seven  children  of  Richard  and  Sarah  (Wood- 
ham)  Tidmarsh,  who  spent  their  entire  lives  in 
England.  In  the  land  of  his  nativity  Abel  Tid- 
marsh was  reared  and  from  an  early  age  his  life 
was  one  of  toil.  When  but  seven  years  of  age 
he  began  working  to  help  his  mother  and  sub- 
sequently followed  teaming  for  many  years  and 
also  worked  at  other  occupations  that  would  yield 
him  an  honest  living.  He  was  married  January 
12,  1845,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Witts,  a  native  of 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  England,  born  January  31, 
1822.  Her  parents,  Seth  and  Barbara  (Howell) 
Witts,  also  spent  their  entire  lives  in  England. 
Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tidmarsh  were  born  four 
children:  Sarah  Ellen,  the  wife  of  Sampson 
Rowe,  of  Whitefield  township,  Marshall  county; 
Emma  W.,  the  wife  of  John  Wetzel,  of  Roberts 
township;  Clara,  the  wife  of  John  B.  Martin  of 
the  same  l<>\vnslii|> ;  and  Henry,  of  this  review. 

The    year    1855    witnessed    the    emigration    of 


Abel  Tidmarsh  and  his  family  to  America,  at 
which  time  he  became  a  resident  of  Whitefield 
township,  Marshall  county,  Illinois.  After  being 
employed  for  one  season  in  a  brickyard  he  pur- 
chased the  plant,  which  he  operated  for  four  years, 
and  in  1860  he  rented  a  farm  from  Jesse  Bane 
in  Roberts  township.  Six  years  later  he  purchased 
a  farm  in  the  same  township  and  in  1879  he  re- 
placed his  log  house  by  a  commodious  frame  resi- 
dence. He  also  made  excellent  improvements 
upon  his  land  and  added  to  the  property  until 
he  became  owner  of  four  hundred  and  four  acres, 
constituting  a  valuable  farm.  When  he  arrived 
in  this  country  he  had  a  cash  capital  of  only 
seventy-five  cents  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  he 
was  numbered  among  the  men  of  affluence  in 
Marshall  county.  He  voted  with  the  democracy 
and  filled  the  office  of  school  director.  He  sur- 
vived his  wife  for  about  two  years,  her  death  oc- 
curring June  13,  1896.  She  was  a  member  of 
the  Church  of  England. 

Henry  W.  Tidmarsh,  reared  under  the  parental 
roof,  early  became  familiar  with  the  work  of 
field  and  meadow  and  his  boyhood  days  were 
largely  devoted  to  earnest  and  unremitting  work. 
He  continued  to  engage  in  farming  upon  his 
fathers  place  until  1897.  In  the  meantime  he 
attended  school  at  Shaw's  Point  and  at  Varna, 
and  thus  acquired  his  education.  As  the  years 
passed  he  has  prospered  in  his  undertakings  and 
his  landed  holdings  now  embrace  four  hundred 
acres  in  Marshall  county,  of  which  two  hundred 
and  forty  acres  is  comprised  in  the  home  farm 
on  section  30,  Roberts  township.  He  also  has 
one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  in  Richland  town- 
ship. His  home  .place  is  splendidly  improved 
and  in  its  midst  stands  a  beautiful  and  commo- 
dious modern  residence,  together  with  large  and 
substantial  barns  an  outbuildings  for  the  shelter 
of  grain  and  stock. 

In  1887  Mr.  Tidmarsh  was  united  in  marriage 
to  Miss  Elizabeth  Miller,  who  was  born  in  Lacon 
in  1868  and  is  a  daughter  of  Robert  and  Anna 
Miller,  who  are  now  deceased.  She  was  edu- 
cated in  the  schools  of  Lacon,  of  Roanoke  and  of 
Washburn,  Illinois,  and  by  her  marriage  has  be- 
come the  mother  of  five  children:  Robert,  born 
September  20,  1889;  Edwin  M.,  March  10,  1892; 
Ellen  Marie,  July  18,  1894;  Irlene  May,  August 
21,  1899 ;  and  Virgil  Ray,  March  19,  1904.  All 
are  still  under  the  parental  roof.  Mr.  Tidmarsh 


466 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OP   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


is  well  known  in  the  county  where  his  entire  life 
has  been  passed  and  where  he  has  so  directed  his 
labors  as  to  win  a  place  among  the  farmers  01 
affluence,  also  gaining  recognition  among  those 
whose  lives  of  business  integrity  command  the 
highest  respect. 


MILTON  E.  NEWBURN. 

Milton  E.  Newburn,  living  upon  a  farm  within 
the  city  limits  of  Hennepin,  is  one  of  the  native 
sons  of  Hennepin  township,  born  on  the  28th  of 
September,  1843.  His  parents,  Mahlon  and  Mary 
(Ford)  Newburn,  were  natives  of  Ohio  and  prior 
to  their  removal  to  Illinois  made  their  home  near 
Dayton,  that  state,  whence  they  came  by  team  to 
Putnam  county  at  an  early  period  in  the  pioneer 
development  of  this  part  of  Illinois.  There  were 
no  facilities  for  railroad  travel  at  that  time  and 
there  had  been  little  advance  made  in  reclaiming 
this  district  for  the  uses  of  civilization.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Newburn  located  on  government  land  east 
of  Florid  and  with  characteristic  energy  the 
father  began  the  development  of  a  farm,  which 
hitherto  was  entirely  wild  and  uncultivated. 
After  some  years  he  disposed  of  that  property 
and  for  four  years  was  a  resident  of  Granville 
township,  subsequent  to  which  time  he  resided 
upon  the  farm  now  owned  by  his  son  Milton.  His 
death  occurred  in  Peoria,  February  14,  1895,  at 
the  age  of  seventy-eight  years,  having  survived 
his  wife  for  about  eight  years.  He  deserved  all 
the  credit  implied  in  the  term  "a  self-made  man" 
for  his  close  application,  persistency  of  purpose 
and  unremitting  diligence  were  the  strong  feat- 
ures in  his  success,  whereby  he  advanced  from  a 
humble  financial  position  to  one  of  affluence.  He 
was  almost  penniless  when  he  arrived  in  this 
county  and  at  his  death  was  the  owner  of  a  valu- 
able farm  property  of  one  hundred  and  sixty 
acres.  He  had  in  the  meantime  disposed  of  much 
of  his  land,  for  he  had  formerly  been  the  owner 
of  three  hundred  and  forty  acres.  His  father, 
John  Newburn,  also  came  to  Putnam  county,  lo- 
cating upon  a  farm  near  Florid,  where  he  died 
during  the  boyhood  of  Milton  E.  Newburn  and 
his  wife  also  passed  away  at  that  place. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mahlon  Newburn  were  the 
parents  of  five  children:  Alfred,  who  lived  at 
home  and  died  at  the  age  of  twenty  years;  Milton 
E. ;  Stephen,  who  owns  and  occupies  a  fruit  farm 


in  California;  Sarah,  the  wife  of  George  Baxen- 
dale,  of  Peoria,  Illinois;  and  Aaron,  who  inherit- 
ed a  part  of  the  old  estate  and  died  thereon  at 
the  age  of  twenty-three  years  after  a  short  mar- 
ried life  of  two  years. 

The  boyhood  days  of  Milton  E.  Newburn  were 
spent  in  the  usual  manner  of  farm  lads  of  the 
period.  He  assisted  his  father  in  the  operation 
of  the  farm  and  in  the  winter  months  when  there 
was  considerable  respite  from  farm  duties  he  at- 
tended the  public  schools.  On  attaining  his  ma- 
jority he  began  the  cultivation  of  his  own  farm 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  old  home  place,  but  contin- 
ued to  live  with  his  parents.  Later  he  disposed 
of  that  property  and  secured  another  farm  near 
Hennepin.  He  became  owner  of  his  present  farm 
in  1885  and  continued  actively  in  its  cultivation 
and  improvement  until  1892.  In  the  meantime 
he  had  devoted  considerable  attention  to  the 
breeding  of  Chester  White  hogs  and  for  thirty 
years  he  has  engaged  in  this  business,  making  ex- 
hibits of  the  stock  at  state  fairs  in  Illinois,  Iowa, 
Nebraska,  at  St.  Louis  and  at  the  World's  Colum- 
bian Exposition  in  Chicago  in  1893.  At  the  last 
named  he  carried  off  premiums  amounting  to  six- 
teen hundred  dollars  on  a  herd  of  nineteen  ani- 
mals, at  which  time  he  had  to  compete  with  the 
whole  world.  He  has  always  given  his  attention 
to  the  Chester  White  breed  and  has  been  most 
successful  in  raising  high  grade  hogs. 

On  the  1st  of  May,  1894,  Mr.  Newburn  was 
married  to  Miss  May  Turner,  of  Hennepin,  a 
daughter  of  Oakes  and  Rebecca  (Butler)  Turner, 
who  came  to  Illinois  in  the  J30s  and  settled  at 
Wyoming,  Stark  county.  Their  subsequent  days 
were  passed  at  Hennepin,  where  the  mother  died 
in  1884  and  the  father  in  1888.  Mrs.  Newburn 
was  born  in  Hennepin,  May  16,  1850,  and  after 
the  death  of  her  parents  acted  as  housekeeper  for 
her  brother  until  her  marriage.  She  has  now 
passed  away  and  Mr.  Newburn  has  since  wedded 
Miss  Prudence  M.  Huron,  a  native  of  this  county. 
He  lives  upon  a  farm  within  the  city  limits  and 
rents  his  other  land,  which  brings  to  him  a  good 
income. 

The  democratic  party  receives  his  political  sup- 
port at  the  polls  and  he  was  elected  assessor  of 
his  township,  which  office  he  held  for  nine  years, 
and  for  the  past  twelve  years  has  continuously 
held  the  office  of  supervisor  in  a  township  which 
gives  a  normal  republican  majority — a  fact  which 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


467 


is  indicative  of  his  personal  popularity  and  the 
confidence  reposed  in  him  by  his  fellow  townsmen. 
He  keeps  in  touch  with  the  political  issues  of  the 
day  and  is  frequently  a  delegate  to  the  conven- 
tions of  his  party.  No  trust  reposed  in  him  has 
ever  been  betrayed  and  his  service  in  political 
office  is  indeed  commendable.  He  represents  one 
of  the  old  pioneer  families  of  the  county,  where 
the  name  of  Newburn  has  ever  been  a  synonym' 
for  good  citizenship  and  progressiveness  in  busi- 


PETERSON  P.   DAHL. 

Peterson  P.  Dahl,  an  apiarist  of  Granville, 
now  devoting  his  entire  attention  to  bee  culture 
and  the  production  of  honey,  has  become  well 
known  in  connection  with  this  industry  and  his 
opinions  throughout  this  part  of  the  state  are 
largely  regarded  as  authority  upon  the  business 
which  claims  his  energies  and  attention.  Mr. 
Dahl  is  a  native  of  Denmark,  having  been  born 
in  Bornholm,  August  5,  1838.  His  father,  Hans 
P.  Dahl,  likewise  born  in  that  country,  was  a 
ship  carpenter  by  trade  and  died  of  typhoid  fever 
at  the  age  of  forty-five  years,  when  his  son  Peter- 
son was  but  two  and  a  half  years  old.  The  moth- 
er, Mrs.  Bertha  Dahl,  lived  to  be  seventy  years  of 
age  and  died  in  Denmark,  her  native  country. 
After  losing  her  first  husband  she  married  again. 

Peterson  P.  Dahl  acquired  his  education  in 
the  schools  of  Denmark  and  was  confirmed  in  the 
Lutheran  church  at  the  age  of  fifteen  years.  His 
school  life  was  considered  ended  at  that  time  and 
he  was  bound  out  for  a  term  of  five  years  to  learn 
the  shoemaker's  trade.  On  the  completion  of  his 
apprenticeship  he  worked  at  that  vocation  as  a 
journeyman  until  1861,  when  his  attention  was 
called  to  the  new  world  and  the  opportunities  of- 
fered in  this  country.  A  fellow  countryman,  who 
had  been  in  Granville,  Putnam  county,  Illinois, 
-was  at  that  time  making  a  visit  to  his  old  home 
in  Denmark  and  gave  such  glowing  descriptions 
of  the  new  world  and  the  possibilities  here  of- 
fered that  a  party  of  young  people  decided  to 
come  to  America.  Accordingly  they  sailed  from 
Hamburg  on  a  westward  bound  steamer  and  after 
fourteen  days  landed  at  Castle  Garden,  New 
York,  whence  they  proceeded  westward  to  Gran- 
ville. Mr.  Dahl  at  once  sought  and  secured  work 


at  his  trade  of  shoemaking  and  was  thus  em- 
ployed until  1878,  save  for  the  period  of  his  mili- 
tary service. 

On  the  llth  of  August,  1862,  in  response  to  his 
country's  need,  Mr.  Dahl  joined  the  army  as  a 
private  in  Company  B,  One  Hundred  and  Fourth 
Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry.  He  served  with  that 
command  for  seven  months,  going  as  far  south  as 
Nashville,  Tennessee,  and  at  Hartsville  he  was 
taken  prisoner.  Owing  to  the  rigors  and  hard- 
ships of  war  he  was  ill  much  of  the  time  and  was 
discharged  for  disability  at  Camp  Douglas,  but 
in  the  meantime  he  had  manifested  his  loyalty  to 
his  adopted  land  and  given  substantial  proof  that 
he  desired  the  perpetuation  of  the  Union. 

In  1868  Mr.  Dahl  was  married  to  Miss  Mary 
Blake,  who  was  born  in  Putnam  county  and  is  a 
daughter  of  John  P.  and  Zilpah  (Atwood)  Blake, 
both  of  whom  are  now  deceased.  The  father,  a 
native  of  Massachusetts,  came  to  Putnam  county 
in  1831  when  the  evidences  of  civilization  here 
consisted  of  but  a  few  scattered  huts  and  little 
clearings,  the  greater  part  of  the  land  being  still 
in  its  primitive  condition.  He  was  a  surveyor  and 
followed  that  profession  for  some  years.  In  com- 
munity affairs  he  took  an  active  and  helpful  in- 
terest, served  as  a  trustee  of  the  school  lands  of 
Putnam  county  and  acted  as  a  trustee  of  the 
Granville  school  funds  from  1833  until  1877.  In 
the  former  year  he  was  also  commissioned  judge 
of  the  probate  court,  being  the  second  judge  the 
county  ever  had,  and  in  1836  he  was  appointed 
deputy  surveyor,  acting  either  as  deputy  or  as 
surveyor  for  over  thirty  years.  His  official  career 
is  blameless,  as  it  was  characterized  by  the  most 
conscientious  purpose  and  unfaltering  fidelity  to 
the  trust  reposed  in  him.  He  was  prominent  in 
church  and  school  work  for  many  years  and  was 
actively  connected  with  the  Sabbath-school 
throughout  his  entire  life.  Thus  his  influence 
was  a  potent  force  in  the  material,  political,  in- 
tellectual and  moral  progress  of  his  community 
and  his  name  is  honored  in  Putnam  county, 
where  for  many  years  he  made  his  home.  His 
memory  compassed  the  period  of  early  pioneer 
development  and  of  modern  progress  as  well,  for 
a  good  old  age  was  accorded  him.  He  passed 
away  in  Union  Grove.  His  first  wife,  Zilpah 
Atwood,  was  born  in  Massachusetts  and  died  in 
1845,  leaving  a  family  of  seven  children.  His 
second  wife  was  Mary  Smith,  who  was  born  in 


468 


PAST    AND    PKKSEXT    OF    MARSHALL    AND    1TTNAM    COTXTIES. 


Pennsylvania  and  is  now  deceased.  She  left  a 
family  of  five  children. 

Following  his  return  from  the  war  and  after 
his  marriage  Mr.  Dahl  continued  to  work  at  the 
shoemaker's  trade  until  1877,  when  he  traded  his 
store  building  for  the  place  where  he  now  lives. 
He  has  two  and  a  half  acres  in  the  western  part 
of  the  village  of  Granville,  whereon  is  a  com- 
fortable residence.  He  also  has  a  large  garden. 
good  orchard  and  numerous  shade  trees  and  the 
place  in  its  well  kept  appearance  is  most  attract- 
ive. For  thirty-five  years  he  has  been  engaged  in 
bee  culture  and  at  present  has  about  one  hundred 
and  forty-five  swarms,  although  at  different  times 
he  has  had  as  high  as  three  hundred  hives.  One 
year  three  hundred  hives  produced  seven  thousand 
pounds  of  honey.  His  broad  experience  and  his 
study  of  the  methods  of  the  bees,  combined  with 
care  in  housing  them,  makes  him  authority  upon 
the  subject.  He  is  thoroughly  posted  in  every 
detail  of  the  business,  including  the  making  of 
the  comb  foundation,  a  process  which  requires 
special  machinery  and  also  the  separating  of  the 
honey,  which  is  done  by  an  interesting  piece  of 
mechanism  and  requires  much  care  and  skill. 
When  the  honey  is  extracted  from  the  comb  it  is 
placed  in  pint  cans  and  put  upon  the  market  and 
nothing  excels  the  pure  strained  honey  which 
bears  the  stamp  of  Peter  Dahl,  apiarist,  Gran- 
ville, Illinois.  It  is  to  this  work  that  Mr.  Dahl 
is  now  giving  his  time  and  attention  and  he  de- 
rives therefrom  a  good  income. 

Unto  our  subject  and  his  wife  have  been  born 
three  children:  Nettie  T.,  now  the  wife  of 
Charles  Conklin,  resides  near  Kempton,  Illinois. 
She  is  a  graduate  of  the  state  normal  school  and 
for  ten  years  engaged  in  teaching  in  Putnam 
county,  at  one  time  being  principal  ,of  the  schools 
of  Granville.  She  now  has  three  children.  Lo- 
rena,  the  second  member  of  the  Dahl  family,  is 
acting  as  housekeeper  for  her  brother,  Percy  E., 
in  Missouri.  She  pursued  a  two  and  a  half  years' 
course  in  the  state  normal  school  of  Illinois  and 
she,  too,  has  taught  school  in  Putnam  county. 
The  only  son,  Percy  E.  Dahl,  went  to  Missouri 
in  the  spring  of  1905  and  there  purchased  and  is 
improving  a  farm  of  ninety-nine  acres. 

Since  1861  Mr.  Dahl  has  been  a  member  of  the 
Baptist  church  but  during  the  past  few  years  has 
attended  the  Congregational  church,  of  which  his 
wife  is  a  member.  He  is  a  strictly  temperate  man 


and  his  views  upon  this  question  are  indicated 
through  the  stalwart  support  which  he  gives  to 
the  prohibition  party.  He  has  served  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  village  board  for  a  number  of  years 
and  community  interests  find  in  him  a  stalwart 
champion,  who  does  all  in  his  power  to  promote 
reform,  progress  and  improvement.  He  belongs 
to  Hennepin  post,  G.  A.  E.,  and  since  becoming  a 
naturalized  American  citizen  has  manifested  a 
loyalty  to  this  country  and  her  institutions  un- 
surpassed by  her  native-born  sons. 


CHAELES  A.  FEOMMEL. 

Charles  A.  Frommel,  who  is  engaged  in  the 
manufacture  of  cigars  in  Henry  and  is  prominent 
in  community  affairs,  was  born  in  Canton,  Ful- 
ton county,  Illinois,  December  31,  1862.  His 
father,  Albert  C.  Frommel,  was  a  native  of  Ham- 
burg, Germany,  and  in  1849  came  to  the  United 
States,  settling  first  in  Utica,  New  York,  where 
he  engaged  in  business  as  a  cigar  manufacturer. 
He  became  the  first  representative  of  that  line 
in  Canton,  Illinois,  where  he  carried  on  his  en- 
terprise for  many  years.'  He  died  in  Troy,  New 
York,  in  1901,  since  which  time  his  widow,  who 
bore  the  maiden  name  of  Anna  E.  Eowley,  has 
become  the  wife  of  T.  A.  Schipper,  of  Henry, 
and  is  again  a  widow.  By  her  first  marriage  she 
had  three  children:  Charles  A.;  Ernest,  a  cigar 
manufacturer  of  Peoria ;  and  Mrs.  W.  B.  Miller, 
who  is  also  living  in  that  city. 

Charles  A.  Frommel  pursued  his  education  in 
the  public  schools  of  Canton,  Illinois,  of  Inde- 
pendence, Kansas,  and  of  Henry,  as  his  parents 
removed  to  the  different  places.  He  learned  the 
trade  of  manufacturing  cigars  under  the  direction 
of  his  father  and  began  business  for  himself  on 
the  31st  of  July,  1886,  when  he  came  to  Henry. 
He  has  conducted  his  present  cigar  manufactory 
since  1893  and  is  now  carrying  on  a  good  business 
in  this  line.  His  leading  brands  are  the  Eose 
Queen,  a  first  class  domestic  five  cent  cigar,  and 
My  Best,  which  is  a  ten  cent  domestic  cigar.  The 
excellence  of  his  goods  enables  him  to  secure  a 
ready  sale  for  his  output  and  his  trade  is  growing 
in  substantial  manner. 

In  1886  Mr.  Frommel  was  married  to  Miss 
Nellie  C.  Miller,  of  Henry  county,  Illinois,  and 
unto  them  has  been  born  a  daughter,  Anna  Jean- 
ette,  now  five  years  of  age.  Mr.  Frommel  is  prom- 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


469 


•inent  in  fraternal  circles,  belonging  to  the  Knights 
of  Pythias  lodge  at  Henry  and  to  the  Eagles  of 
Peoria.  In  the  former  he  has  filled  all  of  the 
chairs  and  has  been  master  of  finance  for  four 
terms.  In  politics  he  is  a  democrat  and  has  been 
alderman  of  the  second  ward  for  two  terms.  He 
was  elected  the  first  foreman  of  the  Chemical 
Engine  company  and  was  a  member  of  the  com- 
mittee to  draft  the  constitution  and  by-laws  in 
1891.  He  has  several  times  been  chairman  of  the 
democratic  county  central  committee  with  head- 
quarters located  on  Second  street  opposite  Central 
park.  He  is  likewise  a  member  of  the  bridge 
board  and  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  leaders  in 
the  local  ranks  of  the  democracy,  and,  earnestly 
desiring  the  success  of  his  party,  labors  along 
practical  and  effective  lines  for  its  upbuilding. 


ADAM  BROWN  HENK1NS. 

The  life  record  of  Adam  Brown  Henkins  can- 
not fail  to  prove  of  interest  to  many  of  our  read- 
ers, for  he  is  a  venerable  citizen  of  Senachwine 
township,  living  upon  section  26,  and  for  more 
than  a  half  century  he  has  resided  in  this  part 
of  the  state.  Today  he  is  one  of  its  most  exten- 
sive land  owners,  his  possessions  aggregating  ten 
hundred  and  fifteen  acres  in  Putnam  and  Bureau 
counties. 

He  was  born  in  Greene  county,  Pennsylvania, 
near  the  Virginia  line,  September  24,  1824,  his 
parents  being  Elijah  and  Elizabeth  (Brown)  Hen- 
kins.  The  father  was  born  in  West  Virginia, 
September  29,  1792,  and  died  in  Putnam  county, 
Illinois,  September  6,  1887,  while  his  wife,  whose 
birth  occurred  July  1,  1797,  in  West  Virginia, 
passed  away  in  this  county,  August  12,  1875.  In 
their  family  were  the  following  named:  Rawley, 
who  died  February  11,  1900;  Christina,  who  be- 
came the  wife  of  Robert  Worley  and  died  May  2, 
1863 ;  Catherine,  who  married  John  Roberts  and 
died  September  3,  1900;  Margaret,  who  died  Oc- 
tober 12,  1887;  Adam,  of  this  review;  Susan, 
who  died  April  21,  1824;  Mary  Elizabeth,  who 
became  the  wife  of  Jacob  Syphers  and  died  Jan- 
uary 17,  1875;  Andrew  P.,  who  departed  this 
life  .September  16,  1872 ;  Elijah,  who  is  living  in 
Senachwine  township,  Putnam  county;  Elizabeth, 
who  married  Stace  Stevens  and  passed  away  April 
2,  1901;  Martha  Jane,  who  died  April  3,  1854; 


and  Amanda,  who  is  living  with  her  brother 
Elijah. 

The  educational  privileges  which  Adam  B. 
Henkins  received  in  his  boyhood  were  somewhat 
limited  but  in  the  school  of  experience  he  has 
learned  many  valuable  and  useful  lessons.  Under 
the  parental  roof,  however,  he  was  trained  to  hab- 
its of  industry,  perseverance  and  economy.  In 
1850,  with  a  party  of  sixteen  people,  one  of  whom 
was  his  uncle,  Colonel  Levi  Anderson,  Mr.  Hen- 
kins  drove  across  the  country  from  Pennsylvania. 
The  party  were  upon  the  road  twenty-six  days, 
proceeding  by  slow  stages  after  the  manner  of 
travel  at  that  time,  which  was  long  before  the  era 
of  the  railroad.  Beaching  Illinois  Mr.  Henkins 
worked  at  the  carpenter's  trade  in  Princeton  and 
afterward  rented  land  in  Bureau  county,  where  he 
carried  on  farming  for  two  years.  His  father  and 
the  other  members  of  the  family  then  came  to 
Illinois,  settling  in  Senachwine  township,  Put- 
nam county,  and  his  father  gave  him  eighty- 
acres  of  land  in  payment  for  two  years'  work.  On 
receiving  this  Mr.  Henkins  engaged  in  farming 
for  himself,  placed  the  land  under  cultivation  and 
has  continued  the  work  of  improving  the  farm, 
making  his  home  thereon  to  the  present  time. 

In  1860,  desiring  a  companion  and  helpmate  for 
life's  journey  he  married  Sarah  Jane  Dawson, 
who  was  born  in  Pennsylvania,  June  18,  1832, 
and  died  in  Putnam  county,  November  17,  1897, 
when  about  sixty-five  years  of  age.  They  had  be- 
come the  parents  of  seven  children.  Jehu,  who 
was  born  February  11,  1860,  married  Lorena 
Hall  and  lives  in  Senachwine  township.  Commo- 
dore, who  was  born  March  21,  1862,  married  El- 
mira  Smith  and  was  killed  November  3,  1905. 
while  sawing  wood.  Dowdy  D.,  born  May  11. 
1864,  died  April  24,  1865.  Susan  L.,  born  April 
29,  1866,  is  the  wife  of  Dwight  M.  Ball  and  they 
reside  with  her  father.  Jacob  S;,  born  August 
1,  1868,  died  March  6,  1895,  while  studying  med- 
icine in  Chicago.  Adam,  born  June  12,  1874, 
wedded  Alice  Putcamp  and  is  living  in  Bureau 
county.  Miles  W.,  born  June  15,  1877,  married 
Miss  Ball  and  lives  in  Senachwine  township. 

Throughout  almost  his  entire  life  Mr.  Henkins 
has  followed  general  agricultural  pursuits  and  is 
thoroiighly  familiar  with  the  best  methods  of  till- 
ing the  soil  and  caring  for  the  crops.  He  now 
has  a  nice  home  and  his  landed  possessions  are 
extensive,  for  from  time  to  time  he  has  added  to 


470 


PAST   AND    1'RKSKXT   OF   MARSHALL   AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


his  property  through  careful  investment  until  he 
now  has  ten  hundred  and  fifteen  acres  in  Putnam 
and  Bureau  counties.  He  started  in  life  a  poor 
man  and  all  that  he  possesses  has  been  acquired 
through  his  own  labor.  He  early  realized  the  fact 
that  persistent  effort  is  the  basis  of  all  success 
and  his  perseverance  and  energy  have  enabled 
him  to  overcome  many  obstacles  and  difficulties 
in  his  path.  His  property  is  one  which  any  man 
might  be  glad  to  possess.  There  is  no  better  in- 
vestment to  be  made  than  by  placing  money  in 
the  rich  farm  lands  of  Illinois,  for  the  soil  is  so 
productive  that  it  makes  a  splendid  return  and 
the  equable  climate  with  liberal  rainfalls  and 
warm  sunshine  always  insures  good  crops.  Thus 
farming  is  profitably  carried  on  by  all  who  have 
industry  and  energy  enough  to  till  the  soil  ac- 
cording to  modern  methods  and  the  life  record 
of  Mr.  Henkins  demonstrates  the  possibilities  for 
success  in  this  particular.  For  fifty-four  years 
he  has  been  a  devoted  member  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church  and  his  political  support  has 
been  given  to  the  republican  party  for  almost  an 
equal  length  of  time,  as  he  joined  its  ranks  on  its 
organization.  He  has  served  as  road  commis- 
sioner and  as  school  director  and  was  also  town- 
ship school  trustee  for  years.  His  has  been  a 
long  and  useful  life,  crowned  with  prosperity  and 
also  with  the  respect  of  his  fellowmen. 


CHRISTIAN  J.  HARTMAN. 

Christian  J.  Hartman,  a  substantial  farmer  of 
Putnam  county,  owning  and  operating  a  valua- 
ble and  well  improved  farm  of  one  hundred  and 
sixty  acres,  which  is  located  on  section  21,  Gran- 
ville  township,  which  stands  as  a  monument  to 
his  own  thrift  and  energy,  is  one  of  the  worthy 
citizens  that  Germany  has  furnished  to  this  state, 
his  birth  having  occurred  in  Hesse  Nassau,  April 
12,  1850.  He  has  a  brother,  William  Hartman, 
who  also  resides  in  this  county,  mention  of  whom 
is  made  on  another  page  of  this  work. 

Mr.  Hartman  was  reared  and  educated  in  his 
native  land  to  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  when, 
in  1868,  hoping  to  better  his  financial  condition 
in  the  new  world,  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  on  a 
sailing  vessel,  and  after  landing  in  this  country 
at  once  made  his  way  to  Granville,  this  county, 
where  his  brother  William  had  previously  located 
on  his  emigration  to  the  United  States,  the  date 
of  the  arrival  of  our  subject  being  May  18,  of  that 


year.  He  had  no  capital  when  he  arrived  at  his 
destination  but  possessed  energy  and  determina- 
tion, and  was  employed  by  his  brother  William, 
working  at  farm  labor  for  two  years.  On  the 
expiration  of  that  period,  having  saved  a  sum  of 
money,  he  purchased  a  few  implements,  rented  a 
piece  of  land,  and  began  farming  on  his  own  ac- 
count, retaining  his  home  with  his  brother.  For 
three  years  he  used  a  double  shovel  plow.  He 
was  successful  in  his  new  venture  and  as  time 
passed  he  added  to  his  financial  resources,  and, 
having  acquired  a  capital  sufficient  to  establish  a 
home  of  his  own,  he  further  completed  his  ar- 
rangements by  his  marriage,  February  12,  1874, 
to  Miss  Lena  Weesbach,  who  was  born  in  Prus- 
sia, July  25,  1852.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Henry 
William  Weesbach  who,  in  1867,  removed  with 
his  family  from  the  fatherland  to  La  Salle  county,, 
where  he  engaged  in  farming.  He  was  killed  by 
a  train  near  Wenona,  while  on  his  way  for  mail, 
and  his  wife  died  in  Wenona  about  four  years 
ago. 

Following  his  marriage  Mr.  Hartman  removed 
to  Iroquois  county,  this  state,  where  he  engaged 
in  farming  but  not  meeting  with  success  there, 
again  returned  to  Putnam  county,  where,  in 
1884,  he  purchased  eighty  acres  of  land  known 
as  the  Gunn  farm.  The  land  was  partially  im- 
proved and  a  small  house  and  barn  stood  on  the 
place.  He  further  developed  and  cultivated  his 
land,  carrying  on  general  farming  and  stock- 
raising  along  the  most  progressive  and  practical 
lines  and  as  his  financial  resources  increased  he 
was  enabled  to  make  further  purchase  of  property 
by  adding  a  tract  of  eighty  acres  to  his  original 
purchase,  thus  making  altogether  one  hundred 
and  sixty  acres,  which  is  today  one  of  the  best 
improved  and  most  valuable  farms  of  Putnam 
county.  In  1905  Mr.  Hartman  replaced  his  first 
home  by  a  large  modern  residence  supplied  with 
all  conveniences  and  accessories,  and  he  likewise 
erected  a  good  barn,  thus  furnishing  ample  shel- 
ter for  grain  and  stock.  He  keeps  everything  in 
an  excellent  state  of  repair  and  his  place  presents 
a  neat  and  thrifty  appearance. 

Unto  our  subject  and  his  wife  have  been  born 
six  children,  all  of  whom  are  living,  namely: 
Minnie,  the  wife  of  Henry  Wendt,  residing  in 
Granville;  William  H.,  who  is  unmarried  and  re- 
sides on  the  farm  of  his  uncle,  William  Hart- 
man, in  Granville  township;  Annie,  now  the  wife 


PAST    AND    PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL  AXD   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


473 


of  Phillip  Hoffman,  residing  on  the  Harper  farm 
in  Granville  township;  Carrie,  the  wife  of  John 
Hoffman,  also  residing  on  the  Harper  farm; 
Charles,  at  home;  and  Maggie,  who  is  acting  as 
housekeeper  for  her  brother  William. 

Mr.  Hartman  was  reared  in  the  faith  of  the 
Reformed  Lutheran  church.  He  gives  stanch  sup- 
port to  the  republican  party,  and  cast  his  first 
presidential  vote  for  James  A.  Garfield.  He  is  a 
broad  reader,  thus  keeping  well  informed  on  the 
questions  and  issues  of  the  day,  so  that  he  is  able 
to  give  an  intelligent  argument  in  support  of  the 
principles  in  which  he  so  firmly  believes.  Al- 
though Mr.  Hartman  came  to  America  a  poor 
boy,  ignorant  of  the  language  and  customs  of  the 
new  world,  he  has  adapted  himself  to  the  changed 
conditions  and  has  worked  his  way  steadily  up- 
ward from  a  humble  financial  position  until  at 
the  present  time  his  fine  farm  gives  evidence  of 
the  success  which  he  has  gained  through  his  well 
directed  efforts  and  careful  management.  He 
takes  just  pride  in  what  he  has  accomplished 
through  the  assistance  of  his  estimable  wife,  and 
he  is  one  of  those  kind-hearted  German- American 
citizens,  highly  esteemed  by  all  with  whom  he 
comes  in  contact. 


JOHN  FORCHT. 

John  Forcht,  living  on  section  34,  Granville 
township,  has  been  a  resident  of  Putnam  county 
and  this  part  of  the  state  for  almost  six  decades 
and  therefore  events  which  are  to  others  matters 
of  history  are  largely  matters  of  experience  to 
him,  for  he  has  witnessed  many  of  the  changes 
which  have  occurred  and  has  participated  in  the 
onward  march  of  progress  as  Putnam  county  has 
advanced  from  its  primitive  condition  into  a  well 
developed  region. 

Born  in  Butler  county,  Ohio,  on  the  15th  of 
February,  1842,  he  is  a  son  of  Frederick  and 
Marie  (Holly)  Forcht.  The  father  was  born  in 
Germany  in  1810.  The  mother,  also  a  native  of 
that  country,  was  a  daughter  of  Daniel  Holly, 
who  emigrated  from  the  fatherland  and  settled 
in  Butler  county,  Ohio,  in  1832,  both  he  and  his 
wife  dying  in  that  state.  Frederick  Forcht  re- 
mained a  resident  of  Germany  until  twenty  years 
of  age,  when  as  a  young  man  he  came  to  the  new 
world  and  settled  in  Ohio.  There  he  was  married 
and  in  1847  came  with  his  family  to  Putnam 


county,  Illinois,  settling  upon  a  farm  of  eighty 
acres  of  land  in  Granville  township.  It  was 
nearly  all  covered  with  timber,  but  he  cleared 
away  the  trees  and  brush  and  continued  the  ardu- 
ous task  of  developing  the  fields  until  his  life's 
labors  were  ended  in  death.  In  the  year  in  which 
they  located  upon  the  Granville  township  farm 
Mrs.  Foreht  died  and  in  1849  the  father  married 
Miss  Lena  Ackerman.  Both  parents  of  our  sub- 
ject were  members  of  the  Mennonite  church  in 
Granville.  There  were  four  children  of  their 
marriage,  of  whom  three  brothers  are  yet  living : 
Frederick,  now  a  resident  of  Kansas;  John,  of 
this  review;  and  William,  who  is  living  in  Ar- 
kansas. 

John  Forcht  was  five  years  of  age  when  brought 
to  Putnam  county  by  his  parents.  When  he  was 
eleven  years  of  age  his  father  died  and  the  fam- 
ily was  then  broken  up.  The  father  was  in  lim- 
ited circumstances  and  was  vigorously  carrying 
on  the  work  of  clearing  up  the  land  and  develop- 
ing a  farm,  but  his  tract  was  still  in  such  a  con- 
dition that  the  land  as  yet  had  little  value  and 
the  children  were  thus  left  penniless.  John 
Forcht  went  to  live  with  an  uncle,  Michael 
Hirschy,  in  Granville  township,  where  he  re- 
mained until  sixteen  years  of  age,  during  which 
time  he  had  liberal  training  at  farm  labor.  On 
the  expiration  of  that  period  he  began  farming 
by  the  month  as  a  farm  hand  for  others  and  was 
thus  employed  until  1862.  In  that  year  his  patri- 
otic spirit  was  aroused  in  behalf  of  the  Union 
cause  and  he  offered  his  services  to  the  govern- 
ment, enlisting  in  Company  D,  One  Hundred  and 
Fourth  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry.  He  was  with 
the  command  at  Hartsville,  in  the  Tullahoma 
campaign,  the  Chickamauga  campaign,  and  in 
various  battles  and  skirmishes,  including  the  en- 
gagements at  Davis  Crossroads,  Lookout  Moun- 
tain and  Missionary  Ridge.  He  was  likewise  in 
the  Atlanta  campaign,  participating  in  the  battle 
of  Buzzard's  Roost,  Rocky  Face,  Resaca,  Kenesaw 
Mountain  and  Peach  Tree  Creek.  He  was  with 
Sherman  on  the  march  to  the  sea,  to  Savannah, 
and  through  the  Carolinas  to  Washington  D.  C. 
While  at  the  front  he  became  stricken  with  what 
is  known  as  night  blindness  and  was  not  able  to 
see  after  sundown.  He  was  then  detailed  to  act 
as  nurse  in  the  hospital,  and  there  served  until 
mustered  out,  after  the  close  o£  the  war,  on 
the  6th  of  June,  1865.  He  had  proven  his  valor 


47-4 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


on  the  field  of  battle  and  throughout  the  period 
of  his  service  his  loyalty  was  ever  above  question. 
Both  of  his  brothers  were  also  in  the  army,  Fred 
being  a  member  of  the  Sixty-fourth  Illinois  In- 
fantry and  William,  a  member  of  the  Forty-sec- 
ond Missouri  Regiment. 

When  the  war  was  over  Mr.  Forcht  returned  to 
La  Salle  county  and  for  a  number  of  years  oper- 
ated a  threshing  machine  and  corn-shelling  out- 
fit. Going  to  Livingston  county,  he  bought  a  tract 
of  land,  upon  which  he  resided  for  two  years, 
and  in  1874  he  returned  to  Putnam  county,  where 
he  purchased  a  farm  of  forty-seven  and  a  "half 
acres,  upon  which  he  now  resides.  Here  he  owns 
one  hundred  and  six  acres  of  land.  The  soil  is 
rich  in  those  qualities  that  produce  good  crops  of 
grain  and  is  kept  in  excellent  condition  through 
crop  rotation.  Mr.  Forcht  now  no  longer  does 
any  of  the  work  of  the  fields  but  is. taking  life 
easy,  having  a  man  and  his  wife  employed  upon 
the  farm  in  order  to  raise  the  crops  and  care  for 
the  house. 

In  his  political  views  he  is  an  earnest  repub- 
lican and  has  served  as  highway  commissioner. 
He  is  now  school  director  and  practically  does  all 
of  the  work  pertaining  to  the  district.  His  fra- 
ternal relations  are  with  the  Grand  Army  post  at 
Hennepin.  He  is  as  true  and  loyal  to  his  coun- 
try in  days  of  peace  as  when  he  followed  the  old 
flag  on  southern  battle-fields  and  in  all  the  walks 
of  life  in  which  he  has  been  found  he  has  made 
a  creditable  record,  while  his  business  interests 
have  been  crowned  with  a  gratifying  measure  of 


WILLIAM  HENRY  SIMONTON. 
With  the  industrial  interests  of  Magnolia  Wil- 
liam Henry  Simonton  has  long  been  prominently 
identified,  having  for  several  years  successfully 
engaged  in  blacksmithing  at  that  place.  A  native 
of  Illinois,  he  was  born  in  Livingston  county  on 
the  24th  of  September,  1854,  and  is  a  son  of  Wil- 
liam K.  and  Jane  (Bazore)  Simonton,  the  for- 
mer a  native  of  Ohio  and  the  latter  of  Indiana. 
On  leaving  the  Buckeye  state  the  father  removed 
with  his  parents  to  Indiana,  where  he  grew  to 
manhood  and  was  married.  There  he  followed 
the  cooper's  trade  until  his  removal  to  Reading, 
Livingston  county,  Illinois,  where  he  purchased 
land  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company 


and  turned  his  attention  to  farming.  In  1859 
he  removed  to  Marshall  county  and  settled  on  the 
Kester  place  not  far  from  Magnolia,  but  the  fol- 
lowing year  removed  to  the  village,  where  he  con- 
tinued to  make  his  home  until  called  to  his  final 
rest  in  1892.  In  1864,  during  the  dark  days  of 
the  Civil  war,  he  was  drafted  and  served  for  lit- 
tle over  a  year  as  a  private  of  Company  D,  Eighth 
Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry  under  Captain  J.  B. 
Jones  and  Colonel  J.  A.  Sheets.  He  was  mus- 
tered into  the  United  States  service  October  4, 
1864,  and  honorably  discharged  October  3,  1865. 
The  regiment  was  assigned  to  the  Third  Brigade, 
Logan's  Division,  Seventeenth  Corps,  Army  of 
the  Tennessee,  and  participated  in  the  following 
engagements:  Charleston,  Missouri,  Fort  Don- 
elson,  Shiloh,  the  siege  of  Corinth,  Port  Gibson, 
Raymond,  Champion  Hills,  Milliken's  Bend,  siege 
of  Vicksburg,  Jackson,  Brownsville,  Meridian, 
and  siege  of  Mobile,  including  Spanish  Fort  and 
Fort  Blakeley,  this  regiment  being  the  first  to 
plant  its  colors  on  the  earthworks.  Later  it  was 
in  Texas  on  guard  duty.  May  future  generations 
never  forget  the  debt  of  gratitude  they  owe  to  the 
brave  boys  in  blue  who  on  land  and  on  sea  volun- 
teered their  services  during  the  dark  days  of  the 
Rebellion  from  1861  to  1865,  and  may  our  motto 
always  be  "Liberty  and  Union,  Now  and  For- 
ever, One  and  Inseparable." 

The  mother  of  our  subject  died  in  1902.  Wil- 
liam H.  is  the  oldest  of  their  three  children,  the 
others  being  Sylvia,  now  the  wife  of  William  Gar- 
ver,  living  at  Dubuque,  Iowa,  and  Abraham,  whose 
home  is  in  Michigan  City,  Indiana. 

William  H.  Simonton  spent  his  early  life  in 
Magnolia  and  at  the  age  of  twelve  years  started 
out  to  make  his  own  way  in  the  world,  being  em- 
ployed by  the  month  on  a  farm  until  August  13, 
1876,  when  he  entered  the  service  of  Frank  Olm- 
sted,  a  blacksmith  of  La  Salle,  Illinois,  with 
whom  he  learned  the  trade  of  blacksmithing  and 
carriage-repairing.  Returning  to  Magnolia  in 
1880,  he  worked  at  his  trade  with  his  father  and 
in  connection  with  blacksmithing  also  engaged  in 
fence  building.  On  the  12th  of  October  of  that 
year,  however,  he  purchased  the  shop  which  he 
now  carries  on  and  has  since  engaged  in  black- 
smithing,  horseshoeing  and  carriage-repairing  on 
his  own  account.  He  has  a  gasoline  engine  which 
furnishes  power  for  grinding  plows  and  disc  har- 
rows. He  also  has  what  is  called  a  Schau  cold 


PAST   AND    PRESENT   OF    MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


475 


tire  setter,  which  enables  him  to  set  tires  without 
removing  them  or  taking  off  the  wheel,  being  able 
to  set  the  tires  on  the  four  wheels  of  a  buggy  in 
forty  minutes,  and  his  record  for  single  tire  is 
seven  minutes.  He  is  an  expert  workman  and  has 
built  up  an  excellent  trade. 

On  the  12th  of  October,  1881,  was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  Mr.  Simonton  and  Miss  Laura 
Johnson,  a  native  of  Putnam  county,  and  they 
have  become  the  parents  of  four  children,  namely : 
Willetta,  the  wife  of  Dawson  Judd,  who  is  living 
on  a  farm  in  Marshall  county;  and  Burl,  Carl 
and  Goldie,  all  at  home. 

The  republican  party  finds  in  Mr.  Simonton  a 
stanch  supporter  of  its  principles  and  he  takes  a 
very  active  and  prominent  part  in  local  politics, 
having  served  on  the  village  board  continuously 
with  the  exception  of  one  year  since  1886.  He 
is  also  serving  his  second  term  as  a  member  of 
the  school  board  and  does  all  in  his  power  to  pro- 
mote the  moral,  intellectual  or  material  welfare 
of  his  town  and  county.  Socially  he  is  a  charter 
member  of  the  Modern  Woodmen  of  America  at 
Magnolia  and  also  belongs  to  the  Mystic  Workers, 
while  his  wife  is  a  member  of  the  Royal  Neigh- 
bors. They  stand  high  in  public  regard  and  have 
a  host  of  friends  throughout  the  community. 
From  1892  until  1894  Mr.  Simonton  served  as 
administrator  of  his  father's  estate.  He  is  a 
skilled  workman  and  as  a  blacksmith  has  met  with 
most  excellent  success,  having  accumulated  some 
property,  including  a  nice  home  in  the  south  part 
of  the  village  and  also  two  other  residences  there. 


ROBERT  McSMITH. 

At  the  time  of  the  Civil  war  Robert  McLanahan 
Smith,  upon  his  enlistment  for  service  in  the 
Union  army,  was  given  the  name  and  recorded  as 
Robert  McSmith,  to  distinguish  him  from  the 
numerous  Smiths  who  were  in  the  army,  and  thus 
the  subject  of  this  review  came  into  possession  of 
the  name  by  which  he  has  since  been  known.  His 
life  record  began  in  Brown  county,  Ohio,  June  2, 
1824,  and  he  is  a  representative  of  an  old  South- 
ern family.  His  father,  Affney  Smith,  was  born 
in  Virginia  and,  removing  to  Ohio,  there  engaged 
in  the  operation  of  a  mill  given  him  by  his  father. 
While  in  that  state  he  was  married  to  Miss  Susan 
McLanahan,  who  was  born  in  Ohio  and  there 


lived  until  1834,  when  she  accompanied  her  hus- 
band and  her  family  upon  the  removal  from  the 
Buckeye  state  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois.  This 
was  prior  to  the  era  of  railroad  travel,  and  the 
party  proceeded  down  the  Ohio  river  upon  a 
keelboat  drawn  by  mules  and  up  the  Mississippi 
and  Illinois  rivers  to  Hennepin.  Having  arrived 
in  Putnam  county,  Affney  Smith  purchased  eighty 
acres  of  government  land  near  the  village  of  Gran- 
ville.  Not  a  furrow  had  been  turned  or  an  im- 
provement made  upon  the  place,  but  with  reso- 
lute spirit  he  undertook  the  task  of  evolving  a 
farm  from  the  tract  of  wild  prairie.  There^  he 
carried  on  general  agricultural  pursuits  until  his 
death,  which  occurred  when  he  was  sixty-seven 
years  of  age.  He  was  one  of  the  early  pioneers 
of  the  county  and  was  closely  associated  with 
the  task  of  improvement  and  development  in 
pioneer  times.  He  helped  to  build  the  first  acad- 
emy in  Granville  and  also  assisted  in  the  erection 
of  the  old  Union  church.  In  the  early  days  he 
would  make  trips  to  Chicago  with  wheat  and 
bring  back  a  small  amount  of  salt  and  leather. 
The  only  cook  stove  which  he  and  his  wife  ever 
owned  was  purchased  by  him  in  Chicago.  The 
metropolis,  whose  growth  has  been  one  of  the 
miracles  of  the  age,  was  then  but  a  small  town, 
but  it  was  the  nearest  market,  and  to  be  reached 
necessitated  a  journey  over  roads;  which  were 
often  almost  impassable,  for  the  soil  of  Illinois, 
although  most  rich  and  fertile  for  farming  pur- 
poses, does  not  make  goodjiighways  in  the  spring 
time  when  left  in  its  natural  condition.  Mr. 
Smith  became  deeply  interested  in  the  agitation 
consequent  upon  the  slavery  conditions  of  the 
south  and  was  a  strong  abolitionist.  In  his  fam- 
ily were  ten  children,  eight  sons  and  two  daugh- 
ters :  Isabelle,  who  is  now  a  widow,  was  formerly 
a  resident  of  La  Salle  county  and  at  this  writing 
lives  in  Kansas.  Levi,  who  served  for  four  and  a 
half  years  in  the  Civil  war  with  the  Fourth  Iowa 
Cavalry,  died  about  four  years  ago  at  Atlanta, 
Georgia.  Jane  is  the  deceased  wife  of  Joseph  Mc- 
Clellan,  a  resident  of  Kansas.  Robert,  is  the 
next  of  the  family.  Hugh  M.  is  living  in 
Buchanan,  Michigan.  Samuel  D.,  who  served 
with  the  Kansas  state  militia  in  the  Civil  war,  is 
living  in  Atchison,  Kansas.  Rufus  D.,  who  was 
a  member  of  the  Twentieth  Illinois  Infantry  dur- 
ing the  hostilities  between  the  north  and  the 
south,  is  now  a  resident  of  Colorado.  Henry  T., 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MABSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


who  served  in  the  Twentieth  Illinois  Kegiment, 
is  in  San  Francisco,  California.  William  left 
home  at  the  age  of  sixteen  years  and  was  not 
heard  from  for  a  long  period,  but  is  now  in  Mex- 
ico. George  C.,  who  completes  the  family,  is  liv- 
ing in  Wisconsin. 

Until  eighteen  years  of  age  Robert  McSmith  re- 
mained upon  the  home  farm  with  his  parents, 
working  in  field  and  meadow  as  his  age  and 
strength  increased.  He  then  learned  the  black- 
smith's trade,  after  which  he  engaged  in  business 
on  his  own  account  at  La  Moille,  but  when  the 
Civl  war  broke  out  he  offered  his  services  to  the 
government,  enlisting  as  a  member  of  Company 
K,  Eleventh  Illinois  Infantry,  under  Colonel 
William  Wallace,  with  whom  he  served  for  three 
months.  He  then  returned  home,  disposed  of 
his  business  and  afterwards  re-enlisted  at  Men- 
dota  in  1862  as  a  member  of  Company  C,  One 
Hundred  and  Fourth  Illinois  Infantry.  With  that 
command  he  remained  until  July,  1865.  He  was 
detailed  for  provost  duty  and  had  a  varied  expe- 
rience. Although  he  was  never  in  any  battle,  he 
suffered  a  wound  and  numerous  hardships  inci- 
dent to  a  life  on  the  tented  field. 

After  his  return  from  the  war  Mr.  McSmith 
started  on  a  trip  to  Ohio  to  visit  his  mother's 
people.  At  New  Albany,  Indiana,  he  met  an 
officer  of  the  state  penitentiary,  whom  he  had 
known  in  the  army,  and  who  gave  him  a  position 
as  guard  at  that  state  institution.  He  remained 
there  from  September, -1865,  until  March,  1867, 
receiving  a  salary  of  eighty  dollars  per  month. 
He  afterward  engaged  in  blacksmithing  at  Mount 
Palatine  for  five  years,  on  the  expiration  of  which 
period  he  purchased  a  small  farm  in  Iroquois 
county,  Illinois,  whereon  he  resided  for  three 
years.  On  the  expiration  of  that  period  he  came 
to  Granville  township,  Putnam  county,  and  for 
seventeen  years  engaged  in  blacksmithing,  after 
which  he  retired  to  the  little  farm  upon  which 
he  now  resides. 

At  Mount  Palatine,  Illinois,  Mr.  McSmith  was 
married  to  Miss  Isalva  H.  Ring,  who  was  born 
in  Mississippi,  September  3,  1848,  and  is  a  daugh- 
ter of  Alfred  G.  Ring,  who,  removing  to  La  Salle 
county,  Illinois,  eettled  near  Mount  Palatine, 
when  his  daughter  was  but  sixteen  years  of  age. 
Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  McSmith  have  been  born  two 
children:  Charles  G.,  born  at  Mount  Palatine, 
March  6,  1869,  wedded  Myra  Pletch,  a  native  of 


Putnam  county,  and  they  have  three  children. 
Kenneth  Paul,  Marvin  Robert  and  Veda  Elmina. 
The  father  of  these  children  owns  one  hundred 
and  ten  acres  of  rich  and  productive  land  in  Gran- 
ville township  which  adjoins  his  father's  place. 
Mame  Belle,  the  only  daughter,  died  at  the  age 
of  nineteen  years. 

Mr.  McSmith  has  always  been  a  stalwart  repub- 
lican since  casting  his.  first  presidential  ballot  for 
John  C.  Fremont.  He  has,  however,  never  as- 
pired to  office,  preferring  to  devote  his  time  and 
energies  to  his  business  interests,  though  for  five 
years  he  served  as  school  director.  He  now  owns 
and  occupies  a  good  tract  of  land  of  thirty  acres 
about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  north  of  Gran- 
ville, where  he  has  erected  a  neat  cottage  near  that 
of  his  son's.  He  belongs  to  the  Grand  Army 
post  at  Hennepin  antJ  takes  great  delight  in  meet- 
ing with  his  old  army  comrades.  He  has  always 
been  a  great  reader,  has  been  a  deep  thinker  and 
has  kept  well  informed  on  the  questions  of  the 
day,  both  current  and  political.  He  came  to  this 
country  in  pioneer  times,  and  the  story  of  his 
experiences  here  in  early  days  would  present  a 
very  complete  picture  of  conditions  that  at  that 
time  existed.  He  has  noted  with  interest  the 
progress  that  has  been  wrought  and  has  withheld 
his  co-operation  from  no  movement  calculated  to 
benefit  the  community.  He  has  now  passed  the 
seventy-second  milestone  on  life's  journey  and  his 
has  been  an  honorable  career,  characterized  by 
many  good  qualities  that  have  won  for  him  the 
friendly  regard  of  those  with  whom  he  has  been 
associated. 


NORTON  THOMPSON. 

Norton  Thompson,  a  retired  farmer  residing 
in  Lacon,  was  for  some  years  connected  with  the 
agricultural  interests  of  Marshall  county  and  his 
business  discernment,  enterprise  and  capable  man- 
agement were  the  factors  in  a  success  which  now 
enables  him  to  rest  without  further  recourse  to 
the  active  labor  of  the  fields.  He  was  born  on  the 
3d  of  February,  1836,  and  his  parents  were  Asa 
and  Nancy  Thompson.  The  father,  who  was  born 
in  Ohio,  devoted  his  entire  life  to  farming  and 
died  in  the  year  1885. 

Norton  Thompson,  the  only  son,  was  reared  un- 
der the  parental  roof  and  acquired  in  his  youth  a 
good  English  education  in  the  public  schools. 
Throughout  his  entire  business  career  he  followed 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


477 


the  occupation  to  which  he  was  reared,  having  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land,  which  he  brought 
under  a  high  state  of  cultivation.  He  carried  on 
his  farming  interests  in  accordance  with  the  most 
modern  and  progressive  methods,  utilized  thf>  lat- 
est improved  machinery  in  the  care  of  the  fields 
and  in  course  of  time  was  enabled  through  his 
diligence  and  enterprise  to  win  a  place  among 
the  substantial  residents  of  the  county,  having 
a  capital  sufficient  to  now  supply  him  with  all 
of  the  comforts  and  some  of  the  luxuries  of  life 
as  he  spends  the  evening  of  his  days  in  a  pleasant 
home  in  Lacon. 

Mr.  Thompson  married  Miss  Elizabeth  Hos- 
kins  and  unto  them  were  born  two  sons :  Graham 
La  Rose  and  Otis,  both  of  whom  are  following 
farming.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Thompson  traveled  life's 
journey  happily  together  for  many  years,  sharing 
with  each  other  in  the  joys  and  sorrows,  the  ad- 
versity and  prosperity  which  checker  the  lives 
of  all,  but  about  four  years  ago  they  were  sep- 
arated through  the  death  of  Mrs.  Thompson,  a 
most  estimable  lady  who  enjoyed  in  large  meas- 
ure the  esteem  and  kindly  regard  of  all  with 
whom  she  was  brought  in  contact.  She  was  a 
devoted  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  and  shaped  her  life  by  its  teachings. 

Mr.  Thompson  was  for  five  years  a  member 
of  an  Illinois  regiment  of  infantry  during  the 
Civil  war.  His  political  views  are  in  accord  with 
the  principles  of  the  republican  party  and  he  has 
always  kept  well  informed  on  questions  and  issues 
of  the  day,  so  that  he  has  been  enabled  to  sup- 
port his  political  position  by  intelligent  argu- 
ment. He  belongs  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
church,  and  his  life  has  been  honorable  and  up- 
right, characterized  by  the  utmost  fidelity  to  the 
teachings  of  the  denomination.  His  probity  in 
business,  his  fidelity  in  friendship  and  his  loyalty 
in  citizenship  combine  to  make  him  one  of  the 
prominent  and  representative  men  of  Lacon. 


JOSEPH  ETSCHEID. 

Joseph  Etscheid  has  departed  this  life,  leaving 
behind  a  record  of  an  honorable,  industrious  and 
upright  career.  All  who  knew  him  respected 
him  for  his  fidelity  to  honorable,  manly  princi- 
ples, and  he  left  to  his  family  the  priceless  heri- 
tage of  an  untarnished  name  as  well  as  a  goodly 
estate.  Born  in  Germany  on  the  27th  of  Feb- 


ruary, 1831,  he  came  to  America  in  1856,  when 
about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  made  his 
way  at  once  to  Peru,  Illinois,  and  later  to  Henne- 
pin,  where  he  began  earning  his  own  living  as  a 
laborer.  He  carried  brick  and  mortar  for  masons 
and  thus  earned  his  first  wages  in  the  new  world. 
After  a  few  months  he  came  to  Hennepin,  where 
he  was  employed  at  different  times  in  distilleries, 
on  boats  and  at  the  mason's  trade.  He  assisted 
in  the  building  of  the  corner  brick  store  and  the 
brick  schoolhouse,  both  of  which  are  still  stand- 
ing. After  a  few  years  residence  in  Hennepin, 
however,  he  and  his  wife  hired  out  to  work  on 
what  was  then  called  the  Fillinger  farm,  Mr. 
Etscheid  being  employed  in  the  fields,  while  his 
wife  did  the  housework.  They  there  remained 
for  two  or  three  years,  at  the  end  of  which  time 
his  employer  assisted  Mr.  Etscheid  in  obtaining  a 
team  and  tools,  after  which  he  rented  a  farm  near 
Hennepin,  where  he  lived  for  seven  years.  Dur- 
ing that  time  he  suffered  greatly  through  fire,  los- 
ing all  of  his  household  goods,  but,  undiscour- 
aged  by  this  disaster,  he  resolutely  set  to  work  to 
retrieve  his  lost  possessions.  In  1866  he  pur- 
chased a  farm  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  acres, 
upfco  which  he  afterward  made  his  home.  At  that 
time  there  was  upon  the  place  a  log  stable  and  a 
small  frame  dwelling.  A  little  clearing  had  been 
made,  but  the  work  of  cultivation  and  improvement 
had  scarcely  been  begun.  He  cleared  up  much 
of  the  land,  built  thereon  a  large  frame  house 
and  good  barns  and  outbuildings  and  continued 
the  work  of  improvement  and  development  as 
the  years  went  by  until  his  was  one  of  the  valu- 
able and  desirable  farm  properties  of  the  local- 
ity. All  this  represented  a  life  of  untiring  in- 
dustry and  perseverance — qualities  which  were 
salient  features  in  the  record  of  Mr.  Etscheid. 

In  1855,  before  leaving  the  fatherland,  Mr. 
Etscheid  was  married  to  Miss  Helen  Katrine  Cof- 
fee, who  proved  to  him  a  faithful  companion  and 
helpmate  on  life's  journey  for  about  eleven  years, 
but  who  died  July  3,  1866,  soon  after  they  located 
on  their  own  farm.  He  afterward  wedded  Mary 
Appel,  who  is  still  living  with  her  son  Peter  on 
the  old  homestead.  By  his  first  marriage  there 
were  two  children :  Margaret,  who  was  born  in 
1864,  became  the  wife  of  Valentine  Bogner  and 
lived  upon  a  farm  in  Whitefield  township,  Mar- 
shall county,  up  to  the  time  of  her  death,  which 
occurred  in  December,  1903.  She  left  five  chil- 


PAST  AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


dren.  The  other  member  of  the  family  was  Pe- 
ter Etscheid,  who  is  still  living  upon  the  old 
homestead  and  of  whom  further  mention  will  be 
made  later. 

The  father  was  always  a  most  industrious  work- 
er and  thus  he  advanced  from  a  humble  position 
to  one  of  wealth  and  affluence.  A  few  years  prior 
to  his  demise  he  removed  to  Henry,  Illinois,  where 
he  died  on  the  19th  of  October,  1900.  He  had 
been  in  failing  health  for  about  a  year,  but  was 
thought  to  be  improving,  and  his  death  came  as 
a  great  surprise  to  all,  and  was  the  occasion  of 
widespread  regret,  for  he  had  many  friends  in 
this  part  of  the  state.  His  remains  were  laid  to 
rest  in  the  family  cemetery  in  Hennepin.  He  was 
a  man  of  rather  retiring  disposition,  entirely 
free  from  ostentation  or  display.  He  was,  how- 
ever, always  courteous  and  wa*  respected  and 
liked  by  all  who  know  him.  He  was  a  lifelong 
communicant  of  the  Catholic  church  and  he  gave 
his  political  allegiance  to  the  democratic  party. 
For  nineteen  years  he  filled  the  office  of  road 
commissioner  and  held  other  local  positions,  al- 
though he  was  not  a  politician  in  the  sense  of 
office  seeking.  The  offices  came  to  him  unsought, 
but  when  his  fellow  townsmen  thus  manifested 
their  desire  that  he  should  serve  them  in  some 
public  position  he  always  discharged  his  duties 
witli  promptness  and  fidelitv.  At  the  time  of  his 
death  his  estate  consisted  of  sevp.u  hundred  and 
eight  acres  of  good  land  and  his  residence  in 
Henry,  all  of  which  was  a  monument  to  his  life 
of  industry  and  thrift.  He  certainly  deserves 
great  credit  for  what  he  accomplished,  for  he 
came  to  America  empty  handed,  possessing  only 
strong  determination  and  enterprise  to  aid  him 
in  his  struggle  to  secure  a  good  home  and  coi^ 
fortable  living  for  his  family.  In  this  country, 
where  labor  is  unhampered  by  caste  or  class,  he 
succeeded  beyond  his  expectations  and  his  life 
record  should  serve  as  a  source  of  inspiration  and 
encouragement  to  others,  showing  what  may  be 
accomplished. 

Peter  Etscheid,  the  surviving  son  of  the  fam- 
ily, was  born  February  14,  1866,  and  still  occu- 
pies the  old  homestead.  He  was  reared  upon  the 
farm  and  was  educated  in  the  country  schools 
and  in  Hennepin.  At  the  age  of  twenty 
years  he  engaged  in  farming  on  his  own  account 
near  Hennepin,  where  he  lived  for  about  three 
years.  On  the  expiration  of  that  period  he  went 


to  Missouri,  where  he  followed  farming  for  two 
years,  after  which  he  returned  to  Putnam  county 
and  located  on  the  old  homestead  farm,  where  he 
has  since  resided.  After  his  father's  death  he 
came  into  possession  of  this  property  and  has 
since  carried  on  the  work  of  improvement  and  de- 
velopment instituted  by  Joseph  Etscheid. 

On  the  14th  of  February,  1899,  was  celebrated 
the  marriage  of  Peter  Etscheid  and  Miss  Lizzie 
Colby,  who  was  born  in  Putnam  county,  Illinois, 
August  22,  1877,  a  daughter  of  August  and  Min- 
nie Colby.  She  died  of  typhoid  fever  in  Decem- 
ber, 1904.  One  child  had  passed  away  prior  to 
the  mother's  death  and  a  son,  Joseph,  aged  five 
years,  and  Frank,  who  is  a  son  by  a  former  mar- 
riage, survive  and  are  at  home  with  their  father. 

Peter  Etscheid  is  one  of  the  prosperous  young 
farmers  of  the  county  and  in  addition  to  carry- 
ing on  the  work  of  tilling  the  soil  he  deals  ex- 
tensively in  cattle,  buying  and  shipping  through- 
out the  year.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Catholic 
church  of  Hennepin  and  he  gives  his  political  alle- 
giance to  the  democracy.  For  nine  years  he  has 
served  as  road  commissioner  and  is  the  present 
incumbent  in  that  office.  He  has  also  acted  as 
school  director  and  school  treasurer  for  several 
years  and  he  manifests  a  public-spirited  interest 
in  everything  pertaining  to  the  welfare  and  im- 
provement of  the  county.  Like  his  father,  he  is 
regarded  as  one  of  the  leading  agriculturists  of 
the  community  and  has  made  a  creditable  record 
in  the  management  of  his  farming  interests. 


TIMOTHY  WOOD. 

Timothy  Wood,  who  died  on  his  farm  on  section 
32,  Senachwine  township,  December  20,  1905,  was 
one  of  the  old  and  honored  pioneer  residents  of 
Putnam  county  and  prospered  in  his  undertakings 
as  the  years  went  by.  He  was  largely  engaged 
in  trapping,  hunting  and  fishing  in  an  early  day 
and  found  therein  a  profitable  source  of  income 
which  enabled  him  to  make  judicious  investments 
in  property,  so  that  he  left  an  estate  of  about 
eleven  forty-acre  tracts  of  land,  much  of  it  lying 
in  the  districts  surrounding  Lake  Senachwine. 

His  life  history  began  September  22,  1817,  in 
the  town  of  Ellisburg,  Jefferson  county,  New  York, 
he  being  the  second  son  of  James  and  Barbara 
Wood,  whose  family  numbered  thirteen  children, 
six  of  whom  are  yet  living.  His  father  having 


TIMOTHY  WOOD. 


MHS.  TIMOTHY  WOOD. 


PAST   AND   PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


483 


given  him  his  time,  he  started  out  in  life  on  his 
own  account  at  an  early  age  and  entered  the  em- 
ploy of  John  Fish,  his  duty  being  to  hoe,  to  ride 
the  horse  used  in  plowing  the  corn  and  to  do 
chores  and  other  work  on  the  farm,  receiving  in 
compensation  for  his  services  a  wage  of  six  dol- 
lars per  month.  In  the  fall  he  took  his  wages  in 
sheep  at  one  dollar  per  head  for  the  old  ones 
and  seventy-five  cents  for  the  lambs.  In  early 
manhood  he  also  spent  considerable  time  in  hunt- 
ing, as  had  his  father  before  him,  for  New  York 
was  then  a  comparatively  new  state  and  there  was 
considerable  game  there.  He  had  often  gone  on 
trips  with  his  father  to  his  traps  and  to  shoot 
ducks,  and  after  leaving  the  employ  of  Mr.  Fish 
Timothy  Wood  began  trapping  in  the  fall  and 
winter  for  himself. 

The  following  spring,  on  the  General  Houston, 
he  secured  a  position  as  cook  at  a  salary  of  four- 
teen dollars  per  month  and  late  in  the  summer  he 
bought  a  little  vessel  or  sloop  called  the  Dolphin 
and  carried  on  the  business  of  buying  and  selling 
fruit.  Subsequently  he  sailed  for  six  or  seven 
years  on  different  vessels  and  about  the  expiration 
of  that  period,  in  connection  with  his  brother, 
Epenateus  Wood,  he  bought  the  schooner,  H. 
Emery,  of  Sandy  Creek,  New  York.  They  did  a 
general  traffic  with  that  boat,  but  sold  it  in  the 
succeeding  fall  and  Timothy  Wood  then  went  on 
the  Troy  and  Erie  canal  for  one  season  as  bows- 
man  at  fifteen  dollars  per  month.  Later  he  spent 
considerable  time  at  Elli&burg,  his  old  home. 

While  there  Mr.  Wood  was  married  to  Fannie 
Garrett,  January  19,  1839,  and  for  four  years 
they  resided  on  a  farm  which  they  purchased  in 
Jefferson  county.  There  the  wife  died  July  17, 
1843,  and  their  two  children,  a  son  and  daughter, 
both  died  in  early  youth. 

Mr.  Wood  then  sold  his  farm  to  his  father  and 
on  the  10th  of  September,  1843,  started  from 
Oswego,  New  York,  on  a  propeller  around  the 
Great  Lakes,  arriving  at  Chicago  about  September 
25,  1843,  co\  tring  the  entire  distance — over  four- 
teen hundred  miles — by  water.  The  present  me- 
tropolis was  then  a  small  hamlet  with  a  few  log 
houses  and  an  old  fort,  and  there  was  a  corduroy 
bridge  over  the  Chicago  river.  The  succeeding 
morning  he  arranged  to  ride  with  a  teamster  to 
Belvidere  on  the  Kiswaukee  river  and  on  reaching 
his  destination  he  began  trapping,  in  which  he  did 
well.  Later  he  and  his  cousin,  John  Bruce,  went 


to  Pictakee  lake  by  wagon  and  spent  the  night  in 
an  incompleted  log  cabin.  About  two  inches  of 
snow  fell  that  night  and  in  the  morning  Mr.  Wood 
told  his  companion  that  if  he  would  get  breakfast 
he  (Wood)  would  look  around  to  see  if  he  could 
find  some  deer  tracks.  He  soon  discovered  a 
couple  and,  following  them  up,  at  length  shot  and 
killed  the  deer.  The  shot  startled  another  lying 
near  by  and  Mr.  Wood  also  killed  that.  After 
about  a  month  his  companion,  Mr.  Bruce,  returned 
to  Belvidere  but  Mr.  Wood  remained,  trapping  and 
hunting  in  that  district,  taking  his  furs  to  Chi- 
cago to  sell.  He  made  four  or  five  trips  with  furs 
and  deer  skins  and  after  having  met  a  fair  meas- 
ure of  success  in  this  he  started  on  a  return  trip 
to  his  old  home  in  New  York,  April  15,  1844, 
again  making  the  journey  by  water.  In  the  suc- 
ceeding fall  he  and  an  old  friend  and  partner, 
Nelson  Gilbert,  fitted  out  for  another  trip  to  the 
west,  starting  on  the  1st  of  September,  1844.  It 
was  a  rough  passage  but  at  length  they  landed 
at  Little  Fort  about  the  last  of  September,  after 
which  they  hired  a  team  to  take  them  and  their 
boats  and  outfit  to  Fox  river  in  Lake  county,  Illi- 
nois. They  encamped  between  Pistakee  lake  and 
Big  Rice  lake  and  hunted  and  trapped  through- 
out this  lake  region,  and  they  spent  the  winter 
on  the  claim  of  the  Powell  brothers,  and  in  Janu- 
ary Mr.  Wood  and  his  partner  took  their  furs 
to  Chicago.  They  again  returned  by  water  to 
New  York,  where  Mr.  Wood  spent  the  summer 
and  once  more  in  the  fall  started  for  Illinois, 
reaching  Chicago  September  10,  1845. 

As  time  passed  and  the  country  became  settled 
the  greater  part  of  the  land  was  being  taken  up  for 
homesteads  and  the  timber  was  being  cleared  off. 
He  continued  the  work  of  trapping  and  hunting, 
building  a  cabin  on  the  banks  of  Fox  river,  and 
again  he  succeeded  in  getting  a  large  number  of 
furs,  although  at  different  times  his  traps  were 
stolen  by  Indians,  who  were  numerous  around 
the  lakes.  He  also  carried  his  effects  into  the 
southern  part  of  Wisconsin,  which  at  that  time 
was  not  very  largely  inhabited  by  the  white  peo- 
ple. He  trapped  and  bought  fur  from  the  In- 
dians, remaining  in  that  locality  until  the  spring, 
when  he  again  sold  his  furs  in  Chicago  and  once 
more  started  for  New  York. 

After  remaining  a  part  of  the  summer  in  his  old 
home  Mr.  Wood  met  and  married  Lois  A.  Blan- 
chard,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Salma  and  Belinda 


484 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Blanchard,  of  Vermont,  who  had  removed  to 
New  York  at  an  early  day.  Mr.  Wood  had  been 
acquainted  with  his  wife  from  her  early  girlhood. 
Eight  children  were  born  of  this  marriage:  Mrs. 
Emily  Horner,  who  is  now  a  widow  and  resides  in 
Henry,  Illinois;  James  T.,  who  died  when  four 
years  old ;  Alice,  who  became  the  wife  of  Emory 
Smith,  who  resided  near  Henry,  while  her  death 
occurred  in  1905;  Frank,  who  is  proprietor  of  a 
club  house  on  the  lake  and  owns  a  third  interest 
in  the  Wood  estate;  Bert,  who  died  at  the  age  of 
three  years :  Timothy,  who  is  living  in  Oklahoma, 
where  he  owns  a  large  farm ;  Clara,  who  died  at 
the  age  of  twenty  months;  and  Charles,  who  is  now 
living  on  the  old  family  homestead,  and  owns 
a  one-third  interest  in  the  Wood  estate. 

After  his  second  marriage  Mr.  Wood  started 
with  his  bride  for  the  west  on  the  2d  of  Septem- 
ber, 1848,  on  the  propeller  New  York.  On  the 
way  the  vessel  stopped  at  Freeport,  Ohio,  where  Mr. 
Wood  purchased  twelve  barrels  of  apples  at  sev- 
enty-five cents  per  barrel,  which  he  sold  in  Mil- 
waukee for  three  dollars  per  barrel.  They  landed 
at  Little  Fort,  September  25,  1848,  and  they 
made  their  way  to  the  home  of  Ting  Potters,  a 
a  friend  of  Mrs.  Wood.  Having  his  wife  here. 
Mr.  Wood  made  a  permanent  settlement  in  Illi- 
nois, locating  in  the  lake  region.  There  were 
many  geese  and  wild  ducks  around  the  lake.  In 
fact  they  made  so  much  noise  that  Mr.  Wood  and 
his  wife  could  hardly  sleep.  After  living  in  the 
lake  country  for  two  years,  during  which  time 
lie  was  engaged  in  hunting  and  trapping,  they 
removed  to  a  place  on  the  Fox  river  and  again 
engaged  in  trapping  and  buying  furs.  The  quan- 
tity of  game  to  be  had  at  that  time  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  during  the  winter  and  spring  he 
caught  two  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety-six 
muskrats  and  three  hundred  minks  and  coons, 
also  buying  a  good  many,  and  once  more  he  sold 
kis  furs  in  the  spring.  For  some  time  he  con- 
tinued the  work  of  hunting  and  trapping  in  the 
winter  time  and  in  the  spring  and  summer  hunted 
ducks,  geese,  prairie  chickens  and  quails,  which 
were  sent  to  the  Chicago  market.  As  the  supply 
of  game  became  somewhat  exhausted  in  one  lo- 
cality he  would  remove  to  another  and  for  about 
four  years  he  lived  in  Aurora.  On  the  expira- 
tion of  that  period  he  bought  a  house  and  seventy 
acres  of  land  at  Piano,  Illinois,  where  he  resided 
for  two  years  and  during  that  period  Mr.  AVood 


came  south  into  Putnam  county,  where  he  arrived 
in  October,  1852.  There  was  still  plenty  of  game 
in  this  locality.  Hardly  had  be  arrived  before 
Mr.  Wood  sighted  a  deer  which  he  killed.  He 
and  his  companion  hunted  and  trapped,  selling 
their  game  to  the  steamboats  which  were  then  com- 
ing down  the  river.  In  the  winter  he  returned 
to  Piano,  where  again  he  shot  game  which  he 
shipped  by  stage  to  Chicago.  In  the  fall  of  1853, 
however,  he  again  came  south  to  Putnam  county 
with  his  brother-in-law,  Thomas  Blanchard,  and 
a  Mr.  Beecher,  and  the  winter  was  spent  in  trap- 
ping and  hunting,  again  selling  their  game  to  the 
steamboats.  The  next  day  after  their  arrival  Mr. 
Wood  and  his  brother-in-law  concluded  to  visit 
the  lakes  on  the  west  side  of  the  river  and  rowed 
down  the  stream  to  Senachwine  creek  and  up  the 
creek,  coming  to  Swan  lake  and  to  Mud  lake.  In 
this  part  of  the  county  they  found  ample  oppor- 
tunity to  carry  on  business  and  thus  the  summer 
and  winter  passed.  In  the  succeeding  spring,  sell- 
ing his  farm  at  Piano,  Mr.  Wood  moved  his  fam- 
ily to  Putnam  count}'.  The  railroad  had  just  been 
completed  to  Peoria  and  they  traveled  by  train 
to  Henry,  which  at  that  time  contained  only  a  few 
houses,  a  hotel  and  several  stores.  He  was  now 
at  home  among  the  deer  and  wild  turkeys  and 
furs  were  also  to  be  had  in  abundance,  so  that 
he  did  well  in  hunting  and  trapping  until  the 
river  and  lakes  froze  over.  He  was  then  induced 
by  Mr.  Sparling,  also  a  pioneer  resident,  to  join 
him  in  fishing  business,  and  he  and  his  family, 
in  the  fall  of  1857,  took  possession  of  a  little 
cabin  on  the  bluff  overlooking  what  is  now  the 
pleasure  resort  called  Walnut  Grove.  Mr.  Wood 
took  charge  of  the  fishing  business  for  Mr.  Spar- 
ling and  at  the  same  time  improved  the  advan- 
tageous opportunities  for  buying  up  land  around 
the  lakes.  After  living  on  Mr.  Sparling's  place  for 
four  years  he  bought  a  farm  about  mile  south,  on 
which  he  built  a  house  and  barn,  the  family  taking 
up  their  abode  there  in  the  fall  of  1861,  although 
he  continued  with  Mr.  Sparling  in  the  fishing  busi- 
ness for  about  thirty  years.  From  time  to  time 
he  purchased  more  land  in  the  vicinity  of  Senach- 
wine and  adjacent  lakes,  owning  in  addition  to 
his  homestead  about  six  hundred  and  forty  acres. 
About  this  time  the  dam  was  put  in  at  Henry  by 
the  government,  which  raised  the  water  and 
flooded  six  hundred  and  forty  acres  of  land  be- 
longing to  Mr.  Wood  and  also  other  land  around 


PAST    AND    1'UKSKXT    <>[•     MAKS1IAI.I.    AND    1TT.NAM    COC  XTI KS. 


485 


the  lakes.  A  law  suit  was  instituted  with  the 
result  that  the  government  sent  two  members  of 
the  house  and  three  from  the  senate  to  investigate 
the  amount  of  damage  done  and  appraised  Mr. 
Wood's  damage  at  six  thousand  six  hundred  and 
seventy  dollars,  but  the  lawyer  who  had  the  mat- 
ter in  charge  died  about  that  time  and  the  one 
who  then  took  up  the  claim  compromised  for 
eight  hundred  and  eighty  dollars.  Mr.  Wood, 
however,  continued  owner  of  all  of  his  land  and 
carried  on  his  hunting  and  trapping.  In  time 
this  region,  rich  with  game,  began  to  attract 
sportsmen  to  it  and  in  July,  1885,  two  gentlemen 
of  Chicago  negotiated  with  Mr.  Wood  for  a  site 
to  build  a  club  house  and  boat  house  for  a  shoot- 
ing club  known  as  the  Swan  Lake  Club.  Mr. 
Wood  leased  them  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
feet  back  from  the  face  of  the  bluff  and  between 
two  roads,  also  a  place  for  boat  and  ice  houses. 
From  this  there  has  been  derived  a  good  income 
continuously  since.  Mr.  Wood  was  paid  two  shares 
in  the  club  and  was  to  have  all  the  hay,  pasture, 
fur-bearing  animals  and  fishing  over  all  the  lands 
owned,  leased  or  controlled  by  the  club  for  the 
term  of  ninety-nine  years.  In  addition  to  this 
property  Mr.  Wood  continued  owner  of  four  hun- 
dred and  forty-five  acres  of  land  which  he  leased 
for  fishing  purposes,  receiving  therefrom  three 
hundred  dollars  per  year.  He  still  continuel  to 
buy  fur  and  had  men  trapping  for  him,  and  in 
the  winter  of  1896  he  handled  about  ten  thousand 
furs.  No  man  has  been  more  closely  connected 
with  the  business  of  trapping  and  hunting  in 
Illinois  than  Mr.  Wood,  who  continued  therein 
throughout  his  life.  He  started  out  for  himself 
when  but  a  mere  boy,  taking  up  his  first  small 
wages  in  sheep  and  letting  them  out  to  double  in 
four  years,  showing  business  qualities  which  have 
constantly  been  developed,  bringing  him  a  meas- 
ure of  success  until  he  became  owner  or  was  in- 
terested in  nearly  six  thousand  acres  of  fishing 
and  hunting  property.  At  the  time  of  his  de- 
mise he  owned  eleven  tracts  of  land  of  five  thou- 
sand acres  surrounding  Lake  Senachwine  and 
this  brought  to  him  and  still  yields  to  his  family 
a  splendid  income.  No  man  was  more  closely 
associated  with  Illinois  in  pioneer  times  than 
Timothy  Wood,  who  has  hunted  and  trapped  all 
over  the  central  and  northern  sections  of  the 
state  in  its  lake  regions  when  scarcely  a  cabin  had 
been  built  in  the  district  and  when  the  Indians 


were  still  numerous.  As  the  larger  game  was 
no  longer  found  in  the  district  he  concentrated 
his  attention  upon  hunting  and  trapping  those 
animals  which  are  valuable  on  account  of  the 
fur  and  later  he  found  great  profit  in  leasing  his 
land  for  hunting  and  fishing  purposes  to  those 
who  delight  in  those  sports. 

Charles  A.  Wood,  now  residing  upon  the  old 
homestead,  was  here  born  November  5,  1857.  He 
pursued  his  education  in  the  district  schools  and 
also  in  the  German  school  at  Henry  and  through- 
out his  entire  life  has  resided  upon  the  home 
farm.  On  the  22d  of  December,  1894,  Mr.  Wood 
was  married  to  Miss  Mary  M.  Anderson,  of 
Whitefield  township,  Marshall  county,  and  they 
have  five  children. 

Charles  A.  Wood  is  a  most  energetic,  enter- 
prising farmer  and  he  was  appointed  administra- 
tor of  his  father's  estate.  His  father's  land  was 
leased  to  the  Swan  Lake  Chib  for  a  period  of 
years  and  beside  the  yearly  rental  the  family  have 
the  use  of  about  four  thousand  acres  of  land  be- 
longing to  the  club.  They  use  it  for  pasture  and 
hay  land  and  Charles  A.  Wood,  in  partnership 
with  George  E.  Sparling,  owns  a  ferry  on  the 
lake,  connecting  the  island  and  land  on  the  east 
side  with  the  main  land.  From  this  he  derives 
a  goodly  income.  Like  his  father,  he  is  a  demo- 
crat in  his  political  views  and  affiliation  and  has 
served  as  school  director  but  has  never  aspired  to 
other  offices. 


KOBEllT  McDONOUGH. 

Bobert  McDonough,  deceased,  who  for  many 
years  devoted  his  life  to  general  agricultural  pur- 
suits, was  a  native  of  Washington  county,  Penn- 
.  sylvania,  born  in  1832.  His  father,  Henry  Mc- 
Donough, was  likewise  born  in  Pennsylvania  and 
was  a  Scotch  lineage.  The  grandfather  of  our 
subject  was  a  soldier  of  the  Eevolutionary  war, 
valiantly  aiding  the  colonists  in  their  struggle 
for  independence.  Henry  McDonough  became  a 
farmer  by  occupation  and  was  a  good"  bxisiness 
man.  His  wife,  Margaret,  was  also  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania  and  they  became  the  parents  of 
nine  children,  of  whom  two  sisters  are  now  living 
in  Iowa,  but  the  others  have  passed  away. 

Eobert  McDonough  acquired  his  education  in 
the  common  schools  of  his  native  county,  was 
reared  to  farm  life  and  always  carried  on  general 
agricultural  pursuits.  Leaving  the  east  in  1856, 


486 


PAST  AND  PBESENT   OF   MAESHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


when  a  young  man  of  twenty-four  years,  he  locat- 
ed in  Saratoga  township,  Marshall  county,  and 
became  a  prosperous  farmer.  As  the  years  passed 
he  added  to  his  possessions,  and  at  his  death  left 
two  valuable  quarter  sections  of  land  in  Saratoga 
township.  He  had  retired  from  the  active  work  of 
the  farm  in  1878  and  had  removed  to  Henry, 
where  he  lived  until  his  death,  which  occurred  on 
the  4th  of  June,  1906.  He  was  then  seventy-four 
years  of  age  and  his  had  been  an  honorable  and 
active  career,  in  which  prosperity  had  been  gained 
through  diligence,  perseverance  and  business  in- 
tegrity. He  was  very  conscientious  in  all  his 
dealings  and  was  never  known  to  take  advantage 
of  the  necessities  of  his  fellowmen  in  any  trade 
transaction. 

In  1859  Mr.  McDonough  was  married  to  Miss 
Mary  D.  Jones,  who  was  born  in  Washington 
county,  Pennsylvania,  in  1842,  a  daughter  of 
William  and  Margaret  Jones,  who  came  to  Illi- 
nois and  located  in  Saratoga  township,  Marshall 
county,  in  1854.  They  were  valuable  pioneer 
residents  of  that  locality  and  there  they  reared 
their  family  of  three  children:  Emma  J.,  who 
became  the  wife  of  David  McDonough,  and  after 
his  death  married  Charles  Beardsley;  Mrs.  Rob- 
ert  McDonough;  and  James  T.,  who  is  a  ranch- 
man in  Nebraska. 

Unto  our  subject  and  his  wife  was  born  a 
daughter,  Jennie,  who  died  in  1881  in  her  nine- 
teenth year,  her  loss  being  the  occasion  of  deep 
and  widespread  regret  to  her  many  friends  as 
well  as  to  her  parents.  Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Mc- 
Donough held  membership  in  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal church  and  were  .  interested  in  its  work 
and  growth.  In  politics  he  was  an  unfaltering 
republican  and  he  held  several  township  offices, 
while  in  Henry  he  served  as  a  member  of  the  city 
council.  His  interest  in  public  affairs  was  often 
manifest  in  tangible  ways  and  his  influence  in  be- 
half of  general  improvement  was  far-reaching  and 
beneficial.  He  stood  very  high  in  the  esteem  of 
his  neighbors  and  friends,  and  left  behind  him  an 
untarnished  name. 

JACOB    SUCHER. 

Nature  seems  to  have  intended  that  man  should 
enjoy  a  period  of  rest  in  the  evening  of  life.  In 
early  years  he  possesses  strong  hope,  laudable  am- 
bition and  almost  limitless  energy.  In  later 
years  his  labors  are  guided  with  the  strength  that 


comes  through  experience  and  superior  judgment, 
and  if  he  follows  a  course  which  the  world  recog- 
nizes as  leading  to  honorable  success  he  can 
achieve  a  measure  of  prosperity  which  will  in  his 
declining  days  permit  him  to  put  aside  the  ardu- 
ous cares  and  responsibilities  of  a  business  life. 
Such  a  course  has  Jacob  Sucher  followed  and  is 
now  living  retired  in  the  village  of  Granville.  His 
birth  ocurred  on  the  6th  of  March,  1829,  in  the 
village  of  Lopsann,  Alsace,  France,  now  a  part  of 
Germany,  and  in  1845,  when  a  youth  of  sixteen 
years,  he  came  to  America  in  company  with  his 
parents,  George  B.  and  Margaret  (Knopf)  Sucher, 
who  already  had  two  sons  and  a  daughter  in  the 
new  world.  The  former  had  located  in  Dupage 
county,  Illinois,  about  eighteen  miles  from  Chi- 
cago, and  there  the  parents  also  settled,  the  father 
purchasing  a  farm  on  which  he  resided  until  his 
death. 

In  his  native  country  Jacob  Sucher  had  ac- 
quired a  fair  education,  and  in  the  new  world  he 
assisted  his  father  in  the  operation  of  the  home 
farm  until  about  ten  years  prior  to  the  father's 
death,  when  he  took  charge  of  the  farm,  continu- 
ing its  operation  until  after  the  father's  demise, 
when  in  1855  he  sold  the  property  and  removed 
to  Putnam  country,  where  his  wife's  parents  were 
living.  He  had  been  married  on  the  15th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1850,  to  Miss  Catherine  Krebs,  who  at 
that  time  was  visiting  in  Dupage  county.  She, 
too,  was  born  in  the  fatherland,  her  parents  being 
Jacob  and  Sophia  (Bender)  Krebs,  who  lived  upon 
a  farm  near  the  Rhine,  in  Alsace,  and  who  crossed 
the  Atlantic  in  1847,  at  which  time  they  estab- 
lished their  home  upon  a  farm  in  Putnam  county 
about  a  half  mile  southeast  of  Granville,  on  sec- 
tion 10,  Granville  township.  There  they  re- 
mained for  a  long  period,  and  when  well  advanced 
in  years  took  up  their  abode  in  Tonica,  where  the 
father  died  August  26,  1875,  the  mother  surviving 
him  for  six  months.  Their  family  numbered 
three  daughters :  Mrs.  Sucher ;  Salome,  the  wife 
of  Henry  Kammermeyer,  of  Peru,  Illinois;  and 
Caroline,  the  widow  of  Fred  Knopf,  and  a  resi- 
dent of  Pontiac,  this  state.  On  coming  to  the 
United  States  Mr.  Krebs  brought  with  him  five 
thousand  francs  in  his  trunk  in  the  hold  of  the 
vessel,  and  he  paid  for  his  land  in  five  franc 
pieces,  carrying  the  money  in  a  sack  on  his  back 
to  the  courthouse  in  Hennepin. 

Removing  to  this  county,  Mr.  Sucher  purchased 


PAST   AND    PKESENT    OF   MABSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


487 


an  eighty-acre  farm  and  subsequently  bought  one 
hundred  and  sixty  acres.  His  property  lies  in 
Granville  township,  where  for  more  than  two  de- 
cades he  actively  and  successfuly  carried  on  general 
farming,  but  since  1878  he  has  lived  retired,  hav- 
ing purchased  a  house  and  seven  acres  of  land  in 
the  village  of  Granville,  while  his  sons  carry  on 
the  work  of  the  farm.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sucher 
have  been  born  seven  children,  of  whom  six  are 
living:  Mary,  who  is  the  widow  of  Fred  Bender, 
a  resident  of  Earlville,  Illinois ;  Frederick  W., 
who  is  upon  the  home  farm;  Jacob,  who  was  for- 
merly a  farmer  in  Granville  township  and  after- 
ward lived  in  Peoria,  Illinois,  but  is  now  located 
in  California;  Anna,  the  wife  of  William  Hen- 
shaw,  of  Peru,  Illinois ;  Lewis,  who  died  in  child- 
hood; George,  who  is  assistant  city  attorney  at 
Peoria,  Illinois,  and  is  a  graduate  of  Knox  college, 
at  Galesburg,  after  which  he  taught  for  two  years 
in  Auburn,  Illinois,  before  being  admitted  to  the 
bar;  and  Caroline,  who  is  the  wife  of  Dr.  Joyn- 
son  and  is  living  in  Granville. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sucher  were  reared  in  the  Lu- 
theran church,  but  are  quite  liberal  in  religious 
belief.  Both  have  many  friends  in  the  county 
and  the  hospitality  of  the  best  homes  is  always 
accorded  them.  Mr.  Sucher  votes  with  the  democ- 
racy, yet  has  ever  been  without  political  aspira- 
tion. He  preferred  during  his  active  business  life 
to  concentrate  his  energies  upon  his  farming  in- 
terests, which,  being  carefully  managed,  brought 
to  him  a  measure  of  prosperity  that  has  made  him 
one  of  the  substantial  citizens  of  Granville.  His 
life  should  serve  as  a  source  of  inspiration  and 
encouragement  to  others,  showing  what  may  be 
accomplished  by  determined  and  earnest  purpose. 


J.  0.  WINSHIP. 

J.  0.  Winship  has  devoted  his  entire  life  to 
farming,  the  occupation  to  which  he  was  reared, 
and  has  found  in  this  work  ample  opportunity  for 
the  exercise  of  industry  and  perseverence — his  sal- 
ient characteristics.  He  resides  on  section  23, 
Senachwine  township,  and  it  was  here,  at  the  home 
of  his  grandparents,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Phillip  Beat?, 
that  he  was  born,  his  mother  staying  with  her 
parents  while  her  husband,  James  M.  Winship. 
was  absent  on  a  trip  to  California.  Further  men- 
tion of  the  parents  is  made  upon  another  page 
of  this  work. 

The  natal  day  of  our  subject  was  July  21,  1852. 


He  spent  his  boyhood  upon  a  farm  in  Bureau 
county  until  he  reached  the  age  of  sixteen  years, 
and  his  education  was  acquired  in  the  district 
schools  near  his  home,  and  by  one  year's  attend- 
ance at  the  high  school  at  Princton.  He  early 
became  familiar  with  the  work  of  plowing,  plant- 
ing and  harvesting,  and  continued  to  aid  in  the 
operation  of  the  home  farm  until  twenty-six  years 
of  age,  when  he  purchased  two  hundred  acres  of 
land,  where  he  now  resides.  It  was  then  known 
as  the  Ike  Wilson  farm  and  the  place  was  in  a 
run-down  condition.  The  fences  were  in  a  poor 
state  of  repair  and  the  house  was  unfit  to  live  in, 
but  Mr.  Winship's  discernment  was  keen  enough 
to  know  that  the  farm  could  be  made  a  good  one 
and  he  resolutely  undertook  the  task  of  bringing 
it  up  to  its  present  high  state  of  cultivation  and 
improvement.  He  has  placed  many  hundred  dol- 
lars' worth  of  tile  upon  it  and  the  drainage  has 
greatly  enhanced  its  productiveness.  He  has  also 
erected  a  large  frame  residence  and  commodious 
and  substantial  outbuildings  that  furnish  ample 
shelter  for  grain  and  stock.  He  has  one  of  the 
best  farms  in  the  township,  lacking  in  none  of 
the  equipments  and  accessories  of  farm  life  in 
the  twentieth  century.  He  gives  special  attention 
to  the  raising  of  grain  and  the  improvement  of 
seed  corn,  and  in  this  follows  the  methods  brought 
about  by  scientific  investigation  and  practical  ex- 
perience. There  is  no  better  corn  country  in  all 
America  than  is  found  in  this  section  of  Illinos. 
Soil  and  climatic  conditions  are  everything  that 
is  needed  and  with  proper  rain  and  warm  sun- 
shine the  corn  has  ample  opportunity  to  ripen  be- 
fore the  frosts.  Statistics  show  that  no  better 
corn  is  produced  in  all  of  the  world  than  is  raised 
in  this  section  of  Illinois.  By  careful  selection  of 
the  best  ears  of  corn  from  strong  stalks,  Mr.  Win- 
ship  has  improved  his  corn  to  a  great  extent  and 
last  year  his  crop  yielded  eighty-five  bushels  per 
acre. 

Mr.  Winship  was  married  in  1878  to  Miss  Mary 
Frances  Downey,  a  native  of  Peoria  county.  They 
have  six  children,  all  of  whom  are  living:  Walter 
W.,  who  married  Miss  Minnie  Putcamp,  of  Prince- 
ton, and  lives  in  Senachwine  township ;  Grace  E., 
who  is  the  wife  of  George  Hughes  and  resides  at 
Park  Eapids,  Minnesota;  Ina  Gertrude,  who  is 
now  completing  the  four  years'  course  in  music  at 
Oberlin,  Ohio ;  J.  Ivan  F.,  at  home ;  Amelia ;  and 
Hazel  Ethel. 


488 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


Mr.  Wiiiship  and  his  family  are  members  of  the 
Christian  church,  in  the  work  of  which  they  take 
an  active  and  helpful  part,  contributing  generous- 
ly to  the  support  of  the  church  and  doing  every- 
thing in  their  power  to  promote  its  growth  and 
extend  its  influence.  His  political  allegiance  is 
given  to  the  republican  party  and  for  fifteen  years 
he  has  served  as  road  commissioner  and  for  a  sim- 
ilar period  has  been  township  school  treasurer. 
Those  things  which  constitute  public  life  in  the 
community  are  of  interest  to  him,  and  his  labors 
have  been  Affective  and  far-reaching  in  promoting 
the  general  welfare  along  material,  intellectual 
and  moral  lines.  He  has  a  fine  collection  of  In- 
dian relics  and  is  greatly  interested  in  the  study 
of  ethnology  as  represented  by  the  Indian  race. 
In  his  business  life  he  has  been  found  thoroughly 
reliable  as  well  as  industrious,  he  never  being 
known  to  take  advantage  of  another  in  any  busi- 
ness transaction. 


CHARLES   N.  NASH. 

Charles  N.  Nash,  a  prosperous  and  worthy 
farmer  residing  on  section  35,  Hennepin  town- 
ship, was  born  November  17,  1859,  on  the  old 
family  homestead  about  a  mile  east  of  where  he 
now  lives.  The  Nash  family  trace  their  geneal- 
ogy back  to  a  very  early  date  and  have  in  book 
form,  the  ancestral  record  through  many  genera- 
tions. The  subject  of  this  review  is  the  eldest 
child  of  Martin  Nash,  who  was  born  in  Morgan 
county,  Illinois,  in  1830,  and  who  in  1835  was 
brought  to  Putnam  county  by  his  father,  Stephen 
Nash,  so  that  the  family  became  identified  with 
the  interests  of  this  portion  of  the  state  in  early 
pioneer  times.  Martin  Nash  was  reared  amid  the 
wild  scenes  and  environments  of  frontier  life, 
spending  his  youth  upon  his  father's  farm.  His 
educational  privileges  were  little  superior  to  those 
afforded  by  the  ordinary  common  school  of  the 
early  day,  but  by  reading  and  observation,  he 
greatly  broadened  his  knowledge,  becoming  a  well 
informed  man.  He  devoted  his  life  to  farming 
and  for  many  years  lived  in  a  log  house,  but  the 
years  chronicled  his  progress  in  a  business  way, 
owing  to  his  untiring  industry  and  capable  man- 
agement. He  left  an  estate  of  over  three  hundred 
acres  of  valuable  land,  all  of  which  had  been  ac- 
quired through  his  own  efforts.  When  seventeen 
years  of  age  he  became  a  member  of  the  Union 
Grove  Presbyterian  church  in  Granvillc  and  in 


1874  he  aided  in  organizing  and  became  one  ov 
the  charter  members  of  the  Congregational  church 
in  Hennepin.  His  political  allegiance  was  given 
to  the  republican  party,  and  he  took  an  active  in- 
terest in  politics,  always  keeping  well  informed 
on  questions  and  issues  of  the  day.  For  about 
thirty-five  years  he  served  as  school  director  and 
the  cause  of  education  had  in  him  a  stalwart  cham- 
pion, whose  labors  in  its  behalf  were  far-reaching 
and  beneficial.  In  his  later  years  he  retired  from 
active  business  cares  and  removed  to  Hennepin, 
where  he  died  in  1896,  suffering  during  the  last 
three  years  from  a  stroke  of  paralysis. 

Martin  Nash  was  married  twice.  In  1859  he 
wedded  Miss  Charlotte  Noble,  a  native  of  Ohio, 
who  died  in  1872,  leaving  four  children:  Charles 
N.,  of  this  review ;  Leonard  W.,  who  is  living  on 
a  part  of  the  old  homestead ;  Harriet  B.,  who  is  the 
widow  of  Enos  Colvin;  and  Mrs.  Nellie  Winter- 
sheid,  a  resident  of  Tinley,  Iowa.  In  1874  Mr. 
Nash  was  again  married,  his  second  union  being 
with  Sarah  J.  Mead,  a  native  of  New  York,  whose 
parents  came  to  this  county  in  her  girlhood  days. 
She  now  lives  in  Hennepin. 

Charles  N.  Nash  pursued  his  education  by  at- 
tending the  district  schools  for  a  short  time  and 
also  spent  a  brief  period  in  the  schools  of  Henne- 
pin. Prior  to  his  marriage  he  went  to  Dakota 
,and  pre-empted  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of 
land,  but  at  the  end  of  about  twelve/years  he  had 
to  sell  the  property  in  order  to  raise  money  to 
secure  medical  aid  for  his  wife.  Her  health  was 
very  poor  and  in  spite  of  the  best  medical  assist- 
ance that  could  be  secured  and  the  loving  care  of 
husband  and  family  she  passed  away  after  a  mar- 
ried life  of  nine  years.  In  her  maidenhood  she 
was  Miss  Anna  J.  Sutcliffe,  a  daugher  of  Samuel 
Sutcliffe,  also  deceased.  She  was  born  in  this 
county  and  by  her  marriage  became  the  mother 
of  one  child,  Charlotte  E.,  a  bright  little  maiden 
of  eleven  summers.  Subsequently  Mr.  Nash  mar- 
ried Miss  Jessie  Sutcliffe,  a  sister  of  his  first 
wife,  and  they  have  one  child,  Samuel  S.,  who  was 
two  years  of  age  in  March,  1906. 

The  home  farm  of  the  family  comprises  ninety- 
seven  and  a  half  acres  of  good  land  on  section  35, 
Hennepin  township,  on  which  are  substantial 
buildings  for  the  shelter  of  grain  and  stock,  to- 
gether with  a  comfortable  residence.  This  farm 
was  left  to  Mr.  Nash  by  his  father,  and  he  has 
made  many  modern  improvements  upon  it,  while 


PAST    AXD    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AXD   ITTXAM   COFXTIES. 


the  work  of  the  fields  is  facilitated  through  the 
use  of  modern  farm  machinery.  He  carries  on 
general  agricultural  pursuits  and  fears  not  that 
laborious  attention  to  business  which  is  so  neces- 
sary an  element  in  success.  He  belongs  to  the 
Congregational  church  of  Hennepin  and  for  nine 
years  has  been  identified  with  the  Old  Fellows 
society.  He  is  now  serving  for  his  second  year 
as  school  director  and  in  his  political  views  is  a 
republican,  but  lias  little  aspiration  for  office,  as 
the  claims  made  upon  his  time  and  attention  by 
his  farm  work  are  numerous  and  he  prefers  to 
capably  manage  those  interests  rather  than  to  dis- 
sipate his  energies  over  a  broad  field  of  activity. 


CHARLES  M.  CHASE. 

Charles  M.  Chase  owns  and  operates  a  good 
farm  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  acres,  which 
is  pleasantly  located  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
east  of  the  village  of  Granville.  He  was  born  in 
New  Hampshire,  May  21,  1849,  and  is  a  son  of 
J.  P.  and  Suah  B.  (Brown)  Chase,  both  of  whom 
were  natives  of  New  Hampshire.  When  their  son 
Charles  was  a  little  lad  of  six  years  they  came 
from  New  England  to  Illinois  and  settled  upon  a 
farm  in  Bureau  county,  near  Arlington.  Three 
years  later  the  father  sold  that  property  and  for 
several  years  cultivated  rented  land  in  La  Salle 
county.  In  1860,  however,  he  removed  to  Liv- 
ingston county,  where  he  purchased  a  farm  near 
Dwight,  there  residing  until  his  death.  His  wife 
died  upon  the  old  homestead  there  in  1896,  while 
Mr.  Chase  passed  away  in  the  fall  of  1905,  at  the 
ripe  old  age  of  eighty-eight  years.  In  the  family 
of  this  worthy  couple  there  were  thirteen  children, 
four  of  whom  are  yet  living,  as  follows:  J.  K.,  who 
resides  on  the  old  homestead  farm  in  Livingston 
county ;  George,  who  is  located  near  the  old  home- 
stead ;  Josiah,  who  makes  his  home  in  Oshkosh, 
Wisconsin ;  and  Charles  M.,  of  this  review. 

In  taking  up  the  personal  history  of  Charles  M. 
Chase  we  present  to  our  readers  the  record  of  one 
who  is  widely  known  in  this  part  of  Putnam 
county.  As  stated,  he  was  but  six  years  of  age 
when  his  parents  left  the  old  Granite  state  and 
came  to  Illinois.  He  was  reared  under  the  pa- 
rental roof,  being  early  trained  to  habits  of  in- 
dustry and  economy,  as  he  assisted  his  father  in 
the  work  of  the  fields.  When  there  was  a  respite 
from  the  active  duties  of  the  farm  he  attended  the 
district  schools,  acquiring  there  a  fair  English 


education.  At  the  age  of  twenty-five  he  left  home 
and  was  married  to  Miss  Isa  Weymouth,  a  native 
of  Vermont,  who  at  the  time  of  her  marriage  was 
making  her  home  with  an  uncle,  Charles  E.  Bar- 
nard, of  Putnam  county,  who  is  mentioned  on 
another  page  of  this  volume. 

Throughout  his  entire  life  Mr.  Chase  has  car- 
ried on  general  agricultural  pursuits.  His  first 
purchase  of  land  made  him  owner  of  a  tract  of 
sixty-five  acres  located  in  La  Salle  county  on  the 
meridian  line.  He  there  resided  until  1895,  when 
he  purchased  and  removed  to  his  present  farm  in 
Granville  township,  Putnam  county,  comprising 
one  hundred  and  sixty-four  acres  of  good  land 
which  is  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation.  It  is 
known  as  the  French  farm  and  is  pleasantly  lo- 
cated about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  east  of  the  village 
of  Granville.  Everything  about  the  place  pre- 
sents a  well  kept  appearance  and  the  fields  are  care- 
fully tilled,  bringing  forth  good  harvests.  In  ad- 
dition to  this  work,  Mr.  Chase  deals  quite  exten- 
sively in  cattle,  buying,  feeding  and  selling  as 
high  as  four  carloads  per  year.  This  is  therefore 
an  important  branch  of  his  business  and  brings 
to  him  a  good  income.  He  is  an  excellent  judge 
of  stock  and  therefore  makes  judicious  purchases 
and  profitable  sales.  He  also  owns  land  in  Wis- 
consin near  Oshkosh  and  has  •  recently  returned 
from  that  locality,  where  he  visited  his  brother. 

Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Chase  have  been  born  three 
sons:  Warren  W.,  Frank  W.  and  Joe  W.,  all  of 
whom  are  at  home  and  assist  their  father  in  the 
work  of  the  farm  and  the  care  of  the  stock.  Mr. 
Chase  and  his  family  hold  membership  in  the  Con- 
gregational church  at  Granville,  and  he  is  in  poli- 
tics a  republican,  with  prohibition  tendencies, 
sometimes  voting  for  the  prohibition  candidates. 
He  is  a  large  man,  of  genial  disposition,  affable 
manner  and  kindly  nature,  who  wins  friends 
wherever  he  goes  and  is  quite  popular  with  those 
with  whom  he  has  come  in  contact.  His  business 
interests  have  been  carefully  conducted  and  have 
made  him  a  prosperous  farmer. 


JOHN  HIRSCHY. 

John  Hirschy  is  the  owner  of  a  farming  prop- 
erty of  one  hundred  and  forty  acres  on  section  36, 
Granville  township,  and  his  entire  life  has  been 
devoted  to  general  agricultural  pursuits,  while  in 
his  work  he  has  displayed  those  sterling  traits 
which  are  essential  to  a  successful  business  career 


490 


PAST   AND   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


and  which  win  the  confidence  and  respect  of  one's 
feilowmen.  A  native  son  of  Granville  towship, 
he  was  born  November  11,  1853. 

His  father,  Michael  Hirschy,  was  born  in  Lor- 
raine, France,  November  27,  1815,  and  came  to 
America  with  his  parents  in  early  life,  settling 
in  the  state  of  New  York.  After  reaching  man- 
hood he  made  his  way  westward  to  Chicago, 
where  he  engaged  in  carpentering  and  contract- 
ing. He  was  married  in  1850  to  Miss  Jacobine 
Holly,  who  was  born  in  Germany,  December  23, 
1829.  In  the  year  of  their  marriage  they  re- 
moved to  Putnam  county,  and  Mr.  Hirschy's  first 
purchase  of  land  was  a  tract  of  forty  acres,  on 
which  a  log  house  had  been  built.  Soon  after- 
ward he  erected  a  frame  dwelling  there,  and  as 
the  years  passed  became  a  successful  farmer,  add- 
ing to  his  original  holdings  until  at  his  death  he 
left  an  estate  of  three  hundred  acres.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  Mennonite  church  of  Granville, 
which  he  assisted  in  organizing,  and  was  deeply 
interested  in  the  moral  development  of  the  com- 
munity as  well  as  in  intellectual  and  material 
progress.  He  died  upon  his  farm  in  Granville 
township  in  1888.  His  wife  survived  until  1893, 
when  she,  too,  passed  away.  In  their  family  were 
five  children,  three  sons  and  two  daughters,  of 
whom  John  is  the' eldest.  The  others  are  as  fol- 
lows: Emma  E.,  who  is  now  living  in  Indiana; 
Helen,  the  wife  of  Oscar  Wonder,  living  in  In- 
diana; William  M.,  who  for  a  number  of  years 
was  a  grain  merchant  at  Spring  Valley,  Illinois, 
and  is  now  a  commercial  traveler  for  the  Chicago 
Board  of  Trade ;  and  Ernest,  who  is  conducting 
a  prosperous  business  as  a  druggist  at  Kewanee, 
Illinois. 

John  Hirschy,  whose  name  introduces  this  rec- 
ord, lived  at  home  until  twenty-one  years  of  age 
and  was  educated  in  the  common  schools,  while 
under  his  father's  direction  he  received  ample 
training  in  the  work  of  plowing,  planting  and 
harvesting.  On  attaining  his  majority  he  began 
operating  his  father's  land  on  the  shares  and  later 
he  purchased  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres  of 
land,  where  he  now  lives,  on  section  36,  Granville 
township.  He  has  since  further  extended  the 
boundaries  of  his  farm,  which  today  comprises 
me  hundred  and  forty  acres.  The  buildings  upon 
the  place  stand  as  monuments  to  his  thrift  and 
enterprising  spirit,  having  been  erected  by  him. 
He  has  here  a  fine  dwelling  and  good  barns  and 


sheds,  thus  affording  ample  shelter  to  grain  and 
stock. 

In  1887  occurred  the  marriage  of  Mr.  Hirschy 
and  Miss  Bertha  Nafzinger,  a  native  of  Ger- 
many. They  have  one  son,  Walter,  who  is  now 
living  at  home.  The  family  are  members  of  the 
Congregational  church  in  Granville  and  Mr. 
Hirschy's  political  affiliation  is  with  the  republi- 
can party.  He  has  served  as  school  director  and 
for  the  past  eight  years  has  been  school  treasurer. 
He  is  an  enterprising  agriculturist,  active  and 
diligent  in  his  work  and  conservative  in  his  busi- 
ness management.  He  possesses  the  strong  will 
and  resolute  purpose  that  enables  him  to  overcome 
the  difficulties  and  obstacles  that  one  always  meets 
on  the  highroad  to  success,  and  as  the  years  have 
gone  by  he  has  gained  for  himself  a  place  among 
the  substantial  agriculturists  of  his  native  town- 
ship. 


ISRAEL  KOEHLER. 

Israel  Koehler  is  one  of  the  most  extensive 
landowners  of  Marshall  county.  His  possessions, 
however,  largely  lie  outside  of  the  state,  and  in 
Henry  he  has  been  best  known  in  connection  with 
industrial  interests,  having  for  a  long  period  en- 
gaged in  the  manufacture  of  carriages  here.  At 
the  present  writing  lu>  is  practically  living  re- 
tired, merely  giving  his  supervision  to  his  in- 
vested interests. 

Mr.  Koehler  was  born  in  Northampton  county, 
Pennsylvania,  July  6,  1830.  His  father,  John 
Koehler,  was  likewise  a  native  of  the  Keystone 
state  and  was  of  German  lineage.  He  became  a 
prosperous  farmer,  devoting  his  life  to  general 
agricultural  interests,  and  he  died  in  1871  at 
the  age  of  seventy-one  years.  He  held  member- 
ship in  the  Lutheran  church,  and  his  political 
allegiance  was  given  to  the  whig  party  until  the 
organization  of  the  new  republican  party,  when 
he  joined  its  ranks  and  supported  its  men  and 
measures.  His  wife,  who  in  her  maidenhood  was 
Sarah  Seip,  was  also  born  in  Northampton  coun- 
ty, Pennsylvania,  and  was  of  Dutch  descent.  She 
held  membership  in  the  Lutheran  church,  and 
died  in  1856  when  about  fifty-four  years  of  age. 
Their  family  numbered  eight  children,  of  whom 
Israel  is  the  fourth  in  order  of  birth.  Five  are 
yet  living,  although  four  of  this  number  are  still 
residents  of  Pennsylvania. 


MR.  AND  MBS.  ISRAEL  KOEHLER. 


i'AST    AND    1MJKSKNT    OF    MAKS11  AM.    AM)    ITTNAM    COCXTl  KS. 


493 


Israel  Koehler  was  reared  upon  a  farm  in  the 
state  of  his  nativity  and  acquired  his  education 
in  the  schools  near  his  father's  home.  He  came 
to  Illinois  in  the  spring  of  1855,  when  a  young 
man  of  twenty-five  years  and  settled  at  Annawan, 
in  Henry  county,  where  he  was  employed  as  a 
cabinet-maker,  remaining  there  for  three  years. 
In  the  fall  of  1858  he  came  to  Henry  and  em- 
barked in  business  on  his  own  account  as  a  man- 
ufacturer of  carriages.  He  remained  in  business 
until  1890,  or  for  a  period  of  almost  a  third  of  a 
century,  and  for  many  years  this  was  one  of  the 
leading  industrial  concerns  of  the  city,  its  output 
finding  a  ready  sale  on  the  market  because  of  the 
excellence  of  the  product  and  the  unsullied  rep- 
utation of  the  house  for  business  integrity.  At 
length  Mr.  Koehler  retired  from  manufacturing 
interests,  and  in  the  meantime  he  had  invested 
largely  in  land  and  has  since  added  to  his  realty 
holdings,  until  he  has  today  between  two  and 
three  thousand  acres  in  Nebraska,  Texas,  Kan- 
sas, Iowa  and  South  Dakota,  of  which  two-thirds 
is  under  cultivation.  This  land  has  increased 
five-fold  in  value  since  he  bought  it,  and  Mr. 
Koehler's  wealth  is  thus  constantly  growing,  his 
capital  being  much  more  than  sufficient  to  sup- 
ply him  with  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life. 

In  1853  occurred  the  marriage  of  Israel  Koeh- 
ler and  Miss  Augusta  C.  Smith,  who  was  born 
in  Northampton  county,  Pennsylvania,  a  daugh- 
ter of  George  and  Sally  (Beck)  Smith.  Unto 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Koehler  have  been  born  three  chil- 
dren, but  Richard  and  James  are  both  deceased. 
The  daughter  Luella  married  William  H.  Steber, 
and  unto  them  have  been  born  three  children : 
Latha  A.,  Milton  Pearl  and  Augusta  S. 

Mr.  Koehler  is  a  Lutheran  in  religious  faith, 
while  his  wife  holds  membership  in  the  Moravian 
church.  He  was  formerly  a  republican  in  poli- 
tics and  cast  a  vote  for  John  C.  Fremont  and 
for  Lincoln  at  each  election.  He  also  voted 
twice  for  Grant,  but  he  is  now  independent  in 
politics.  He  has  served  as  a  member  of  the  city 
council,  and  his  aid  has  been  a  valued  factor  in 
promoting  the  material  progress  and  prosperity 
of  the  city  in  which  he  makes  his  home.  The 
growth  of  every  community  depends  upon  its 
commercial  and  industrial  activity,  and  in  this 
connection  Mr.  Koehler  has  done  important  serv- 
ice for  Henry.  Moreover,  he  deserves  much 


credit  for  what  he  has  accomplished,  for  his  suc- 
cess is  attributable  entirely  to  his  own  labors. 
Without  special  pecuniary  or  family  advantages 
or  educational  privileges  at  the  outset  of  his 
career,  he  has  steadily  worked  his  way  upward, 
and  his  diligence  has  constituted  the  key  which 
has  unlocked  for  him  the  portals  of  success. 


MARTIN   KING. 

Among  the  citizens  of  Putnam  county  who  in 
former  years  were  actively  identified  with  agricul* 
tural  interests,  but  who  are  now  living  retired,  is 
classed  Martin  King,  who  owns  a  well  improved 
and  valuable  farm  of  two  hundred  and  forty  acres, 
a  part  of  which  is  situated  in  Magnolia  township 
and  a  portion  in  Roberts  township,  which  is  now 
being  operated  by  his  son,  although  the  owner 
still  continues  his  residence  thereon. 

Mr.  King  was  born  upon  his  present  farm  April 
15,  1835,  the  farm  being  purchased  by  his  paternal 
grandfather,  James  Shields,  in  1833,  from  a  man 
who  had  entered  it  from  the  government.  His 
father,  Silas  King,  was  born  in  Kentucky,  in  1805, 
a  son  of  Peter  King.  He  accompanied  his  father's 
family  on  their  removal  from  the  Blue  Grass 
state  to  Indiana,  where  he  remained  for  a  time, 
and  later  made  his  way  to  Galena,  Illinois,  where 
he  worked  in  the  lead  mines.  He  later  returned  to 
Indiana,  where  he  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss 
Eveline  Shields,  and  the  young  couple  then  took 
up  their  abode  in  Morgan  county,  that  state,  where 
they  made  their  home  for  a  time,  and  then  made 
their  way  to  a  farm  in  Roberts  township,  Marshall 
county,  which  at  that  time  was  included  in  the 
district  which  now  forms  Putnam  county,  the  fam- 
ily being  one  of  the  first  to  locate  in  that  town- 
ship. They  lived  in  the  same  house  with  James 
Shields  for  a  time.  Mr.  King  was  a  valued  factor 
in  the  pioneer  development  of  this  portion  of  the 
state,  making  his  home  on  different  farms  in  the 
two  counties  during  a  long  period.  His  wife 
died  in  1838,  leaving  three  children:  Martin,  of 
this  review;  James  C.,  who  wedded  Mrs.  Rebecca 
Knickerbocker,  and  both  are  now  deceased;  and 
Sarah,  the  widow  of  Henry  Bagby,  by 'whom  she 
has  four  children,  Samuel  P.,  James,  Ida  and  Liz- 
zie. The  father  was  married  a  second  time  to  Mrs. 
Cundiff,  who  is  now  deceased,  and  by  this  mar- 
riage there  were  three  children,  but  all  of  the 
number  have  been  called  to  their  final  rest:  Eve- 
line, who  was  the  wife  of  Selathial  Hallam,  bv 


PAST    AM)    I'UKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)   PFTXAM    COUNTIES. 


whom  she  had  two  children ;  Emma  Hotalling  and 
Eva  Dial;  Matilda,  who  was  the  wife  of  James 
Brown ;  and  William.  Two  of  the  sons,  James  C. 
and  William,  were  loyal  defenders  of  the  Union 
cause  during  the  Civil  war.  The  father  was  a 
member  of  the  Methodist  church  and  took  consid- 
erable interest  in  the  educational  affairs  of  his 
community,  and  at  one  time  donated  a  log  house 
which  was  used  for  a  school  building.  His  death 
occurred  in  February,  1898,  and  thus  passed  away 
one  of  the  highly  esteemed  and  worthy  pioneers  of 
this  part  of  the  state. 

Martin  King  was  reared  in  Marshall  county, 
where  he  received  his  education  in  the  district 
schools  near  his  father's  home.  He  early  became 
familiar  with  all  the  duties  which  fall  to  the  lot 
of  the  agriculturist,  assisting  his  father  in  the 
operation  of  the  home  place  until  the  latter's 
dea^h.  Upon  starting  out  in  life  on  his  own  re- 
sponsibility he  operated  rented  land  for  two  years, 
after  which  he  purchased  a  small  farm-,  which  was 
in  a  wild  state,  and  which  he  developed  and  culti- 
vated for  a  time.  He  then  took  up  his  abode  on 
his  father's  old  farm  property  in  Evans  township, 
which  he  operated  for  the  succeeding  two  years. 
About  that  time  the  Civil  war  broke  out  and  Mr. 
King,  being  drafted  for  service  therein,  was  com- 
pelled to  dispose  of  his  farm  in  order  to  pay  his 
conscription.  His  next  purchase  of  land  consisted 
of  a  tract  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  lying 
east  of  the  village  of  Varna,  for  which  he  assumed 
an  indebtedness.  It  was  wild  and  unimproved,  but 
Mr.  King  at  once  took  up  his  abode  thereon  and 
began  to  clear  his  land,  after  which  he  planted 
his  crops,  and  in  due  course  of  time  gathered  rich 
harvests.  He  further  improved  his  farm  by  the 
erection  of  substantial  buildings  and  in  course  of 
years  replaced  his  original  home,  which  was  a  log 
shanty,  by  a  more  commodious  frame  residence, 
and  on  this  place  he  continued  to  make  his  home 
for  twenty-four  years,  having  in  the  meantime 
made  it  a  valuable  property,  owing  to  the  improve- 
ments which  he  had  made.  He  disposed  of  this 
property  to  Jacob  Lenz  and  in  1889  removed  to 
his  present  farm,  where  he  has  since  continued  to 
make  his  home,  although  he  is  now  living  in  well 
earned  ease,  his  farm  being  operated  by  his  son. 
Mr.  King  was  for  many  years  engaged  in  general 
agricultural  pursuits  and  stock-raising  and  as  he 
prospered  in  his  work  and  his  financial  resources 
were  thereby  increased,  he  added  to  h 


sions  from  time  to  time  until  he  was  at  one  time 
the  owner  of  three  hundred  and  eighty-six  acres, 
but  he  has  since  disposed  of  a  part  of  this,  retain- 
ing possession  of  two  hundred  and  forty  acres,  sit- 
uated on  section  32^  Magnolia  township,  and  in 
addition  to  which  he  owns  another  tract  in  this 
township,  and  a  farm  of  sixty-six  acres  in  Roberts 
township,  Marshall  county,  so  that  through  his 
own  well  directed  labors  and  careful  management 
of  his  business  affairs  he  is  now  enabled  to  lay 
aside  the  arduous  duties  of  life  and  enjoy  a  well 
merited  rest. 

On  the  6th  of  October,  1859,  Mr.  King  chose  as 
a  companion  and  helpma'te  for  life's  journey  Miss 
Ellen  A.  Smith,  who  was  born  on  section  33,  Mag- 
nolia township,  and  was  here  reared,  white  her  ed- 
ucation was  acquired  in  the  Caledonia  school.  Her 
father,  Ephraim  Smith,  was  a  native  of  North 
Carolina,  born  in  1805,  being  a  son  of  Philip  and 
Elizabeth  Smith,  who  were  among  the  early  pio- 
neer settlers  of  Sangamori  county,  Illinois,  where 
they  both  spent  their  remaining  days.  Ephraim 
Smith  remained  under  the  parental  roof  until  he 
attained  his  majority,  when  he  went  to  Spring- 
field, from  which  city  he  made  his  way  with  ox 
teams  to  Galena,  where  he  worked  in  the  lead 
mines.  In  1830  he  became  a  resident  of  Putnam 
county,  settling  on  a  farm  on  section  33,  Magnolia 
township,  being  numbered  among  the  first  settlers 
of  this  township,  where  he  made  his  home  until 
his  death,  on  the  10th  of  February,  1885,  after 
which  his  remains  were  laid  to  rest  in  Magnolia 
cemetery.  He  served  as  a  ranger  in  the  Black 
Hawk  war.  He  was  first  married  to  Harriet  Ange- 
line  Truman,  who  was  born  in  New  York  in  1817, 
and  her  death  occurred  in  July,  1857,  when  she 
was  forty  years  of  age.  By  that  union  there  were 
nine  children :  Ervin  0.,  who  wedded  Annie  John- 
son, by  whom  he  has  two  children ;  Ellen  A.,  who 
became  the  wife  of  our  subject;  Franklin,  who 
wedded  Hattie  Weir;  Esther,  deceased;  Laura,  the 
wife  of  Casper  Weber;  Hattie,  the  wife  of  Gilbert 
Hiltabrand;  Addie  and  Artilissa,  both  deceased; 
and  James  C.  For  his  second  wife  Mr.  Smith 
chose  Jemima  Kays,  now  deceased,  by  whom  he 
had  three  children,  of  whom  the  eldest  died  in  in- 
fancy, while  the  others  are:  Katie  E.,  the  wife 
of  Vivian  Haws ;  and  Eva,  the  wife  of  Cyril  Haws. 

The  family  of  our  subject  and  his  wife  num- 
bered eleven  children,  of  whom  eight  are  still  liv- 
ing :  Silas,  a  resident  of  Virginia ;  Frank,  a  resi- 


PAST    AND    LMlKSEVr    OF    MAIJSIIALL    AND    ITTXAM    COUNTIES. 


dent  farmer  of  Magnolia  township;  Henry  and 
Benjamin,  likewise  residing  in  this  township ; 
Laura  E.,  the  wife  of  Grant  Trone ;  Robert  E.,  re- 
siding in  North  Dakota;  Edith,  the  wife  of  Ed 
Defanbaugh,  residing  in  Magnolia;  Kate  E.,  the 
wife  of  Oscar  Hiatt,  residing  in  Toluca,  Illinois ; 
Hat  tic,  the  deceased  wife  of  George  Lippert;  and 
two  who  died  in  infancy.  The  wife  and  mother 
passed  away  January  26,  1898.  She  was  devoted 
to  the  interests  of  her  home  and  family  and  dur- 
ing the  forty-eight  years  which  she  and  her  hus- 
band traveled  life's  journey  together  she  proved  to 
him  a  worthy  companion  and  helpmate. 

In  his  political  affiliations  Mr.  King  is  a  demo- 
crat, giving  stanch  support  to  the  principles  in 
which  he  so  firmly  believes.  He  has  taken  an  ac- 
tive part  in  local  politics,  having  served  as  road 
commissioner  and  as  school  director  for  a  number 
of  years,  the  cause  of  education  finding  in  him  a 
warm  and  helpful  friend.  Fraternally  he  is  iden- 
tified with  the  Masonic  order  at  Varna  and  is  pop- 
ular among  the  brethren  of  the  craft.  Mr.  King 
has  now  passed  the  seventy-first  milestone  on  life's 
journey,  and,  having  spent  his  entire  life  in  Put- 
nam and  Marshall  counties,  is  well  known  and  en- 
joys the  friendship  of  a  large  circle  of  acquaint- 
ances. He  has  ever  been  known  for  his  reliable 
and  straightforward  dealing  in  all  trade  transac- 
tions and  is  today  accounted  one  of  the  venerable 
and  well-to-do  citizens  of  Putnam  county. 


0.  A.  LUNDQUIST. 

The  commercial  interests  of  Granville  find  an 
active  and  worthy  representative  in  0.  A.  Lund- 
quist,  a  clothing  merchant,  who  in  ihe  conduct  of 
his  business  displays  the  spirit  of  enterprise  and 
progress  which  have  been  the  dominant  factors  in 
the  upbuilding  of  the  middle  west  He  was  born 
in  Skone,  Sweden,  July  28,  1866,  and  when  only 
eight  years  of  age  lost  his  father.  Being  left  in 
limited  financial  circumstances,  it  was  necessary 
that  he  earn  his  own  living,  and  at  that  tender 
age  he  went  to  work  in  a  tile  factory,  carrying 
tile  all  through  the  summer,  while  in  the  winter 
months  he  attended  school  and  thus  became  better 
qualified  for  life's  practical  and  responsible  duties. 
When  fifteen  years  of  age  he  went  upon  a  farm, 
where  he  was  employed  for  two  years,  and  at  the 
age  of  seventeen  he  began  learning  the  black- 
smith's trade,  which  he  followed  for  about  three 
years,  becoming  master  of  that  occupation. 


Hoping  to  better  his  financial  condition  through 
the  broader  business  opportunities  of  the  new 
world,  Mr.  Lundquist  sought  a  home  in  America 
when  a  young  man  of  twenty  years.  Landing  on 
the  shores  of  the  new  world,  he  came  at  once  to 
Putnam  county  and  began  work  at  once  upon  a 
farm  near  Florid.  After  seven  weeks  he  secured 
employment  in  a  blacksmith  shop  in  Florid  in  the 
employ  of  William  Stehl,  for  whom  he  worked  at 
ten  dollars  per  month.  Subsequently  he  spent  two 
years  in  the  plow  factory  at  Peru,  and  saving  his 
earnings  during  that  period,  he  was  at  length  en- 
abled to  purchase  a  shop  in  Florid,  where  for  six 
and  a  half  years  he  engaged  in  blacksmithing  on 
his  own  account.  On  the  expiration  of  that  pe- 
riod he  came  to  Granville,  purchased  a  shop  and 
engaged  in  the  same  line  of  business  here.  He 
made  steady  progress,  and  five  years  ago  he  opened 
a  clothing  store,  which  today  is  the  largest  estab- 
lishment of  this  kind  in  the  village.  He  carries 
an  extensive  and  well  selected  stock  of  clothing, 
men's  furnishing  goods  and  shoes,  and  has  a  very 
liberal  and  constantly  growing  patronage. 

About  sixteen  years  ago  Mr.  Lundquist  was 
married  to  Miss  Clara  Morine,  who  was  born  in 
Sweden,  October  16,  1865,  and  died  May  9,  1903, 
leaving  five  children :  Edwin,  who  was  born  April 
3,  1891;  Olga,  born  July  14,  1892;  Edith,  April 
16,  1898;  Callie,  June  19,  1900;  and  Hilda,  Sep- 
tember 22,  1901.  The  children  are  all  living  at 
home  with  their  father,  who  has  never  married 
again. 

Mr.  Lundquist  was  reared  in  the  faith  of  the 
Lutheran  church,  but  is  not  a  member  of  any  de- 
nomination at  the  present  time.  His  political  sup- 
port is  given  the  democracy  in  national  politics, 
but  in  town  and  county  affairs  he  votes  for  the 
candidate  whom  he  thinks  best  qualified  for  office, 
regardless  of  party  affiliation.  He  has  served  as 
a  member  of  the  village  board  and  in  office  and 
out  of  it  has  taken  an  active  part  in  the  upbuild- 
ing and  substantial  development  of  Granville.  His 
store  occupies  a  part  of  the  first  block  put  up  in 
that  part  of  the  town.  He  was  instrumental  in 
soliciting  farmers  to  donate  work  with  teams  to 
grade  and  gravel  Main  street  in  the  village,  and 
his  co-operation  can  always  be  counted  upon  to 
support  any  plan  or  measure  for  the  public  good. 
Fraternally  he  is  connected  with  the  Odd  Fellows 
and  with  the  Modern  Woodmen  and  in  the  camp 
of  the  latter  is  now  secretary.  Mr.  Lundquist  is  a 


PAST   AXD   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL    AND  PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


self-made  man  in  the  truest  and  best  sense  of  the 
term  and  that  he  has  prospered  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  he  is  now  the  owner  of  a  nice  home 
as  well  as  the  store  building  which  he  occupies  and 
the  large  stock  of  goods  which  he  carries.  Each 
step  in  his  career  has  been  carefully  and  thought- 
fully made.  He  has  utilized  his  opportunities  to 
the  best  advantage  and  with  a  full  realization  of 
the  fact  that  labor  is  the  basis  of  all  success  he  has 
put  forth  unremitting  effort  and  is  today  carrying 
on  a  prosperous  business. 


CHRISTIAN   GEORGE  BRUDER. 

Christian  George  Bruder,  deceased,  was  born  in 
Bavaria,  Germany,  December  14,  1828,  and  was 
one  of  a  family  of  three  sons,  of  whom  one  re- 
mained in  his  native  land  and  died  there  several 
years  ago.  In  1852  Christian  G.  Bruder  and  his 
brother,  John,  the  former  a  blacksmith  and  the 
latter  a  shoemaker  by  trade,  emigrated  to  America 
to  seek  their  fortunes  in  the  new  world.  John 
found  employment  and  settled  first  at  New  York 
and  later  at  Memphis,  Tennessee.  He  has  long 
since  passed  away  and  is  survived  by  only  one 
daughter,  Mrs.  Charles  Eberhart,  who  resides  with 
her  husband  in  Memphis,  Tennessee,  but  has  often 
been  a  visitor  in  Granville. 

Mr.  Bruder  of  this  review  on  coming  to  the 
United  States  took  up  his  abode  at  Granville,  and 
after  working  as  a  journeyman  blacksmith  for  a 
time  opened  a  shop  on  his  own  account  in  1854. 
On  the  3d  of  September,  of  that  year,  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Anna  Gertrude  Opper,  an  aunt  of 
Christian  G.  Opper,  whose  sketch  appears  else- 
where in  this  work.  The  first  child  of  this  mar- 
riage was  a  daughter,  Mary,  now  the  wife  of  John 
Lantz,  who  resides  at  McCool  Junction,  Nebraska. 
The  second,  a  son,.  J.  T.  Bruder,  resides  with  his 
family  at  Burnside,  a  suburb  of  Chicago,  and  is 
a  foreman  in  the  Pullman  car  shops.  On  the  3d 
of  May,  1870,  the  wife  and  mother  was  called  to 
her  final  rest,  and  on  the  24th  of  May,  1871,  Mr. 
Bruder  was  again  married,  his  second  union  be- 
ing with  Magdaline  Barbara  May,  a  native  of 
Bavaria,  Germany.  The  children  of  this  marriage 
are  three  in  number :  Leonard  G.,  who  is  a  book- 
keeper for  the  Davis  Coal  Company,  at  Chicago; 
Carrie  M.,  at  home ;  and  Fred  V.,  who  is  employed 
in  the  electrical  department  of  the  Pullman  car 
shops  at  Chicago. 

By  the  characteristic  German  energy,  thrift  and 


frugality,  Mr.  Bruder  in  his  business  affairs 
gained  a  competence  sufficient  to  warrant  a  life  of 
comparative  ease  and  rest  during  his  declining 
years  and  about  thirteen  years  prior  to  his  death 
he  sold  his  shop  and  retired  from  the  exhaustive 
labors  of  blacksmithing,  after  which  he  devoted 
his  time  to  the  supervision  of  his  property  inter- 
ests that  he  had  acquired,  and  to  the  care  of  his 
home  and  garden.  He  was  a  man  to  whom  indo- 
lence and  idleness  were  utterly  foreign,  therefore, 
after  he  left  the  shop  he  always  busied  himself 
with  the  interests  of  the  home  or  his  property.  In 
1873  he  made  a  trip  to  the  fatherland  with  his 
wife  and  their  children,  spending  the  greater  por- 
tion of  the  years  1873  and  1874  in  Germany.  In 
1894  he  once  more  visited  his  native  country, 
where  he  remained  for  about  three  months.  He 
remained  a  most  vigorous  man  until  within  a 
short  time  prior  to  his  death,  when  it  was  notice- 
able that  time  and  disease  were  making  inroads 
upon  his  health,  and  on  the  25th  of  October,  1903, 
he  passed  away.  In  his  death  the  community  lost 
a  good  man.  He  was  quiet  and  unassuming  in 
manner,  but  thoroughly  reliable  and  honorable 
at  all  times  and  had  a  kind  word  for  everyone, 
while  many  a  good  deed  was  attributed  to  him  and 
the  poor  and  needy  frequently  found  in  him  a 
stanch  and  helpful  friend.  He  is  remembered  as 
one  of  Granville's  best  citizens  and  one  whose  life 
record  is  indeed  worthy  of  emulation.  His  widow, 
a  bright  and  intelligent  German  lady,  still  resides 
upon  her  old  home  purchased  by  her  husband 
many  years  ago,  and  in  addition  to  this  and  a 
while  block  of  village  property  he  left  two  hundred 
and  forty  acres  of  good  land  in  Livingston  county. 
Mrs.  Bruder  and  her  daughter  now  make  their 
home  in  Granville,  but  spend  their  winters  in  the 
south. 

JAMES  E.  BARNARD. 

James  E.  Barnard,  whose  home  is  on  section  10, 
Hennepin  township,  was  born  March  25,  1868,  on 
a  farm  in  Granville  township,  where  still  resides 
his  father,  Charles  E.  Barnard,  who  is  mentioned 
on  another  page  of  this  work.  J.  C.  Barnard,  an 
attorney  of  Omaha,  Nebraska,  and  a  brother  of 
our  subject,  went  to  Boston  a  few  years  ago  to 
look  up  the  history  of  the'  family  and  secured  a 
genealogical  record,  dating  back  to  the  early  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

James  E.  Barnard  acquired  his  early  education 


PAST    AXD    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


in  the  country  schools  and  in  the  village  schools 
of  Granville.  He  also  attended  the  state  normal 
and  university  at  Champaign  and  taught  school 
for  three  years,  but  throughout  the  greater  part  of 
his  life  has  followed  the  vocation  of  farming.  In 
his  youth  he  worked  with  his  father  and  after- 
ward operated  his  father's  land  until  about  three 
years  ago,  when  he  made  investment  in  property, 
purchasing  two  hundred  and  twenty  acres  north  of 
Granville.  He  has  erected  all  of  the  buildings 
upon  this  place  and  they  are  modern  and  substan- 
tial structures,  furnishing  good  shelter  for  grain 
and  stock,  while  his  home  is  an  attractive  frame 
residence.  He  is  cutting  props  for  coal  shafts  in 
the  vicinity  of  Granville,  getting  out  from  fifty 
thousand  to  one  hundred  thousand  per  year.  It  is 
therefore  an  important  branch  of  his  business  and 
brings  him  a  good  financial  reward.  This  land  he 
also  uses  for  pasturage  and  he  is  largely  engaged 
in  stock-raising,  feeding  cattle  on  an  extensive 
scale  and  expecting  to  increase  his  business  in  this 
department  each  year.  He  is  a  man  of  excellent 
business  ability  and  bears  a  splendid  reputation 
in  commercial  and  agricultural  circles. 

On  the  28th  of  May,  1901,  was  celebrated  the 
marriage  of  Mr.  Barnard  and  Miss  Addie  K.  Dur- 
ley,  who  was  born  in  Hennepin  and  attended  the 
Iowa  College  at  Des  Moines,  Iowa.  She  is  a 
daughter  of  Preston  Durley,  and  a  granddaughter 
of  Williamson  Durley,  one  of  the  earliest  settlers 
of  the  county,  who  in  pioneer  times  established 
his  home  here  and  took  an  active, part  in  laying 
the  foundation  for  the  present  progress  and  pros- 
perity of  the  county.  Three  children  grace  the 
marriage  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Barnard:  Elizabeth, 
Ruth  and  John. 

In  his  political  affiliation  Mr.  Barnard  is  a  dem- 
ocrat, though  he  often  votes  independently.  He 
has  served  as  township  assessor  for  two  terms.  He 
belongs  to  the  Congregational  church  at  Hennepin 
and  takes  an  active  interest  therein  and  is  serving 
as  superintendent  of  the  Sunday-school.  He  is  in- 
terested in  the  material,  intellectual,  political  and 
moral  progress  of  the  community  and  stands  for 
advancement  and  improvement  in  all  walks  of  life. 


GEORGE  W.  FRANCEWAY. 
George  W.  Franceway  is  a  native  son  of  Gran- 
ville township,  where  he  yet  resides,  his  home  be- 
ing on  section  21.     His  natal  day  was  August  31, 
1852,  and  his  parents  were   Bushrod  and  Maria 


(Ham)  Franceway,  both  of  whom  are  now  de- 
ceased. The  former  was  born  near  Harper's 
Ferry,  Virginia,  in  1822  and  came  to  Putnam 
county  in  1844.  He  was  here  engaged  in  farm- 
ing and  subsequently  removed  to  Grundy  county, 
Illinois,  where  he  lived  for  twenty-three  years, 
when  he  took  up  his  abode  in  Iowa,  his  death 
occurring  at  Seymour,  Wayne  county,  that  state, 
when  he  was  seventy-two  years  of  age.  His  wife 
passed  away  in  Grundy  county  when  fifty-two 
years  of  age.  In  their  family  were  four  children, 
of  whom  three  are  now  living,  while  one  died  in 
infancy.  James  Franceway,  a  brother  of  our 
subject,  lives  with  him  and  is  interested  with  him 
in  his  farming  operations.  They  have  a  sister 
who  is  a  resident  of  Streator. 

No  event  of  special  importance  occurred  to  vary 
the  routine  of  farm  life  for  George  W.  France- 
way  in  his  boyhood  days.  He  worked  in  field  and 
meadow  from  the  time  of  early  spring  planting 
until  crops  were  harvested  in  the  late  autumn 
and  in  the  district  schools  acquired  his  educa- 
tion. He  remained  with  his  parents  until  twenty- 
one  years  of  age  and  then  began  work  on  the  farm 
by  the  month.  Saving  his  earnings,  he  later  felt 
justified  in  beginning  farming  on  his  own  ac- 
count, his  first  purchase  of  land  making  him  part 
owner  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  acres  where  he 
now  resides.  He  and  his  brother  James  pur- 
chased this  together  and  since  then  have  been  car- 
rying on  farming  operations  conjointly.  Their 
place  is  well  improved,  having  many  modern 
equipments  and  accessories  upon  it,  while  the  resi- 
dence is  a  good  frame  structure  and  there  are 
substantial  barns  and  outbuildings,  all  of  which 
have  been  erected  since  the  brothers  took  posses- 
sion of  the  farm  thirty  years  ago,  at  which  time 
there  was  a  log  cabin  upon  the  place  and  but  poor 
outbuildings.  The  brothers  have  since  carried 
on  general  farming  and  have  raised  good  crops, 
from  which  they  have  derived  a  very  gratifying 
annual  income. 

On  the  10th  of  March,  1880,  George  W.  France- 
way  was  married  to  Miss  Catherine  Child,  who 
was  born  in  Granville  township,  a  daughter  of 
David  L.  and  Margaret  L.  (Dysart)  Child,  early 
residents  of  Putnam  county.  Unto  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Franceway  have  been  born  four  children:  Mar- 
garet, who  was  graduated  in  1905  from  the  Uni- 
versity of  Illinois;  Alice,  at  home;  and  Elsie  and 
Clarence,  who  are  attending  school. 


PAST  AND  PRESENT  OF  MARSHALL  AND  PUTNAM  COUNTIES. 


The  family  attend  the  Congregational  church, 
of  which  the  parents  are  members,  and  Mrs. 
Franceway,  who  is  a  very  intelligent  lady,  belongs 
to  the  Ladies'  Aid  Society  of  the  church  and  has 
recently  been  active  in  soliciting  assistance  to  im- 
prove the  cemetery.  Mr.  Franceway  is  a  man  of 
strictly  temperate  habits  and  principles,  using 
neither  liquor  nor  tobacco,  and  his  influence  is 
ever  given  for  those  measures  which  are  for  the 
betterment  of  mankind.  In  politics  he  is  a  re- 
publican and  for  eighteen  years  has  served  as 
school  director.  He  and  his  family  are  very 
pleasant  and  hospitable  people,  taking  an  active 
and  helpful  part  in  church  work  and  being  allied 
with  all  those  movements  which  work  for  the  im- 
provement of  the  county  along  material,  intel- 
lectual and  moral  lines. 


JAMES  HENNING. 

James  Henning,  living  upon  a  farm  on  section 
22,  Granville  township,  has  reached  the  age  of 
four  score  years,  having  been  born  in  County  An- 
trim, Ireland,  September  15,  1826.  He  comes 
of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry,  possessing  the  strong  and 
sturdy  qualities  which  have  ever  marked  the  peo- 
ple of  that  race.  His  parents  were  William  and 
Catherine  (Nickolls)  Henning,  the  former  a  na- 
tive of  Dumfriesshire,  Scotland,  and  the  latter  of 
'County  Antrim.  For  twelve  years  his  father 
served  in  the  British  army,  being  with  Welling- 
ton at  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  when  Napoleon  met 
the  defeat  that  practically  terminated  his  brilliant 
career.  After  leaving  the  army  Mr.  Henning 
rented  land  belonging  to  an  Irish  officer.  In  fact, 
he  secured  a  life  lease,  which,  however,  he  sold 
on  coming  to  America. 

Upon  a  farm  in  his  native  land  James  Henning 
spent  the  days  of  his  boyhood  and  youth  to  the 
age  of  nineteen  years,  when  he  accompanied  his 
parents  on  their  emigration  to  America.  He  at 
once  proceeded  to  Phoenixville,  Pennsylvania, 
where  his  brother  William  was  working  in  a  mill, 
and  the  succeeding  five  years  he  was  employed  in 
the  same  establishment,  during  which  time  he 
mastered  the  business  in  all  its  departments  and 
was  paid  from  two  and  a  half  to  three  dollars  per 
day  for  his  services — a  very  good  wage  for  that 
time.  The  mill,  however,  was  closed  down  on  ac- 
count of  the  lack  of  business  and  thus  in  1849, 
with  the  little  capital  which  he  had  saved  from 


his  earnings,  Mr.  Henning  left  Pennsylvania  and 
came  to  Illinois. 

After  two  years  he  located  at  Cherming,  Henry 
count}',  where  he  was  employed  as  a  teamster,  and 
in  the  gristmill  and  general  store  for  a  gentleman 
who  was  extensive^  engaged  in  business  at  that 
place.  He  afterward  again  spent  two  years  as  an 
employe  in  the  mill  at  Phoenixville,  Pennsylvania, 
but  his  residence  in  Illinois  has  been  continuous 
since  1874,  covering  a  period  of  more  than  a  half 
century.  His  brother  William  also  came  to  this 
state  and  for  ten  years  was  connected  with  the 
grain  trade  at  Lostant,  where  his  death  occurred. 
Another  brother,  Robert,  lives  at  Hennepin,  while 
Samuel  has  always  lived  with  our  subject,  and 
John  lives  in  Hennepin. 

While  Mr.  Henning  was  living  in  McHenry 
county  his  parents  came  to  Putnam  county,  set- 
tling in  Granville  township,  where  his  father 
died,  and  subsequently  returning  to  this  state 
Mr.  Henning  joined  his  mother  who  made  her 
home  with  him  up  to  the  time  of  her  death.  He 
began  farming  on  rented  land,  first  leasing  land 
from  Ealph  Ware  for  three  years.  On  the  death 
of  Mr.  Ware,  the  farm,  comprising  three  hundred 
and  twenty  acres,  was  divided  mto  three  parts, 
two  .of  which  Mr.  Henning  secured,  thus  becom- 
ing owner  of  two  hundred  and  ten  acres,  for 
which  he  paid  forty  dollars  per  acre.  Since  that 
time  he  has  greatly  extended  his  landed  posses- 
sions and  he  now  owns  four  hundred  and  fifty- 
five  acres  in  Putnam  county  beside  a  good  tract 
in  South  Dakota.  Although  eighty  years  of  age 
he  still  has  active  management  of  this  property 
but  he  has  now  placed  it  on  the  market  for  sale 
and  when  he  disposes  of  it  expects  to  retire  from 
business  life. 

Mr.  Henning  has  given  considerable  attention 
to  the  raising  of  cattle  and  horses,  feeding  about 
a  carload  of  the  latter  each  year.  He  finds  the 
breeding  of  heavy  draft  horses  a  profitable  source 
of  income,  making  a  specialty  of  Clydesdale  and 
Shire  horses,  and  at  different  times  making  ex- 
hibits of  his  fine  thoroughbreds  at  the  various 
fairs.  Corn  is  one  of  his  principal  crops  and  a 
glance  at  his  place  indicates  to  the  passerby  why 
this  district  has  won  its  fame  as  a  portion  of  the 
corn  belt  of  the  country.  The  soil  and  climate 
are  principally  adapted  to  this  cereal  and  Mr. 
Henning  has  found  in  the  raising  of  this  crop 
one  of  his  chief  sources  of  income.  Upon  his 


PAST   AND    PKESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


499 


place  he  sunk  a  well  thirteen  hundred  and  fifty 
feet  deep,  when  he  reached  artesian  water  that  is 
brought  to  the  surface  by  a  wind  pump.  He  has 
a  tank  of  three  hundred  barrels  capacity,  which 
he  keeps  full,  and  in  this  manner  his  stock  is 
always  well  supplied.  Mr.  Henning  has  added  to 
his  place  all  of  the  modern  equipments  and  ac- 
cessories of  a  model  farm  of  the  twentieth  century 
and  has  kept  in  touch  with  modern  progress  along 
agricultural  lines  and  his  advancement  in  the 
business  world  is  certainly  creditable.  He  has 
been  both  the  architect  and  builder  of  his  own 
fortunes  and  in  all  of  his  business  affairs  has  dis- 
played an  aptitude  for  successful  management. 
His  political  allegiance  is  given  to  the  republican 
party,  and  while  never  an  office  seeker  he  has  kept 
informed  on  the  questions  of  the  day  and  has 
loyal  attachment  for  the  land  of  his  adoption, 
while  here  h'e  has  found  a  home  and  gained  a 
competence,  enjoying  its  advantages  and  its  pro- 
tection. 

WILLIAM  J.   COULTER. 

William  J.  Coulter,  who  was  one  of  the  early 
residents  and  for  many  years  a  leading  and  rep- 
.resentative  farmer  of  Marshall  county,  began  his 
life  record  in  County  Antrim,  Ireland,  on  the  1st 
of  April,  1827.  His  father  was  John  Coulter, 
also  a  native  of  Ireland,  and  in  that  country  the 
subject  of  this  review  was  reared  and  educated, 
his  youth  being  unmarked  by  any  event  of  special 
importance.  After  arriving  at  adult  age,  how- 
ever, the  business  opportunities  of  the  new  world 
attracted  him,  for  he  had  heard  favorable  reports 
concerning  conditions  in  America.  Accordingly 
in  1854  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  and,  making  his 
way  into  the  interior  of  the  country,  settled  in 
Peoria  county,  Illinois,  where  he  was  employed 
for  nine  months,  but  desirous  that  his  labors 
should  more  directly  benefit  himself  he  rented 
land  and  began  farming  on  his  own  account.  In 
1865  he  purchased  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of 
land  in  Saratoga  township,  Marshall  count}',  and 
for  many  years  thereafter  was  actively  engaged 
in  the  further  development  and  improvement  of 
that  property,  which  he  brought  under  a  high 
state  of  cultivation.  As  new  and  improved  farm 
machinery  was  introduced  he  iised  it  to  facilitate 
the  work  of  the  fields  and  his  labors  were  attend- 
ed with  a  measure  of  success  that  made  him  one 
of  the  men  of  affluence  in  his  community.  About 


eleven  years  ago  he  retired  from  active  farm  life, 
renting  his  place  to  his  eldest  son,  and  he  is  now 
spending  the  evening  of  his  life  in  Henry  in  the 
enjoyment  of  a  well  earned  rest. 

In  January,  1850,  Mr.  Coulter  was  united  in 
marriage  to  Miss  Harna  Patterson,  who  was  born 
in  Ireland  in  1829.  They  became  the  parents  of 
nine  children,  four  of  whom  yet  survive:  Mrs. 
Jennie  Endsley,  who  is  a  widow  and  is  now  con- 
ducting a  millinery  store  in  Peoria,  Illinois;  Mrs. 
Ella  Smith,  living  in  St.  Paul,  Minnesota;  Wil- 
liam, who  is  upon  the  home  farm;  and  Curtis  C., 
who  is  a  traveling  salesman  representing  the  Wil- 
son Company. 

Mr.  Coulter,  while  living  in  Saratoga  township, 
served  as  school  director  and  was  interested  in 
having  good  schools  and  in  employing  competent 
teachers.  His  political  support  is  given  to  the 
republican  party  and  his  religious  faith  is  indi- 
cated by  his  membership  in  the  Methodist  church, 
which  finds  in  him  a  worthy  exemplar,  loyal  to 
its  teachings  and  instructions.  He  is  now  one 
of  the  venerable  citizens  of  Henry,  having  almost 
reached  the  eightieth  milestone  on  life's  journey. 
He  has  long  enjo}red  the  esteem  and  good  will  of 
young  and  old,  rich  and  poor,  and  well  merits 
mention  in  this  volume,  having  so  long  resided  in 
Marshall  county. 


TOM  W.  ENDSLEY. 

Tom  W.  Endsley,  proprietor  of  the  Camp  House 
at  Henry,  was  born  in  Magnolia  township,  Mar- 
shall county,  November  6,  1878,  and  is  a  son  of 
Frank  M.  and  Jennie  May  (Coulter)  Endsley. 
The  father  was  born  in  Lexington,  Kentucky,  and 
died  in  the  year  1903.  He  was  a  grain  broker 
and  carried  on  business  on  an  extensive  scale.  He 
was  also  a  great  lover  of  horses  and  usually  owned 
some  fine  specimens  of  the  noble  steed.  His  po- 
litical allegiance  was  given  to  the  republican  party 
and  all  who  knew  him  respected  him  for  his  gen- 
uine worth.  He  held  friendship  inviolable  and 
was  ever  loyal  to  the  interests  which  he  espoused 
and  the  cause  which  he  represented.  Unto  him 
and  his  wife  were  born  four  children :  Tom  W. ; 
Earl,  who  is  train  dispatcher  for  the  Iowa  Cen- 
tral Railroad  at  Peoria;  Edna,  who  died  at  the 
age  of  four  years;  and  Frank. 

Tom  W.  Endsley,  whose  name  introduces  this 
record,  acquired  his  early  education  in  the  public 
school  of  Honrv,  and  for  four  vears  was  a  student 


500 


.PAST    AND    PK'KSKN'T    OF   MARSHALL    AND    1MT.XAM    COI.'NTIKS. 


in  the  Peoria  night  schools.  Whatever  success 
he  has  achieved  in  life  is  due  entirely  to  his  own 
efforts.  During  the  greater  part  of  his  business 
career  he  has  been  connected  with  hotel  interests. 
He  spent  four  and  a  half  years  in  the  Grand  Hotel 
at  Jacksonville,  Illinois,  and  on  the  22d  of  May, 
1906,  came  to  the  Camp  House  at  Henry,  of 
which  he  is  now  the  popular  proprietor.  In  man- 
ner ever  courteous  and  genial,  he  is  well  qualified 
for  the  duties  which  devolve  upon  him  in  this 
connection  and  he  always  makes  friends  wherever 
he  goes.  He  belongs  to  the  Fraternal  Order  of 
Eagles,  holding  membership  in  Jacksonville  lodge, 
No.  509,  and  in  his  political  affiliation  is  inde- 
pendent, voting  for  men  and  measures  rather  than 
for  party. 

MONS  OLSON. 

Mons  Olson,  who  is  successfully  engaged  in 
farming  in  La  Salle  county  on  the  line  between 
that  and  Putnam  county,  was  born  in  Denmark, 
December  3,  1839,  and  there  spent  the  days  of  his 
boyhood  and  youth,  his  time  and  attention  being 
devoted  to  agricultural  pursuits.  Ambitious  to 
try  his  fortune  in  America,  he  crossed  the  Atlantic 
in  1857  on  a  sailing  vessel  and  after  a  voyage  of 
eight  weeks  landed  on  the  shores  of  the  new 
world.  He  came  directly  to  Illinois  and  located 
in  the  vicinity  of  Granville,  where  he  had  rela- 
tives living,  and  in  this  locality  he  has  since  made 
his  home. 

He  was  employed  on  a  farm  until  President 
Lincoln's  call  for  volunteers  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  Civil  war  and  on  the  llth  of  August,  1862, 
he  offered  his  services  to  his  adopted  country,  be- 
coming a  member  of  Company  B,  One  Hundred 
and  Fourth  Illinois  Volunteer  Infantry,  as  a  pri- 
vate. He  participated  in  all  of  the  engagements 
in  which  his  company  and  regiment  took  part  and 
was  with  Sherman  on  the  march  to  the  sea.  Dur* 
ing  the  siege  of  Atlanta  he  was  wounded,  but  still 
able  to  remain  on  duty,  but  at  Bentonville,  North 
Carolina,  he  received  a  gunshot  wound  in  the 
thigh  March  19,  1865,  and  on  board  a  vessel  was 
taken  to  New  York  city,  being  later  transferred 
to  the  hospital  at  Davis  Island,  where  he  remained 
for  some  time.  While  there  he  learned  that  the 
war  had  ended  and  on  the  8th  of  June  he  was 
honorably  discharged,  returning  to  Granville,  Illi- 
nois, but  for  four  years  he  suffered  from  his 
wound,  which  never  healed,  but  continued  a  run- 


ning sore.  When  the  bullet  was  removed,  thir- 
teen years  afterward,  another  bullet  was  also 
taken  from  his  thigh.  Whether  he  was  wounded 
in  two  places  or  that  was  a  part  of  the  same  bul- 
let is  unknown.  He  has  now  wholly  recovered  and 
suffers  no  inconvenience  from  his  wound,  though 
he  receives  a  pension  of  twelve  dollars  per  month. 

Throughout  his  active  business  life  Mr.  Olson 
has  carried  on  farming  and  his  first  purchase  of 
land  consisted  of  eighty-three  acres  three  miles 
east  of  Granville,  just  over  the  line  in  La  Salle 
county.  He  lived  upon  that  place  until  1895, 
when  he  purchased  sixty-five  acres  adjoining  which 
had  been  improved  by  C.  M.  Chase,  and  here  he 
has  a  good  home  surrounded  by  substantial  out- 
buildings and  well  cultivated  fields.  His  farm 
now  comprises  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  acres, 
which  is  all  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation  with 
the  exception  of  about  six  acres,  which  is  now 
crossed  by  the  Granville  &  Oglesby  branch  of  the 
St.  Paul  Kailroad. 

On  the  llth  of  May,  1871,  Mr.  Olson  was. 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Mary  Leech,  a  na- 
tive of  Putnam  county,  and  to  them  have  been 
born  five  children,  all  of  whom  are  still  living, 
as  follows :  Jennie  Z.,  now  the  wife  of  J.  0.  Tay- 
lor, living  in  Springfield,  Illinois;  Harry  L.,  liv- ' 
ing  on  a  farm  near  Earlham,  Iowa;  Joseph  N., 
who  is  with  his  brother  in  Iowa ;  and  Edwin  J. 
and  Anna  May,  both  at  home. 

Mr.  Olson  and  his  family  are  members  of  the 
Granville  Congregational  church  and  the  family 
is  one  of  prominence  in  the  community  where 
they  reside.  He  is  now  building  a  nice  residence 
in  Granville,  where  in  the  near  future  he  ex- 
pects to  remove  and  live  retired  from  active  labor. 
He  is  one  of  the  ten  Danes  who  enlisted  from  the 
vicinity  of  Granville  during  the  dark  days  of  the 
Civil  war  and  only  five  of  the  number  returned 
when  hostilities  had  ceased.  He  is  patriotic  and 
loyal  to  the  interests  of  his  adopted  country  and 
is  honored  wherever  known. 


LAES  MATSOX. 

Lars  Matson  carries  on  farming  on  a  tract  of 
choice  land  of  three  hundred  acres  just  outside 
the  corporation  limits  of  Granville.  His  life 
record  began  in  Sweden  on  the  12th  of  June,  1862. 
His  father,  Mathias  Olson,  was  a  farmer  in 
Sweden  and  died  when  his  son  Lars  was  but 
fourteen  years  of  age.  The  mother.  Mrs.  Carrie 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


503 


Olson,  died  when  the  son  was  twenty  years  of  age, 
and  in  the  meantime  he  had  come  to  America. 
Following  has  father's  death,  however,  he  re- 
mained at  home  for  some  time  and  took  care  of 
his  mother  until  1880,  when  he  resolved  to  seek 
a  fortune  in  the  new  world  and  crossed  the  At- 
lantic to  the  United  States.  Like  the  majority  of 
the  emigrants  from  Europe,  he  was  in  limited 
financial  circumstances,  having  barely  enough  to 
pay  his  passage  to  America.  He  journeyed  into 
the  interior  of  the  country,  his  destination  being 
Putnam  county,  and.  here  he  began  work  on  the 
farm  of  A.  W.  Hopkins  at  a  wage  of  ten  dollars 
per  month.  He  could  not  speak  a  word  of  English 
at  the  time  and  in  order  to  familiarize  himself 
with  the  language  spoken  in  this  country  he  at- 
tended the  country  school  one  winter.  For  four 
years  he  remained  in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Hopkins 
and  his  wages  were  increased  after  he  had  ac- 
quainted himself  with  the  English  tongue  and  the 
methods  of  work  in  this  country.  Saving  his  earn- 
ings, he  at  length  was  enabled  to  purchase  teams 
and  tools  and  through  the  succeeding  foiirteen 
years  he  was  engaged  actively  in  the  operation  of 
rented  land  in  Granville  township.  He  worked  al- 
most incessantly,  managed  his  interests  with  ability 
and  owing  to  the  careful  direction  of  his  labors  and 
his  unfaltering  perseverance  he  prospered  in  his 
undertakings.  Seven  years  ago  he  purchased  two 
hundred  acres  of  land  where  he  now  resides,  for 
which  he  paid  seventy  dollars  per  acre.  Later  he 
bought  one  hundred  acres  more,  an  improved  farm 
which  has  comfortable  buildings  upon  it,  and  here 
he  is  engaged  in  general  agricultural  pursuits  and 
stock-raising.  The  land  is  well  adapted  for  the 
latter  purpose  and  he  makes  the  raising  of  hogs 
his  principal  source  of  income,  his  specialty  being 
the  Poland  China  breed.  In  this  work  he  has 
been  quite  successful  and  is  now  one  of  the  more 
prosperous  farmers  of  Granville  township. 

About  nineteen  years  ago  Mr.  Matson  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Mary  Johnson,  who 
was  born  in  the  same  neighborhood  in  Sweden  in 
which  her  husband's  birth  occurred,  and  they  were 
schoolmates  there  in  childhood  days.  She  came  to 
America  about  three  years  prior  to  her  marriage 
and  has  become  the  mother  of  nine  children : 
Nelson  J.,  Arthur  W.,  Anna  K.,  John  A.,  Oscar 
L.,  Edna  M.,  Lawrence  D.  and  George  W.,  who 
are  still  living;  and  one  deceased. 

Although  reared  in  the  faith  of  the   Swedish 


Evangelical  Lutheran  church,  Mr.  Matson  is  a 
zealous  and  devoted  member  of  the  Congregational 
church  in  Granville.  He  has  voted  the  prohibi- 
tion ticket  for  years  and  is  strictly  temperate,  liv- 
ing a  life  in  harmony  with  high  principles  and 
ethks.  He  follows  closely  those  lines  of  conduct 
which  work  for  upright  character  and  honorable 
manhood  and  his  wife  is  in  hearty  sympathy  with 
him  in  all  this  and  is  likewise  a  member  of  the 
church.  Mr.  Matson  is  now  serving  for  the  third 
year  as  school  director  and  has  the  keenest  appre- 
ciation for  the  value  of  education.  Since  coming 
to  America  he  has  learned  to  read  and  write  the 
English  language  and  in  conversation  displays  a 
mastery  of  the  tongue  which  is  surprising  for  one 
uneducated  in  the  English  language.  He  keeps 
well  informed  on  the  questions  and  issues  of  the 
day,  political  and  otherwise.  Such  a  life  record 
should  serve  as  a  source  of  inspiration  and  en- 
couragement to  others,  showing  what  may  be  ac- 
complished when  one  has  determination,  energy 
and  laudable  ambition. 


JAMES    FOSTER. 

Among  the  native  sons  of  Marshall  county  who 
have  had  no  reason  to  change  their  place  of  resi- 
dence, but  have  found  here  ample  opportunity  for 
the  exercise  of  business  ability  and  enterprise,  is 
numbered  James  Foster,  whose  birth  occurred  in 
Roberts  township,  December  15,  1858,  and  now 
resides  on  section  24  of  the  same  township.  He 
represents  one  of  the  old  pioneer  families  here, 
his  father,  Joshua  Foster,  having  come  to  Mar- 
shall county,  Illinois,  in  1841.  He  was  born  near 
New  London,  Ohio,  March  21,  1821,  and  in  1836 
became  a  resident  of  Fulton  county,  Illinois,  the 
family  home  being  established  near  Fairview.  At 
an  early  day  he  drove  cattle  across  the  country  to 
the  markets  with  his  father  and  he  shared  in  the 
hardships  and  privations  of  pioneer  life.  In  busi- 
ness affairs  he  prospered  and  became  the 'owner  of 
eight  hundred  acres  of  valuable  land,  which  he 
shared  with  his  children. 

On  the  23d  of  April,  1843,  Joshua  Foster  was 
united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Betsy  Brumsey,  who 
was  born  near  Elizabeth  City,  North  Carolina, 
August  8,  1825,  and  they  became  the  parents  of 
eight  children,  namely :  Benjamin,  who  is  repre- 
sented on  another  page  of  this  volume;  Edward, 
who  died  March  12,  1881;  Lewis  J.,  who  is  en- 


PAST    AXD   PRESENT   OF   MARSHALL   AND   1TTXAM    COUXTIKS. 


gaged  in  farming  in  Iowa ;  Albert,  a  retired  farm- 
er living  at  Saunemin,  Livingston  county,  Illinois ; 
George,  a  retired  farmer  of  Evans  township ; 
James,  of  this  review;  Walter,  who  is  also  repre- 
sented elsewhere  in  this  work ;  and  Wilbur  S.,  a 
resident  of  Saunemin.  After  a  useful  and  well 
spent  life  the  father  died  May  3,  1895,  honored 
and  respected  by  all  who  knew  him.  In  politics 
he  was  a  Jacksonian  democrat. 

At  the  usual  age  James  Foster  entered  the  Fair- 
view  school  in  Roberts  township,  where  he  pur- 
sued his  education,  and  in  1880,  when  a  young 
man  of  twenty-two  years,  lie  started  out  in  life  on 
his  own  account.  He  has  prospered  in  his  work 
and  has  so  carefully  conducted  his  farming  inter- 
ests that  his  labors  have  brought  to  him  a  measure 
of  success  now  enabling  him  to  live  retired.  He 
owns  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  good  land  in 
Roberts  township  and  the  farm  annually  returns 
to  him  a  gratifying  income. 


JOHX  NAIJMANN. 

John  Naumann,  one  of  the  largest  landowners 
of  Putnam  county,  is  living  upon  a  finely  im- 
proved farm  on  section  23,  Granville  township. 
He  started  in  business  life  here  as  a  farm  hand, 
working  by  the  month  for  the  usual  wage  that  was 
paid  at  that  time..  Gradually  he  has  advanced  in 
his  business  career,  and  through  his  frugality,  in- 
dustry and  careful  investment  he  has  become  one 
of  the  prosperous  men  of  the  county,  with  exten- 
sive realty  holdings. 

Mr.  Naumann  was  bom  in  Hesse-Cassel,  Ger- 
many, July  7,  1848.  His  parents  were  Henry  and 
Margaret  (Ott)  Naumann,  both  of  whom  passed 
away  in  Germany  several  years  ago.  The  father 
was  owner  of  a  farm,  but,  as  was  the  custom  in 
that  country,  lived  in  the  village.  His  son,  John, 
spent  his  boyhood  days  under  the  parental  roof 
and  attended  the  village  schools  until  fifteen  years 
of  age,  when  in  1863  he  emigrated  to  America, 
taking  passage  at  Bremen  on  a  sailing  vessel  which 
was  six  weeks  in  completing  that  voyage.  Mr. 
Naumann  was  influenced  to  come  to  America  by 
the  fact  that  his  sister  and  brother-in-law,  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Henry  Brontz,  both  now  deceased,  were  then 
living  in  Putnam  county.  On  the  journey  to  the 
new  world  he  was  accompanied  by  his  brother, 
Tobias,  now  living  in  Mount  Palatine,  Illinois, 
and  a  sister,  who  has  since  departed  this  life. 


Mr.  Naumann  began  work  on  the  farm  belong- 
ing to  his  brother-in-law  and  for  two  years  was 
employed  by  Joseph  Rhinhart,  an  early  settler  of 
the  county.  He  also  spent  one  season  in  the  em- 
ploy of  John  Whitaker  and  for  three  years  worked 
for  Joel  Hopkins.  All  during  this  time  he  lived 
economically  and  thus  saved  enough  money  to  pur- 
chase teams,  after  which  he  rented  land  from  Mr. 
Hopkins  and  farmed  thereon  for  seven  years. 
Again  he  practiced  economy  and  industry  in  order 
to  make  further  advancement  in  his  business  life, 
and  in  1879  he  purchased  one  hundred  and  twenty 
acres  of  land,  whereon  he  has  since  resided.  Upon 
the  place  were  poor  improvements,  including  an 
old  house  and  barn,  both  were  in  rather  dilap- 
idated condition.  He  now  has  a  good  frame  resi- 
dence, a  substantial  barn,  granaries  and  corn  cribs 
and,  in  fact,  none  of  the  accessories  of  a  model 
farm  property  are  lacking.  He  has  been  very  suc- 
cessful in  his  work  of  tilling  the  soil  and  has  added 
to  his  possessions  until  he  now  owns  five  eighty- 
acre  tracts  of  land  in  Granville  township  and 
three  hundred  and  twenty-four  acres  in  La  Salle 
county.  The  secret  of  his  success  lies  not  in  an; 
fortunate  combination  of  circumstances,  but  •„ 
due  to  the  fact  that  he  has  worked  persistently 
and  earnestly  and  his  unremitting  toil  has 
brought  to  him  his  prosperity. 

In  1872  Mr.  Naumann  was  married  to  Miss 
Katie  E.  Pletch,  a  native  of  Germany,  who  came 
to  America  with  her  brothers  in  early  woman- 
hood. Six  children  have  been  born  of  this  mar- 
riage, of  whom  two  died  in  infancy,  while  four 
are  still  living:  Fred,  who  resides  on  one  of  his 
father's  farms  in  Granville  township ;  Theodore, 
who  is  upon  his  father's  farm  in  La  Salle  county ; 
and  Henry  and  John,  both  at  home. 

Both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Naumann  were  reared  in 
the  Lutheran  church  and  they  hold  membership 
in  the  church  of  that  denomination  on  the  county 
line.  In  politics  he  is  a  republican,  but  has  never 
aspired  to  office.  He  served,  however,  as  school 
director  for  several  years.  In  manner  he  is  plain 
and  unassuming,  entirely  free  from  pride  and  os- 
tentation, yet  a  degree  of  pride  would  be  pardon- 
able in  consideration  of  his  successful  business 
career.  Although  a  man  of  nearly  sixty  years, 
he  looks  ten  or  fifteen  years  younger  and  gives 
little  indication  of  the  hard  work  that  he  has 
done.  All  who  know  of  his  record,  however,'  rec- 
ognize that  lie  has  been  a  most  energetic,  hard 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


505 


working  man  and  that  to  this  is  due  his  present 

prosperity. 


JAMES  McCUTCHEON. 

James  McCutcheon,  of  Hennepin,  was  born  in 
Ireland,  December  27,  1859.  He  was  reared  and 
educated  by  an  uncle,  attending  school  until  eigh- 
teen years  of  age,  when  he  became  an  active  assist- 
ant to  his  uncle,  who  was  engaged  in  merchan- 
dising. Mr.  McCutcheon  was  thus  employed  until 
he  attained  his  majority,  when  he  emigrated  to 
America  the  first  of  April,  1881,  and  secured 
employment  as  clerk  in  the  office  of  the  Lake 
Shore  Railroad,  where  he  remained  for  five  years. 
He  was  afterward  for  eleven  years  with  the  firm 
of  Harrington  &  King,  working  in  iron  and  per- 
forating metals.  As  a  representative  of  that  firm 
he  acted  as  shipping  clerk  and  won  promotion 
until  he  became  assistant  superintendent.  Four 
and  a  half  years  ago  he  came  to  Hennepin  with 
the  intention  of  remaining  but  a  year,  but  since 
his  arrival  he  has  been  an  active  factor  in  the 
material  improvement  of  the  village.  He  has  re- 
modeled the  residence  of  his  mother-in-law,  Mrs. 
Trerwiler,  and  has  erected  the  brick  building 
wherein  he  carries  on  business  at  the  present  time.  • 

It  was  seventeen  years  ago  that  James  Mc- 
Cutcheon was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Mary 
Trerwiler  and  they  have  one  child. 

The  tiire  and  energies  of  Mr.  McCutcheon  are 
now  largely  given  to  the  development  of  what 
promises  to  be  one  of  the  most  important  indus- 
trial enterprises  of  this  part  of  the  state.  On  the 
6th  of  July,  1906,  he  began  working  on  plans 
for  the  organization  of  a  company  to  build  a 
factory  for  the  manufacture  of  brick  and  at  a 
recent  date  this  company  has  been  incorporated 
under  the  state  laws  for  the  manufacture  of 
building  brick,  the  firm  name  being  the  Sand, 
Lime  &  Brick  Company.  In  this  enterprise  James 
McCutcheon  is  associated  with  Charles  Rembe  and 
Meyer  Greisheim,  both  of  Lincoln,  Illinois,  as  in- 
corporators.  The  business  has  been  capitalized 
for  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  and  the  stock  is 
all  subscribed.  A  meeting  will  soon  be  held  in 
Peoria,  where  the  main  office  is  to  be  located,  and 
the  election  of  officers  will  then  take  place.  At 
present  they  have  three  sites  in  view  for  a  loca- 
tion. Mr.  McCutcheon  had  an  expert  from  Chi- 
cago inspect  a  location  four  and  a  half  miles 


northwest  of  Hennepin  and  he  claimed  that  they 
had  an  unlimited  supply  of  sand  of  just  the  right 
quality  for  making  brick.  Samples  have  been 
made  of  three  different  grades  of  brick  and  the 
result  has  been  a  fine,  smooth  quality  of  building 
brick  which  stands  every  form  of  test  that  can 
be  made.  It  can  be  thrown  into  a  furnace  and 
when  red  hot  put  into  cold  water  with  no  bad  ef- 
fects and  will  stand  equally  well  freezing  and 
thawing.  The  plant  is  to  be  built  after  the  pat- 
tern cf  one  which  is  being  successfully  operated 
in  Savannah,  Georgia,  and  is  to  be  put  up, 
equipped  and  furnished  by  the  American  Sand 
Lime  Brick  Company,  of  Chicago.  The  sand  will 
be  taken  from  a  high  embankment  and  when 
screened  passed  to  a  rotary  drier.  The  fine  gravel 
left  over  after  the  screening  process  will  find 
ready  market  for  gravel  roofing.  The  lime  used 
is  to  be  shipped  from  Quincy,  Illinois,  and  is  to 
be  hydrated  in  cylinders  used  for  hardening  the 
brick.  This  lime  after  hydrating  can  be  stored 
and  kept  for  twenty  years  and  it  will  find  market 
where  lime  is  needed  for  any  purpose.  The 
sand  and  lime  when  mixed  passes  to  a  four-mold 
brick  press  with  a  capacity  of  twenty  thousand 
brick  daily.  From  the  presses  the  brick  are  con- 
veyed on  steel  cars  to  a  hardening  cylinder,  each 
car  holding  one  thousand  brick.  This  cylinder  is 
seventy-eight  inches  in  diameter  and  sixty-six  and 
a  half  feet  in  length.  From  the  cylinder  the 
brick  will  be  placed  on  cars  ready  for  shipment. 
A  plant  of  this  nature  is  in  operation  at  Anderson, 
Indiana,  but  none  in  this  state.  Mr.  McCutcheon 
has  every  reason  to  be  highly  elated  over  the  pros- 
pects for  the  new  industry  and  it  is  due  to  his 
efforts  that  the  present  progress  has  been  made  in 
the  business.  He  is  a  man  of  much  push  and 
energy,  who  forms  his  plans  readily  and  is  de- 
termined in  their  execution,  and  these  qualities 
promise  well  for  a  successful  future  to  the  new 
enterprise. 


JOHN  STANLEY  SPARLING. 
On  the  old  homestead  of  the  Sparling  family 
which  was  settled  in  pioneer  days  John  Stanley 
Sparling  was  born  December  10,  1853,  his  birth- 
place being  the  third  house  which  was  built  upon 
that  farm.  He  was  a  son  of  George  Sparling  and 
a  brother  of  George  E.  Sparling,  who  are  men- 
tioned elsewhere  in  this  work,  in  which  connec- 


I'AST    AM)    I'l.'KSBNT    OF   MARSHALL   AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


tion  the  family  history  is  given.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  two  years  spent  in  Iowa  he  has  always 
made  his  home  in  this  county  and  he  owns  a  farm 
of  one  hundred  and  forty  acres,  of  which  he  pur- 
chased one  hundred  acres  from  his  father,  who 
gave  him  the  remaining  forty.  He  was  educated 
in  the  country  schools  and  in  early  life  mastered 
the  work  of  plowing,  planting  and  harvesting  in 
the  fields  upon  the  old  homestead,  so  that  prac- 
tical experience  well  qualified  him  to  engage  in 
farming  on  his  own  account  after  he  had  arrived 
at  man's  estate. 

Mr.  Sparling  was  married  in  1875  to  Miss 
Charlotte  Sparling,  a  daughter  of  James  Spar- 
ling and  a  distant  relative  of  the  family.  Her 
mother  became  the  third  wife  of  our  subject's 
father  and  now  lives  in  Henry.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
John  S.  Sparling  have  two  sons,  James  A.  and 
George  J.  The  former,  who  married  Miss  Nellie 
Martin,  is  living  in  Putnam  and  is  a  rural  mail 
carrier.  George  J.  resides  in  Kewanee,  Illinois, 
and  is  a  boiler-maker.  He  married  a  daughter  of 
0.  P.  Carroll,  of  Putnam. 

Mr.  Sparling  has  a  good  farm  and  a  portion 
of  his  land  is  leased  to  fishing  parties,  from  which 
source  he  derives  a  good  income.  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Sparling  have  held  membership  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church  for  many  years.  For  thirteen 
years  he  has  been  connected  with  the  Modern 
Woodmen  and  is  a  director  of  Putnam  camp. 
He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Yeomen  of  Amer- 
ica, of  Henry.  He  belongs  to  one  of  the  old  and 
prominent  pioneer  families  of  the  county  and  has 
•spent  almost  his  entire  life  within  its  borders,  so 
that  he  has  a  wide  acquaintance  here. 


ANDREW  L.  ANDERSON. 

Andrew  L.  Anderson,  a  prosperous  and  enter- 
prising farmer  on  section  20,  Granville  township, 
is  a  native  of  Abbekos,  Sweden,  born  October  7, 
1854.  His  father,  who  bore  the  same  name,  was 
a  fisherman  of  that  town  but  is  now  deceased. 
The  mother,  however,  still  lives  at  the  old  home 
in  Sweden. 

Andrew  Anderson  spent  his  boyhood  days  in 
his  native  village  and  went  with  his  father  on  his 
fishing  trips-,  not  for  pastime  but  for  the  pur- 
pose of  earning  a  living.  He  was  a  young  man 
in  his  twentieth  vear  when  he  came  to  America. 


He  felt  that  advancement  in  his  native  country 
would  be  slow  and  desired  to  enjoy  the  broader 
business  opportunities  of  the  new  world.  Making 
his  way  into  the  interior  of  the  country  he  se- 
cured employment  as  a  farm  hand  in  Putnam 
county  upon  the  farm  of  A.  D.  Fisher,  who  now 
lives  near  Granville.  For  three  and  a  half  years 
he  remained  and  then  returned  to  his  old  home 
in  Sweden,  when  he  again  took  up  his  abode  in 
Putnam  county  and  he  worked  for  two  and  a  hall 
years  more  at  farm  labor,  and  then  in  company 
with  his  brother-in-law,  rented  land  and  engaged 
in  farming  on  his  own  account.  A  year  subse- 
quent he  removed  to  La  Salle  county  and  rented 
a  farm  of  Joel  Hopkins  just  over  the  Putnam 
county  line,  continuing  to  operate  that  tract  of 
land  for  ten  years,  in  which  period  he  saved  his 
earnings,  thus  accumulating  a  competence  that 
enabled  him  to  purchase  a  farm  for  himself.  In 
1895  he  bought  the  place  that  is  now  known  as 
the  John  Foley  farm,  comprising  one  hundred 
and  eighty-seven  and  a  half  acres  of  land.  It  was 
an  improved  farm,  thus  the  farm  was  under  cul- 
tivation and  it  had  some  buildings  upon  it  but 
they  -were  old  and  the  house  was  burned  down 
three  years  before.  Mr.  Anderson  built  a  new 
residence,  has  built  a  new  barn  and  has  laid  many 
rods  of  tiling  to  the  value  of  several  hundred  dol- 
lars, thus  draining  and  enriching  his  land.  In 
other  ways  he  has  improved  the  farm  until  it  is 
today  a  valuable  property  and  brings  forth  rich 
crops  of  the  cereals  best  adapted  to  soil  and  cli- 
mate. All  that  he  has  has  been  won  through  his 
own  persistency  of  purpose  and  careful  manage- 
ment and  he  is  now  successfully  carrying  on  gen- 
eral farming,  raising  both  stock  and  grain. 

Mr.  Anderson  has  found  a  most  able  assistant 
and  helpmate  in  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was  mar- 
ried December  7,  1880.  She  bore  the  maiden 
name  of  Ingrid  Matson,  a  native  of  Sweden.  She 
is  a  sister  of  Lars  Matson,  who  is  living  near 
Granville,  and  of  whom  mention  is  made  else- 
where in  this  volume.  She  came  to  this  country 
with  her  husband  in  1877,  after  he  had  made  a 
trip  to  the  old  world.  Eleven  children  have  been 
born  of  their  marriage,  of  whom  three  died  in 
infancy,  while  the  eldest  son,  Anton,  died  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one  years.  Those  still  living  are: 
Elmer,  who  married  Edith  Nelson  and  is  living 
on  the  Harper  farm  in  Granville  township;  Her- 
man, who  is  clerking  in  the  Hopkins  Bank  in 


PAST    AND    PRESENT    OF   MARSHALL  AND   PUTNAM   COUNTIES. 


507 


Granville;  Nelson,  Mildred,  Carl,  Bertha  and  Or- 
ville,  all  at  home. 

Mr.  Anderson  was  reared  in  the  faith  of  the 
Lutheran  church  but  is  now  a  member  of  the  Con- 
gregational church  at  Granville.  He  votes  with 
the  republican  party  and  is  well  informed  on  the 
great  political  questions,  thus  being  able  to  sup- 
port his  position  by  intelligent  argument.  For 
two  terms  he  served  as  school  director  but  public 
office  has  had  no  attraction  for  him.  He  is  a 
stanch  advocate  of  the  cause  of  temperance,  which 
he  supports  both  by  precept  and  example,  and  his 
life  is  an  honorable  and  upright  one  in  harmony 
with  his  professions,  being  characterized  by  un- 
faltering fidelity  to  the  principles  which  work  for 
righteousness  and  for  the  good  of  the  community. 


SIMON  BECK. 

Simon  Beck,  an  influential  citizen  and  well-to- 
do  farmer,  owning  and  operating  one  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  acres  of  land,  which  lies  on  section 
31,  Hennepin  township,  is  a  native  of  Lebanon 
county,  Pennsylvania,  his  natal  year  being  1854. 
His  father,  Andrew  Beck,  was  likewise  born  in 
Lebanon  county,  October  8,  1819,  and  he  was 
there  married  in  April,  1848,  to  Miss  Elizabeth 
Clemens,  also  a  native  of  that  county,  born  Oc- 
tober 30,  1825.  They  remained  in  their  native 
place,  where  the  father  engaged  in  farming,  until 
1865,  when  they  made  their  way  westward,  com- 
ing to  Putnam  county,  making  the  journey  from 
the  east  by  rail  to  Bureau  Junction,  from  which 
place  they  continued  their  journey  to  Hennepin, 
this  county.  The  family  home  was  established  on 
Hennepin  prairie,  where  the  father  rented  a  tract 
of  land  and  continued  his  operations  as  an  agri- 
ciilturist.  Mrs.  Beck  was  very  lonely  after  coin- 
ing to  this  county  and  often  longed  and  cried  for 
her  old  home  in  :  Pennsylvania.  Her  husband 
would  try  to  console  her  by  telling  her  of  the  suc- 
cess which  they  would  enjoy  later  on  in  their  new 
home,  although  he,  too,  was  equally  as  lonely,  and 
he  would  then  go  to  the  barn  and  resort  to  tears. 
They,  however,  worked  on  earnestly  and  per- 
sislcntly  until  they  acquired  a  competence  that 
after  a  few  years  enabled  them  to  purchase  land, 
this  being  a  part  of  the  property  which  is  now 
operated  by  the  son,  Simon.  There  the  father 
continued  his  operations  and  made  his  home  until 
his  death,  which  occurred  Aiigust  27,  1892,  being 


found  dead  in  his  bed.  He  had  been  in  poor 
health  for  several  years,  but  upon  retiring  the 
night  previous  to  his  death  was  feeling  as  well 
as  usual,  but  was  found  dead  in  the  morning,  his 
death  supposed  to  have  resulted  from  heart  fail- 
ure. Both  he  and  his  wife  were  reared  in  the 
faith  of  the  Lutheran  church,  but  after  their  re- 
moval to  Illinois  they  became  identified  with  the 
Methodist  denomination.  The  father  was  a  dem- 
ocrat in  his  political  affiliation,  but  was  never  ac- 
tive as  an  office  seeker,  preferring  rather  to  con- 
centrate his  time  and  energies  upon  his  private 
business  interests.  After  his  death  the  property 
was  divided  among  his  heirs,  and  his  widow  still 
survives,  now  making  her  home  in  the  village  of 
Florid  with  a-  sister  of  her  husband.  Although 
Mrs.  Beck  is  in  her  eighty-first  year  she  retains 
her  mental  faculties  to  a  remarkable  degree  and 
is  still  an  intelligent  and  interesting  old  lady. 
In  the  family  of  this  worthy  couple  were  four 
children,  of  whom  our  subject  was  the  third  in 
order  of  birth  and  he  is  the  only  one  surviving 
at  the  present  time,  a  son  and  daughter  having 
died  in  Pennsylvania  previous  to  the  removal  of 
the  family  to  this  state,  while  a  brother,  Jerry, 
died  in  Granville  in  August,  1906. 

Simon  Beck  was  reared  and  educated  in  the 
Keystone  state  to  the  age  of  twelve  years,  when 
he  accompanied  his  parents  on  their  removal  to 
Putnam  county,  where  he  continued  his  educa- 
tion in  the  country  schools  df  this  county  and  as- 
sisted his  father  in  the  operation  of  the  old  home- 
stead farm  until  he  attained  his  majority.  He 
then  made  arrangements  for  having  a  home  of 
his  own,  by  his  marriage  to  Miss  Sarah  Clemens, 
who  was  born  in  Virginia.  Her  father,  Jerry 
Clemens,  removed  to  Putnam  county  about  1865, 
but  later  took  up  his  abode  in  Carroll  county,  Mis- 
souri, where  he  died  in  the  spring  of  1906,  having 
reached  the  venerable  age  of  eighty-four  years, 
while  his  wife  was  called  to  her  final  rest  several 
years  previous. 

Following  his  marriage  Mr.  Beck  located  on  the 
old  homestead,  operating  his  father's  land  until 
the  latter's  death,  when,  upon  the  division  of  the 
estate,  our  subject  came  into  possession  of  a  tract 
of  eighty  acres  of  land  which  was  unimproved, 
save  that  a  small  frame  house  had  been  erected 
thereon.  He  took  up  his  abode  on  his  newly  in- 
herited property  and  at  once  began  to  develop  and 
improve  the  land,  and  in  due  course  of  time  he 


508 


PAST    AND    1'HKSKXT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


placed  his  fields  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation, 
from  which  he  annually  harvests  abundant  crops. 
He  has  since  enlarged  and  remodeled  his  house 
and  now  has  a  modern  and  commodious  country 
residence,  supplied  with  all  conveniences  and 
equipments.  In  1895  he  erected  a  barn,  using  oak 
timber  in  its  construction,  and  which  cost  eigh- 
teen hundred  dollars,  this  being  one  of  the  finest 
barns  in  this  part  of  the  county.  He  has  also 
erected  a  windmill  and  has  a  reservoir  tank  from 
which  the  water  is  piped  to  the  house  and  barn, 
thus  furnishing  an  ample  supply  of  water  for 
domestic  use  as  well  as  for  watering  the  stock. 
He  has  added  a  tract  of  fifty-eight  and  a  half 
acres  to  his  original  holdings,  thus  making  a  valu- 
able and  well  improved  farm  of  one  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  acres,  in  addition  to  which  he  owns 
twenty-two  acres  of  timber  land.  He  is  a  man  of 
sound  judgment  and  displays  excellent  business 
ability  in  the  management  of  his  farming  and 
stock-raising  interests. 

Unto  our  subject  and  his  wife  have  been  born 
four  children,  but  only  one  is  now  living :  The 
eldest  died  unnamed  in  infancy.  Mary  E.  died 
when  one  month  old.  William  F.  died  at  the  age 
of  two  years,  six  months  and  nine  days.  John 
Henry,  who  was  twenty-eight  years  of  age  on  the 
20th  of  July,  1906,  is  residing  with  his  parents. 
Mr.  Beck  has  always  given  his  political  support 
to  the  democracy,  but  has  never  been  active  in 
public  affairs.  He  and  his  family  belong  to  the 
Presbyterian  church  at  Florid  and  are  highly  es- 
teemed in  the  community  in  which  they  reside. 


JAMES  ELLSWORTH  TAYLOR. 

James  E.  Taylor,  state's  attorney  of  Putnam 
county  since  1888  and  a  resident  of  Hennepin, 
was  born  in  Ross  township,  Jefferson  county, 
Ohio,  April  28,  1862.  The  family  is  of  Irish 
lineage,  his  great-grandfather  having  come  from 
Ireland  to  the  new  world.  The  grandfather, 
John  Taylor,  was  born  in  Pennsylvania,  August 
8,  1804,  and  died  in  Jefferson  county,  Ohio,  Feb- 
ruary 28,  1891.  He  married  Jane  Henderson, 
whose  birth  occurred  in  Ohio,  May  8,  1818,  and 
her  death  in  1899.  Their  son,  Richard  W.  Tay- 
lor, was  born  in  Jefferson  county,  Ohio,  January 
30,  1838,  and  is  now  living  near  Martin's  Ferry, 
in  Belmont  county,  Ohio.  He  married  Harriet 
J.  McCutcheon,  who  was  born  in  Steubenville, 


Ohio,  May  17,  1839,  and  died  in  Jefferson  county, 
February  4,  1906.  Richard  W.  Taylor  is  one  of 
eleven  children  of  the  grandfather's  family  who 
are  still  living  in  Jefferson  county,  Ohio,  and 
those  of  the  household  who  have  passed  away  were 
also  residents  of  that  county.  For  many  years 
the  grandfather  lived  upon  the  farm  where  his 
death  occurred  and  Richard  W.  Taylor  has  always 
followed  the  occupation  of  farming.  In  his  fam- 
ily were  eight  children  but  only  three  are  now  liv- 
ing: William  W.,  who  resides  at  Martin's  Ferry, 
was  engaged  in  teaching  school  for  twenty-two 
years  but  on  account  of  his  health  has  accepted  a 
position  as  mail-carrier.  Robert  M.  Taylor  is  in 
the  employ  of  the  superintendent  of  the  lighting 
system  of  the  Panhandle  Railroad  from  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  to  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania. 

James  E.  Taylor  remained  upon  a  farm  in  Jef- 
ferson county,  Ohio,  to  the  age  of  fifteen  years, 
when  he  accompanied  his  parents  on  their  re- 
moval to  Belmont  county,  that  state.  He  attend- 
ed the  public  schools  until  he  had  attained  the 
age  of  nineteen,  after  which  he  pursued  a  prepara- 
tory teacher's  course  at  Mount  Pleasant,  Ohio, 
and  was  graduated  January  14,  1884.  He  after- 
ward engaged  in  teaching  for  a  year  in  Belmont 
county  and  in  the  spring  of  1885  he  came  to  Illi- 
nois, where  for  four  months  he  worked  on  a  farm 
near  Mount  Palatine,  Putnam  county.  In  the 
fall  of  that  year  he  accepted  the  position  of  teacher 
at  Mount  Palatine,  where  he  remained  for  three 
years,  and  when  his  time  was  not  taken  up  with 
the  duties  of  the  schoolroom,  he  studied  law  under 
W.  H.  Casson,  then  state's  attorney,  being  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  September  18,  1888.  In  No- 
vember of  the  same  year  lie  was  elected  state's  at- 
torney for  the  county  and  has  continuously  filled 
the  position  to  the  present  time — proof  incontro- 
vertible of  his  ability  and  fidelity.  He  has  also 
been  a  member  of  the  village  board  and  of  the 
school  board  and  has  acted  as  secretary  of  the  lat- 
ter since  December  29,  1894.  In  April,  1906,  he 
was  appointed  master  in  chancery,  so  that  he  is 
now  filling  the  three  different  positions. 

On  the  4th  of  April,  1889,  Mr.  Taylor  was  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Josephine  Henning,  a  native  of  Put- 
nam county  and  a  daughter  of  John  Henning, 
who  is  living  in  the  village  of  Hennepin.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Taylor  have  two  children:  George 
Harold,  fifteen  years  of  age;  and  James  Ells- 
worth, a  youth  of  four  years. 


PAST    AM)    I'liKSKNT    OF    MARSHALL    AM)    PUTNAM    COUNTIES. 


509 


Mr.  Taylor  has  always  been  a  stalwart  support- 
er of  republican  principles.  Although  not  a  mem- 
ber he  regularly  attends  the  services  and  is  a 
trustee  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church.  He 
has  been  a  member  of  the  Odd  Fellows  since 
1888  and  has  taken  the  encampment  and  military 
degrees,  while  in  1899  he  was  elected  grand  con- 
ductor of  the  grand  lodge  of  Illinois. 


L.  F.  BOYLE. 

L.  F.  Boyle,  who  carries  on  general  agricultural 
pursuits  on  section  2,  Hennepin  township,  was 
born  in  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  and  a  life  of  in- 
tense and  well  directed  activity  has  resulted  in 
making  him  one  of  the  wealthy  agriculturists 
of  this  part  of  the  state.  His  father,  Albert  B. 
Boyle,  was  born  on  Hennepin  prairie  and  died  in 
1888  at  the  age  of  forty-  one  years,  while  his  wife, 
who  bore  the  maiden  name  of  Frances  C.  Harten- 
bower,  was  born  in  Putnam  county  and  is  now  liv- 
ing in  Galesburg,  Illinois,  with  two  unmarried 
daughters.  The  paternal  grandfather  Buenos 
Ayres  Boyle,  was  a  native  of  Pennsylvania  and 
came  to  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  at  a  very  early 
epoch  in  its  settlement  and  development.  He 
aided  in  planting  the  seeds  of  civilization  here, 
but  died  when  his  son  Albert  was  a  small  boy. 
The  latter  became  a  well-to-do  farmer  and  left 
quite  a  valuable  estate.  In  his  family  were  six 
children,  of  whom  L.  F.  Boyle  of  this-  review  is 
the  eldest.  The  others  are:  Erma,  now  the  wife 
of  G.  W.  Griener,  who  resides  near  Tonica,  La 
Salle  county,  Illinois;  Nora,  the  wife  of  W.  E. 
Hiltabrand,  who  is  also  living  near  Tonica;  W. 
A.,  who  makes  his  home  with  his  brother;  and 
Maye  and  Minnie,  who  are  with  their  mother  in 
Galesburg. 

L.  F.  Boyle,  reared  under  the  paternal  roof,  be- 
gan his  education  in  the  district  schools  and  af- 
terward continued  his  studies  in  the  Hennepin 
schools.  He  lived  upon  the  farm  with  his  father 
until  twenty-one  years  of  age  and  through  the 
periods  of  vacation  aided  in  the  work  of  the 
fields.  After  attaining  his  majority  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Lelia  Rousseau,  who  was  born  in 


Hennepin,  a  daughter  of  L.  C.  Eousseau,  now  liv- 
ing in  Texas.  Following  thedr  marriage  the 
young  couple  located  upon  a  farm  of  one  hundred 
and  ninety  acres  of  land  which  Mr.  Boyle  owned 
about  a  half  mile  north  of  Hennepin.  Five  years 
ago  he  and  his  brother,  W.  A.,  purchased  what 
is  known  as  the  Eeavy  estate  five  and  a  half  miles 
south  of  Hennepin,  and  he  is  now  one  of  the 
most  extensive  land  owners  of  the  county,  his 
possessions  aggregating  one  thousand  acres.  He 
carries  on  general  farming  and  his  fields  present 
a  splendid  appearance,  giving  promise  of  golden 
harvests.  He  also  makes  a  specialty  of  the  breed- 
ing and  raising  of  Percheron  and  Shire  horses  and 
has  six  imported  studs  in  his  barn  at  the  present 
time,  together  with  about  twenty  head  of  full 
blooded  registered  horses.  He  also  owns  a  herd 
of  registered  shorthorn  cattle  and  at  the  present 
writing  is  feeding  about  two  hundred  head.  He 
likewise  has  a  fine  drove  of  registered  Berkshire 
hogs  and  his  stock-raising  interests  class  him  with 
the  leading  representatives  of  this  line  of  business 
in  the  county.  He  is  a  man  of  unflagging  indus- 
try in  whom  diligence  and  perseverance  are  rec- 
ognized as  strong  and  salient  characteristics.  He 
is  never  idle — in  fact,  indolence  is  entirely  for- 
eign to  his  nature.  His  attention  is  unremit- 
tingly given  to  his  business  interests  and  he  is  a 
man  of  sound  judgment  and  keen  sagacity,  the 
capable  control  of  his  affairs  being  manifest  in  the 
very  gratifying  success  which  has  rewarded  him. 
The  home  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Boyle  has  been 
blessed  with  five  children:  Violet,  Esther,  Louis 
A.,  Marshall  and  Frances  E.,  all  of  whom  are  yet 
under  the  parental  roof.  Mr.  Boyle  votes  rather 
independently,  yet  his  views  are  largely  in  har- 
mony with  democratic  principles.  He  has  no  de- 
sire for  office,  however,  preferring  to  give  his  time 
and  attention  to  his  business  affairs.  He  repre- 
sents one  of  the  old  families  of  the  county  and 
the  work  begun  by  his  grandfather  and  carried 
on  by  his  father  is  continued  by  him,  with  the 
result  that  he  is  one  of  the  leading  and  prosper- 
ous farmers  of  Putnam  county,  having  extensive 
land  holdings,  while  his  farms  are  improved  with 
all  modern  equipments  and  accessories. 


INDEX 


HISTORICAL 


HISTORY    OF    MARSHALL    COUNTY. 


CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 

CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 

CHAPTER 

CMU-M..K 

ClI  M'll-K 

it 

IV. 
V. 
VI. 
VII. 
VIII. 

Introductory  
Discovery  of  'North  America... 
Occupation  by  the  French  
Early  Settlements  
Black  Hawk  War  
Division  of  Putnam  County.... 
Organization  of  Marshall  Count 
Township  Organization  
Lacon  Township  

"!!"!!!     7 
8 
11       CHAPTER 

.'.'.".'..'.'.   16       CHAPTER 
y  18       CHAPTER 

'.'.'.'.'.*'.'.  21       CHAPTER 

HISTORY    OF    PUTNAM    COUNTY. 
I.                 Introductory     
II.               Topography     
III.             Settlement     
IV.              Villages     
V.                Early     Records  
'VI.  '             Tust    Befo'    the    Wa'  

CHAPTER 

X." 

Hopewell  Township  
Henry  Township  '  

29       CHAPTER 

ffe 

Putnam   County   Newspapers  

Whitefield  Township  

38       CHAPTER 

•IX.' 

Educational    Interests  

CHAPTER 
CHAPTER 

§2S 

lf; 

XVI. 

Saratoga  Township  
La  Prairie  Township  
Steuben  Township  
Richland  Township  

42.    CHAPTER 
43        CHAPTEK 
46       CHAPTER 
49       CHAPTER 

X. 
XI. 

Churches     
Buel     Institute  

Belle  Plain  Township  

XIV. 

Railroads     .............'.  .\.\\. 

Roberts  Township  

xvi. 

Coal    Industry  
Incidents    

BIOGRAPHICAL 


212 


363 


Allen,  Owen  W  

332 

Clifford,   Nancy    

Anderson,    A.    L  

506 

Coffman,    E.    Olive  

Anderson,   James   N  
Aukland    J    H 

336 
176 

Colby,  N.  H  

Averill,  0.  A  

,   356 

Coulter,    W.    J  

Bacon,    J.    C  

168 

Creabil,     Joseph     

Ball,  John    D..  
Ball,  Jonas  T  

355 
416 

Croft,  T.   M  
Crooks,  H.  C  

Ball,  W.   L  

392 

Dahl,   Peterson    P  

Barnard,  C.    E  

412 

Daub,  John   

Barnard,  J.  E  

496 

Davis,   Dr.   Charles  

Barnes,   C.    C  

238 

Dawson,    Frank    L  

Barr,  Frank  A  
Barry    John  E 

137 

Dawson,    F.    E.  

Bassler,   H.  J  

410. 

Doran,  C.     C  

Beck    Simon 

507 

Bell,    William.  H  

........  .   130 

Dore,  Patrick   

Belsly,  John  R  

175 

Downey,   Robert   F  

Bennington,  J.    N  

397 

Doyle,  Mrs.  Miranda   

Betts,    A.    W  

171 

Duden,    Edo    

Bickel,    William    

381 

Dysart,    C.    W  

Blackwell,    D.    R  

400 

Boal,  Dr.  Robert  

121 

Edwards,  H.   H  

Bogner,   Joseph    :... 

211 

Elk,  L.  M  

Bogner,   Louis    

200 

Endsley,    Tom    W  

Bourdette,    Rudolph    

331 

Erikson,  Gustaf   

Boyle,    L.    F  

609 

Etscheid,  Joseph    

408 

Brown,  C.  A  
Bruder,    C.    G  

Burgess,    Charles,    Sr  
Burgess,     Robert  

350 
496 
248 
291 
297 

Farling,    Frank    
Feazel,  Jeremiah   
Fisher,    A.    D  
Forcht,   John    
Ford,  George  A  

Burt,  J.  S  

153 

Fort,  Robert  B  

Caley,    Joseph  

263 

Foster,    Benjamin    

Camp,   C.   A  

129 

Foster,  James     

Carlson,  A.   J  

348 

Foster,  Walter    

Casson,   W.   H  

318 

Fountain,   R.   B  

Cecil,    Jasper    

394 

Franceway,  G.  W  

Chase,    C.    M  

489 

Frisbey,   Orrin    

Clark,  Joseph   

203 

Frommel,    C.  A  

Gapen,  T.  E 

Garrett,   Augustus    .  . . 

German,    W.    H 

Gilmer,  Francis  L. . . . 

Glenn,    I.   A 

Green,  E.  G 

Gregg,    D.    H 

Gregory,  Luke    

Gregory,  R.    E 

Gresser,    Anton    

Grove,    Melchi    

Gunn,   L.    D 

Halbleib,    Otto    

Hall,   Dr.   E.   A 

Harrison,    H.    A 

Hartley,   John    J..... 
Hartman,  C.     J 

Haws,  Clifford     

Haws,  T.    G 

Haws,  William     

Hawthorne,  W.  E.... 

Henkell,  Louis   

Henkins,    Adam    B... 

Henning,  James 

Hickey.  James  P 

Hills,  R.  E 

Hirschy,   John    

Hodge    Brothers    .... 

Hodge,  L.     J 

Holton,  J.  W 
Hopkins,    Archibald    W 

Hopkins,    Joel    W 

Horrocks,    William    ... 

Hu'fnagel,    William    .  .  . 

Humphrey,  A.  G 

Hunt,  George  W 

Hunter,    Hiram    


376 


243 


158 


511 


INDEX    BIOGRAPHICAL -continued. 


Ireland,    H.    T 

Jenkins,    James    

Jensen,    W.    P 

Judd,  Benjamin    

Kays,  John     A 

Kays,  W.     A 

Keedy,   A.   D 

Kellogg,    Saxton    T.... 

King,  Martin    

King,  Samuel    

Klein,    C.    L 

Kline,  Frank  L 

Klinger,  Ferdinand    .  . . 

Koch,    Frederick    

Koehler,    Israel     

Kunkle,   G.    M 

Lauf,    Frank    

Laughlin,    W.    M 

Lenz,   Edward  A 

Litchfield,    R.    I 

Long,   Jonathan    

Lundquist,    O.    A 

Lutes,   Edson    

McAdam,  Arthur   

McCormick,  Dr.  G.  A. 
McCullough,  R.  R.... 
McCulloch,  Samuel  W. 
McCutcheon,  James  .. 
McDonough,  Robert  .. 
McSmith,  Robert  ...... 

Malone,  John    

Marshall,    Henry    

Mathis,   N.  J 

Matson,   Lars    

Merdian,    Henry    

Mills,  W.  B 

Monahan,  J.   E 

Monier,   William    

Montgomery,    Otis    

Moore,  D.  B 

Motter,   Charles    

Nash,   Charles   N 

Naumann,  John   

Newburn,  M.  E 

Newman,  A.  S 

Olson,  Mons   

Opper,  C.  G.   

Osborne,  W.  N 

Otto,    Gustav    

Owen,   D.   D 


Owen,  J.  N 

Owen,    Lewis   R.    . .  . 
Owens,  A.  P 

Pace,  G.  E 

Packingham,  J.  C.   .. 

Parrett,   James    

Paskell,  J.    R 

Paxson,  Thomas   . . . 

Perry,  Z.  E 

Phillips,   L.   R 

Powers,  Patrick 

Pringle,    Robert    .... 
Purviance,    Price    ... 


C.  W 

Raymond,    F.   A 

Rickey,  Charles  E.    . . 

Riddell,    Robert    

Riddell,  William    

Rithmiller,   George    ... 

Robinson,  A.  J 

Rouse,  Allen  A 

Rowe,   Sampson  T.    . . 

Salisbury,  William  .. 
Schumacher,  Mrs.  Alv 
Schwartz,  William  .. 

Seelye,  T.  A 

Shaw,   George  H.    . . . 

Shaw,  T.   M 

Shriver,   A.   W 

Sill,  W.   B 

Simonton,   W.    H.    ... 

Skeel,   L.   E 

Smith,   C.   E 

Smith,  Edward  B.    . . , 

Smith,  James    

Smith,    L.   V 

Snell,    Harry    

Sparling,  George  . .  . 
Sparling,  George  E.  . 
Sparling,  John  S.  . . . 
St.  Mary's  Church  .. 

Stotler,   H.   A 

Stouffer,  H.  M 

Sucher,  F.  W 

Sucher,   Jacob    

•  Sutcliffe,    Benjamin    . 

Swaney,    John    

Swartz,   Carmi    

Swift,    Clark    


Taggart,  James  H 

Tanquary,    Addison    . . . 

Tanquary,    Edward    

Taylor,  J.  E 

Taylor,    O.    F.    &    F.    C. 

Thierry,   F.   F 

Thompson,  John  I 

Thompson,  Norton    

Tidmarsh,   H.   W 

Townley,   E.  J 

Trerwiler,   Charles   

Turnbull,  John 

Turnbull,    Robert     . 

Turner,   A.    L.    .... 

Twist,  w.  w :. 

Van  Petten,  Matthew.  . . 

Vaughn,  F.  A 

Vincent,    Fred    

Wabel,   G.   L.    ......... 

Ware,    Thomas    

Watkins,  J.  W 

Watson,   Dr.  R.   L.  ..... 

Waughop,    Richard    

Webber,  A.  P 

Weber,  Otto 

Webster,  W.   D 

Weis,   Edmund    

West,   Peter    

Wheeler,   William    

Whitaker,   Sidney    

White,  H.  L 

Whitman,    H.    E 

Whitmer,   Tobias    

Williams,    J.    H    

Williams,   L.   D 

Williams,  W.  H 

Wilson,  J.    B 

Winship,   James   M.    . .  . 

Winship,    J.    O 

Wonser,  E.  E 

Wood,    Ellison   G 

Wood,   Timothy    

Yaeger,  Bernard   

Young,    J.    N 

Zenor,   H.   B 

Ziegler,   Joseph    

Zilm,  Henry  E 

Zilm,  William    

Zumbuehl,    Leonz    ... 


512 


